Lamborghini walks us through improvements it made to the Huracan

LE CASTELLET, France — Lamborghini’s updated Huracán EVO2 will make its competition debut during the 2022 season of the Super Trofeo one-make series. Visually, it gains a new-look design that blazes the path future models — including production cars — will follow in the coming years. There’s more to it than a face-lift, and we sat down with Leonardo Galante, the man in charge of technical development for Lamborghini’s racing arm, to get the full scoop on the changes made.

“It’s a big step from EVO to EVO2, and we focused on three main pillars,” Galante told us at the Paul Ricard track. Design is the first; aerodynamics is the second, and it’s closely linked to design; braking performance is the third.

Customers and enthusiasts will notice design before any of the mechanical changes, so Galante’s team worked directly with Centro Stile, the company’s in-house design department, to update the Huracán. The lights are thinner on both ends, and the rear units are embedded in a housing that echoes the Countach’s back end. Air curtains are now positioned on either side of the front fascia, while a redesigned diffuser dominates the Huracán’s rear end.

Centro Stile and Squadra Corse had an equal influence on these updates. “We learned a lot in terms of shapes, about how to make a car look beautiful, and designers learned a lot about the principles of aerodynamics,” Galante explained. “We worked together to define the best shapes to generate an efficient aerodynamic profile. We want to generate as much downforce as possible while creating as little drag as possible.”

Sculpting a car’s aerodynamic profile isn’t as straightforward as merely adding wings, spoilers, vents, and ducts to keep it glued to the ground around a turn. Galante stressed the quality of the downforce generated by the various add-ons is just as important as headline-grabbing figures. His aim was to keep the car as stable and predictable as possible, even when the weight balance shifts under heavy braking from triple-digit speeds. Feedback provided by Super Trofeo competitors since the beginning of the series helped his team dial in the right amount of downforce.

“With my group, I design the car, but I’m also here on the race track listening to the teams. When something is very good, or when something is very bad, I get immediate feedback. This is a very good part of my job,” he said.

Braking was one of the areas he wanted to improve. The outgoing Super Trofeo car’s brakes are immensely powerful — Galante described them as almost GT3-like — but the teams racing it asked for a more durable system. Instead of working with a supplier, Squadra Corse developed the full system, including the calipers, the rotors, and the pads, in-house and ensured it can withstand a full weekend of racing. It’s unrelated to the setup found in the street-legal Huracán, though some of the lessons learned could trickle down to production cars sooner or later.

Lamborghini is not rooted in racing, but its track experience is beginning to permeate its lineup of supercars.

One of the most direct links between the street and the circuit is the Huracán STO introduced in November 2020. It’s rear-wheel-drive, about 95 pounds lighter than the Performante, and its V10 develops 640 horsepower. Nearly 100 wins in the GT3 category and years of running Super Trofeo races helped Lamborghini shape the STO’s aerodynamic package, which includes a huge wing and a roof-mounted scoop. Sometimes, adapting race technology to a street car unlocks a eureka! moment that, in turn, later helps engineers shape track-only models.

“We can jump from race to road and back to race. Not only in terms of aerodynamics, but also in the field of braking technology. The SCV12‘s brakes use the same technology as the STO’s,” Galante said. Putting track-bred features in a road car isn’t always easy, though. “Road cars are very limited due to homologation [requirements], so within these limits we try to find a way to move the concept from motorsports to [street-legal] applications.”

Lamborghini has several opportunities to transfer its racing knowledge to its range of production cars in the coming years. It’s putting the final touches on the Aventador’s successor; it’s widely believed to have several additional evolutions of the Huracán in the pipeline; and it’s preparing an electrification offensive that will lead it to its first series-produced electric model. The EVO2’s newly-sharpened front end is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

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