The 2024 Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato is pure, unfiltered fun

Most cars have at least the semi-noble job of serving as reliable, everyday transportation. They have to get people to work, school, and the grocery store with as little drama as possible. They are hard working devices, and we have to applaud that. Lamborghini Huracan Sterato Not one of those vehicles, and it’s the most fun I’ve ever had on four wheels.

As its name suggests, Sterrato is based on The Huracan is now sold out. That means it has an angry wedge shape and a naturally aspirated 640-hp V10 engine, along with the many incremental improvements Sant’Agata has made to the Huracan over its nine-year lifespan. Only the Sterrato doesn’t stop there. This also is meant to play in the dirt. stupid? defy. But that also makes it one of the best Lamborghinis ever.

The Sterrato’s suspension has a headroom of 1.5 inches above the standard Huracan, which, combined with 19-inch Bridgestone Dueler All-Terrain AT002 tires, makes the Sterrato surprisingly ready to take off off-road . Obviously you’re not going to take it rock crawling, but you can get the Sterrato very sideways in fairly deep dirt and sand. The tires are noteworthy because it’s the first time anyone has ever made a W-series all-terrain tire, which means this rubber is rated for speeds up to 168 mph, and you don’t need to carry a spare tire, which is fine, because where are you going to put it anyway ?

On the road, the Sterrato is the most comfortable Huracan yet, which comes as no surprise. While I couldn’t push the car hard on the road, I suspect it might be more fun than a road-going car because it has fewer limits. A car that moves when driven hard is universally more fun unless you’re chasing track times (see: BRZ, GR86, Miata). Because of the tires’ tall sidewalls and massive tread pattern, the Sterrato’s steering isn’t as precise or sharp as on a regular Huracan, but you’ll be hard-pressed to notice or pay attention in most situations.

One thing I find interesting is that the Sterrato has carbon ceramic brakes. Carbon brakes are brittle, so the potential for sand to get caught between the pad and the rotor, or a rock making it past the spokes of the wheel to crack or break the rotor, seems fairly high. Lamborghini’s engineers didn’t seem fazed by this when asked, and it wasn’t an issue on a sandy test track, so I’m probably just being paranoid.

My driving part in the Sterrato combined the normal course at Chuckwalla Raceway and a loose, sandy dirt field. The Chuckwalla’s track surface is really smooth, and although the coupe’s overall grip is noticeably less than what you get in the pavement-focused Huracan Tecnica, the Sterrato is still plenty aggressive.

Off piste things are even better. The Sterrato’s handling is incredibly playful, and the all-wheel-drive system, combined with special Bridgestones, makes cornering the throttle, then nailing the gas and power sliding through corners, a breeze. The car feels nimble and friendly, which I didn’t expect on this drive, especially with that much power on tap. The Sterrato is a creature of pure joy.

As is the Sterrato’s exterior appearance compared to a Huracan Evo or Tecnica, the interior is largely identical. My test car is Euro-spec, which means it has a nice interior cage behind the carbon sport seats, which we won’t get in the States. But other than that and putting Rally at the wheel to replace the Corsa, the Sterrato is all the standard Huracan, good and bad. You still get the Huracan’s Alcantara and carbon fiber bindings, the same steering wheel with the world’s largest turn signal switch, and there are no changes to the center stack except for some switchgear resets.

The Huracan’s interior isn’t great for a very tall guy like myself (I’m 6ft 4in with plenty of torso height), but it’s livable, and given the suspension’s ride comfort off-road, it’s actually much more forgiving to drive. This suspension makes getting in and out of the Sterrato a lot easier. Storage space in the passenger area is acceptable for this type of vehicle, but the Sterrato’s front differential limits trunk space. It’s almost perfect for a Pelican mini-bag, but don’t expect to take home a large amount of groceries with you.

The infotainment system, again, is basically identical to the other Huracan’s. While it’s not particularly premium or feature-rich, it’s better than what you might get in other exotic cars like Aston Martin or Ferrari. One of the additions to Sterrato is the inclusion of What Three Words navigation, which, as its name suggests, uses three-word phrases to describe an individual 100-square-foot point around the world. This makes it useful for off-road navigation, so it makes sense in the Sterrato.

Looking at the base Huracan Evo, its price starts at $206,000 and Technica Coming in at $239,000, I don’t think people will be surprised to learn that the Sterrato is priced at $271,000. (A 911 Dakar The GT3 RS is almost as expensive, remember.) For how niche and idiosyncratic it is, the Sterrato seems worth every penny. Not that it matters, as all 1,499 examples of Lamborghini plans to build are spoken for.

Lamborghini’s wild, rugged Huracan Sterrato is not a car designed or produced for any logical reasons. It’s a car that started as a passion project for a small team of engineers, and has been tested alongside other Lamborghinis. As in, engineers brought their Sterrato test mule with them whenever they went to test cars somewhere, and they still do that today.

The Sterato is a car that makes everyone who designed, engineered and built it smile. It’s a tangible expression of these people’s love for the Lamborghini brand and, more importantly, their love for cars. It even became the first car with a charging bull on the hood that I’d actually like to own, not because it’s objectively the best Lamborghini, but because it’s so usable and special we may never see anything like it again.