It’s not just that the Lamborghini Huracán looks like a fighter jet. Nor is it because the car’s aluminum structure mixes in carbon fiber to save weight. No, the biggest reason why the Huracán is a street-going F-22 is because it uses actual aerospace components that make it faster and easier to drive.
Tucked under the leather-lined cabin, right near the car’s center of gravity, is the LPI, or Lamborghini Piattaforma Inerziale (literally, inertial platform). It’s a black box with three gyroscopes and three accelerometers. Other cars typically only have one gyroscope; fighter jets and fantastic Lamborghinis use three. The extra gyros mean that the motions in pitch, yaw, and roll can be determined exactly. In cars with one gyro, that figure needs to be calculated using other inputs such as wheel speed.
The difference is slight, says Lamborghini’s technical chief Maurizio Reggiani, but important. With the new LPI, dynamic information is instantaneously available to all the systems that control the car’s behavior, most importantly, the stability control and four-wheel-drive systems. That allows for faster, more precise adjustments and, ultimately, better performance for everyone from seasoned race-car drivers to your grandma.
Of course, Granny might hesitate to cash out her retirement portfolio to pay for this quarter-million-dollar beast. But there has never been a 602-hp, 202-mph supercar that’s as easy to drive as the Huracán — primarily because the clunky single-clutch transmission in the Gallardo has been replaced with a new seven-speed dual clutch unit that’s as fast and smooth as any transmission in the world. There are other improvements, too, like moving all the buttons on the steering column to the steering wheel. And the instrument cluster is all digital, allowing you to alternate between a giant dial showing the speedometer or tachometer and a smaller dial with infotainment data next to it, or a full-screen navigation map.
Lamborghini figured out all the details on the Huracán. Well, almost all of them. It’s by far the most comfortable Lamborghini ever, and the interior lives up to every childhood fantasy you’ve ever had. But do the air-conditioning vents need to be covered in cheap plastic? Sure, it’s a small gripe, but aluminum or carbon fiber seems more appropriate for a fighter plane.
Read the full story at popularmechanics.com