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CNN
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The car shuddered as I drove down a rutted gravel road in the California desert, the 10-cylinder engine roaring in my ears behind my head. I was driving a $380,000 Lamborghini Huracan Sterato, and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
I maxed out at 40 mph, but on a road like this, in a place like this, 40 people felt like a race. I walked out of the botanical gardens usually passed by pickup trucks. Lamborghini also made an SUV, the Urus, which may all feel familiar. This was not normal at all. Some of the big bushes I passed were taller than the roof of a wedge-shaped car.
The Sterato is 1.75 inches higher than the regular Huracan supercar and 1.3 inches wider, with larger fender flares. (It’s slightly wider at the rear than the wheels.) The nose of the car is protected by an aluminum fender.
With all the dirt and sand coming off the wheels, the Huracán Sterato – the name means “dirt road” – has air intakes on the roof to bring fresh air to the engine. Lamborghini worked with the Bridgestone using the same tires as other Lamborghini performance tires, but off-road.
In addition to the engine, the loud noise constantly vibrates from under the Lamborghini. Yes, I’ve driven expensive supercars on gravel roads a while back, usually to hold a car for a photo or video shoot. But it’s always a slow, tricky process, crawling at single-digit speeds where a small rubber-slinged stone can scratch the paint.
Not this time. Lamborghini told me to take this lizard-green Huracan Sterato to my favorite place. So I did. And this led me to bomb down this rocky desert road, not worrying about damaging the car’s paintwork in the slightest, throwing thick white dust behind me.
It was the most fun I’ve had in years.
I drove this same car at the Chuckwalla Valley Raceway track, which is 15 miles away. There, as I drive the car through a dirt course, the tires spray dark brown dirt into the air, sliding sideways on curves, I hit triple-digit speeds on twisty asphalt.
It’s been 60 years today since tractor maker Ferruccio Lamborghini founded his own car company with the intention of showing Ferrari how to build a car. And here I was, looking at a car unlike anything his company had ever made before and hearing snakes. But at the same time, it was the most Lamborghini I could ever imagine.
The idea came to Lamborghini’s engineers and designers one day while drinking beer while driving the Urus SUV off-road. You thought that was a lot of fun, but wouldn’t it be better to drive an all-wheel-drive supercar off-road?
So the engineers took an old Huracan and built a prototype, mostly just for kicks. But it was such a blast that Lamborghini executives finally decided to put it into production for those who could afford the $273,000 starting price. (The car I drove had about $110,000 worth of options, with body paint worth half that price.)
There are orders for all 1,499 Huracan Stratos Lamborghini will build, but if one backs out — I mean, I don’t, but it happens — you might still have a shot.
It’s the kind of thing other car brands scoff at for not getting the right image. Thankfully, Lamborghini understands that in the end, it should always be about having fun. And few things bring a smile like tossing around the dirt with a supercar.
This Sterato debuted at the same time as the Porsche 911 Dakar, a similarly elevated sports car. Although both brands are affiliated with the Volkswagen Group, Lamborghini insists this is a coincidence. Both are at the cutting edge of all-terrain vehicles, from Subaru’s knot-tired desert models to Honda’s Trailsport SUVs. For some reason, it seems, in the last few years, everyone decided that they needed to escape from civilization.
If Wile E wanted to catch a Coyote Roadrunner while I drove my Straton through ocher-colored canyons, he would stop investing in useless Acme products and buy this one. Perfect for the job, really. Fast, efficient, goes anywhere.
On asphalt, the Sterarto drives well, smooth and quiet – except for the sound of the V10 engine – and fast. The Sterato has three drive modes selected with a stubby paddle on the steering wheel. Strada (street) for regular driving, sport and rally, adapting the all-wheel-drive system for off-road use.
There’s no Corsa mode, the hyper-aggressive track mode that other Lamborghini supercars have, because that’s not what this car is about. The transaction sounds good to me. I’ll take it with minimal track performance so I can blast through a dusty trail. In addition, people who buy this car will undoubtedly have other Lamborghinis in their garage, so they will not leave anything out.
Even those of us who can’t afford it should be glad to have a Lamborghini Huracan Sterato. In an industry where every decision is approached by accountants and brand image consultants, it’s a joy to find something just because it’s a blast, for no reason, really.
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