First Look: 2023 Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato

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Like so many great ideas — especially great ideas involving cars — the Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato was just a crazy concept dreamed up by two enthusiasts over burgers and beers. Okay, since it was in Italy, it might have been pizza and vino. And, since the two enthusiasts in question just happened to be Lamborghini’s then-chief technical officer, Maurizio Reggiani; and Rouven Mohr, head of Sant’agata Bolgnese’s prototype department, it meant there was a better chance than normal that crazy could become real. To get to the point, the Sterrato, like so many of history’s other great automobiles, started with a simple “What if we…?” over a beverage.

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The “what if?” question in question was, of course, whether there was place in the world for an off-road supercar, one that specialized in high-speed rally-like driving—“off-track,” as Mohr, now Lamborghini’s CTO, likes to call it. Nonetheless, the discussion might have ended like so many other such pipe dreams if, on his return to the office, Mohr hadn’t discovered, in a case of pure serendipity, he still claims, that one of his long-distance “mules” was about to be miled out.

Indeed, had it not been for the fact that a tired old Huracán testbed was about to go to the crusher just as Mohr and Reggiani had their big idea, there might never have been a Huracán Sterrato. All great ideas need good fortune and timing as much as they do burgers and beer — oops, pizza and wine — if they are to make the leap from dinner table to sheetmetal, after all.

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One accidental viewing of Mohr and Reggiani’s early Sterrato mock-up by CEO Stephan Winkelmann — “nothing is by accident,” winks Mohr — and we have a Lamborghini that would seem to be more at home at a Rally Cross circuit than a race track. Oh, along the way, it lost the roof-mounted light bar that so distinguished the concept, but otherwise, it is, Mohr claims, pretty darned faithful to the what-if? he and Reggiani dreamed up back in 2017.

Officially, the company says the Sterrato is designed for “unpaved and sandy surfaces.” Take a look at this video and the keyword missing from that official statement is “high-speed.” That’s because the Sterrato, like all Huracáns, is powered by a bellowing 5.2-litre V10 screaming out 610 horsepower at 8,000 rpm. That’s good enough, says the company, to rocket the 1,470-kilogram transformer to 100 kilometres in just 3.4 seconds, though presumably not, even with its traction-seeking AWD system, on those aforementioned unpaved and sandy roads.

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That said, Lambo would appear serious about the Huracán playing Timo Mäkinen-like silly buggers. The first thing you notice about the Sterrato is that the ground clearance has been increased. It’s actually up by almost two inches — 44 millimetres, to be exact — and if that’s still not quite enough to do the Rubicon, it should be enough for the potholes and broken pavement that so threaten normal Lamborghini supercars.

The suspension travel is likewise increased, some 30 per cent in the front and an even greater 35 per cent in the rear. More important, says Mohr, is that said suspension has been re-calibrated to be more like, well, a rally car. The springs are softer and the dampers squishier because Mohr wants the Sterrato to pitch and roll, the exact opposite of what you want in a traditional supercar. If you’re going to pitch a Lamborghini into a Scandinavian flick, you need a lot more weight transfer than the EVO version of the Huracán offers.

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Throw in a special set of Bridgestone Dueler AT002 tires — the low-profile 235/40R19s in front and 285/40R19s in rear are not off-the-shelf “mudder” tires — and the Sterrato is ready for desert racing.

Despite all this off-road focus — trumpeted visually by the two LED driving lights on the front lid and the bolt-on plastic fender flares protecting body panels — the Sterrato is still a Lamborghini. Huge six-piston monoblock front brakes try to keep those 610 ponies in check, and, yes, even if this is supposedly an off-road(-ish) vehicle, the brake discs are carbon-ceramic. Also making a return engagement is the seven-speed dual-clutch manumatic and Lamborghini’s all-wheel-drive, blessed with a rear mechanical locking diff. Put it all together and the Sterrato is only about two seconds slower than a normal Huracán round Lamborghini’s official test track.

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Inside will also be familiar territory, save for the proprietary Alcantara Verde Sterrato upholstery, the “feel-like-a-pilot” focus on the driver at the centre of the cockpit common to all Huracáns. Oh, the touchscreen has new graphics and digital gauges designed specifically for off-road driving — a first-for-Huracán digital inclinometer with pitch and roll indicators, a compass with geographic coordinates, and a steering angle indicator — but the cabin will be familiar territory.

Like all recent Lambos, the Sterrato is also blessed with onboard telemetry and a Drive Recorder to preserve all your shenanigans for posterity. There’s even a digital memory book that allows Lamborghini’s UNICA app to access your Apple Watch’s heart rate information, just the data you want to preserve after, you know, you slide your $300,000 Lamborghini ’round one of those “unpaved and sandy roads.”

Look for Sterratos to start entering your local Rally Cross sometime after February 2023.