Something mysterious happens to me when I drive supercars like the Lamborghini Huracán EVO RWD Spyder; it’s like I’m injected with a potent serum, much like Jessica Drew. I have more energy, my body doesn’t ache and I can survive the whole day on just the smell of leather and the thrum of an engine.
Peel back this Spyder’s cape and you reveal an interior with all the drama and quality you would expect from Lamborghini. Geometric shapes, fighter plane inspired switches, a golden raging bull ready to charge right at you and the smell and feel of quality leather. The interior feature I appreciated the most about this Spyder were the newly designed sports seats ($13,690 option). When I drove the previous model Huracán RWD Spyder I felt like my head was almost poking above the windscreen, however in this Spyder I felt lower down and even my six-foot tall passenger agreed that he felt lower down in the cabin.
These embroidered seats are the standard size and they hugged me nicely around the waist and I felt the shoulder width was perfect. They only have manual adjustment for forward/back, tilt and recline, but I was able to easily find my perfect driving position. The leather wrapped steering wheel also has manual adjustment for height and extension.
The Spyder features an 8.4” HMI Capacitive touchscreen that allows you to access all of your infotainment and climate control options. The screen displays the outline of the car with front and rear parking sensors and when reversing the rear view camera ($3,850 option) displays on the driver’s dash. I found it a bit annoying that I had to touch the screen in order to operate simple things like adjusting the climate control or the volume on the radio.
Storage space in the Spyder is at a premium with just a small ledge for your phone behind the arm rest between the two seats where there are two USBs and a 12V outlet. Under the touchscreen there is another storage ledge that would fit a small clutch, but your handbag will need to be placed in the passenger side foot well if the passenger seat is occupied and sunglasses can be stored in the shallow door cubby. For larger items there is the front boot, but it is small and would only fit an overnight bag, so you will need to learn how to travel light like a superhero.
My photography session with the Huracán went well into the evening and it was dark when I finally drove home. This was the first time I have driven a Huracán in the dark and I found the headlights were not great on low beam as they only projected a short distance in front of the car and when your front splitter is as low as the Huracán’s this is not a great thing. With high beam on it was fine, but you can’t drive around doing that all of the time.
You most likely won’t care much about the practicality of a car when it is looks as good as the Huracán EVO RWD Spyder. For me the exterior design is the embodiment of unrelenting determination, and is purposeful and aggressive. I particularly liked the rear diffuser painted in high gloss black ($6,480 option) because if you look at the previous Huracán EVO AWD I drove the rear diffuser painted white looks odd. Of course you will want to option your EVO with the Magneto-rheological suspension with Lifting System ($12,970 option), so you can raise that front lip to go over speed humps.
The Spyder’s soft top drops in 17 seconds at speeds up to 50km/h and then you can experience every cubic centimetre of the naturally aspirated V10 in surround sound. It’s Spring in Australia, so in addition to the engine’s song, driving with the top down enables you to enjoy the smell of jasmine mixed with the open fires still being used on the cold nights. It’s also means it’s getting warmer and for my day in the Spyder the temperature was pushing the high 20’s (Celsius) and for me it was too hot to be driving with the top down. I have always thought for Australia at least, that convertibles only work in winter, when our sun is less ferocious.
On the upside, having the top down does make it very easy to step into the Spyder and lower yourself into the driver’s seat. I did find that it was not actually that hard to get out of either, which is surprising for such a low car. The other advantage on no roof means that I did not miss blind spot monitoring as I could just pop my head up and look for cars before I changed lanes.
Driving at higher speeds with the roof down I found there was some buffeting around my shoulders and it was a little difficult to talk with my passenger. Lamborghini have thought about this problem for when you are trying to have a conversation on the phone via Bluetooth and have fitted three small microphones in the seat belt that are designed to pick up your voice at various positions depending on your height.
By far the greatest attribute of the Huracán EVO RWD Spyder is its naturally aspirated V10 engine; flip the red cover and hit that start button to unleash its power. You can just put your finger through the cover and press the start button, but this is a Lambo and it’s all about the theatre. I am sitting here trying to find the words to express how special the V10 really is, but I find it difficult. So instead I will tell you how the V10 makes me feel; invincible!
The firing of those ten cylinders makes me grin like the Cheshire cat every time I depress my right foot. If you don’t get it, find yourself a supercar drive day, or better still buy yourself a Huracán, and take a listen for yourself and you will understand. In fact I think the V10 actually sounds better when experienced as the EVO passes by rather than from inside the cabin.
Whether at idle or full throttle the 5.2 litre V10 emits a joyous noise and when the Huracán was parked up in our garage it smelled like an old school F1 engine. If you have the 7-speed dual clutch gearbox in manual mode the engine will rev all the way to the 8,500rpm red line and then changes up automatically to the next gear. Gear changes are slick and there are plenty of pops and bangs from the high-mounted exhaust on downshift too. Great if you want to announce your arrival before you actually reach your destination. The exhaust even glows red at night, like the throat of a dragon ready to unleash its roar.
Power and torque are slightly down on the EVO AWD that I drove earlier this year, with the V10 *only* producing 449kW at 8,000rpm and 560Nm of torque at 6,500rpm. It has the same top speed as EVO AWD of more than 325km/h, but is slightly slower at the 0-100km/h dash, which takes 3.5 seconds and 9.6 seconds for the 0-200km/h event. In a graphic demonstration of the Huracán’s pace I drove our AMG C63S on the same day and it felt slow and high off the ground compared to the EVO Spyder.
Engine performance is adjusted with the red ANIMA switch located at the base of the steering wheel. There are three drive modes to select from Strada, Sport and Corsa and even at idle the exhaust noise gets louder as you flick through them. The driver’s dash also intensifies, going from a subtle blue in Strada, to a slightly more aggressive design in Sport, to full-on race car graphics in Corsa with the taco splayed across the display so you can watch the revs rapidly build towards the 8,500rpm red line.
In Strada mode the engine ticks along at 2,500rpm in seventh gear doing 100km/h and to save fuel it deactivates cylinders when you are driving on the motorway and it was here that I also discovered that the standard cruise control ($1,680 option) only operates in Strada mode. In Sport mode at 100km/h I found that the exhaust noise resonates in the cabin and this could get a bit tiresome on long drives. But with the roof up the cabin is unexpectedly quiet and for a little more engine noise you can lower the small rear window behind you.
Unless you are on a racetrack I doubt whether you would feel the difference between the AWD and RWD EVO. In dry conditions at no time did the Spyder suffer any loss of traction while I was driving and I always felt it was stuck fast to the black web of tarmac. I can hear what you are saying, “well you didn’t push it hard enough” and you would be right. But I am the one who signed the agreement that says I am liable for a $20k excess bill if I damage the EVO, not you. What I can tell you is in the wet the accelerator pedal needs to be treated with caution as there is less traction in the wet.
The Lamborghini Huracán EVO RWD Spyder comes with a three year unlimited kilometre warranty and owners can opt to purchase an additional one year warranty or a two years warranty. Maintenance packages include your standard services and cost $7,450 for three years. Generally, one off track days aren’t an issue when it comes to not voiding your Lamborghini warranty. However obligations under the warranty is excluded if the vehicle is assessed and deemed to improper use, negligence, accidents or incorrect vehicle maintenance, as well as racing or if it’s been modified with unsuitable parts that may affect the homologation and/or safety requirements.
Unfortunately this kind of potency doesn’t come cheap, but I think it’s still worth it for the way it makes me feel when I drive Huracán EVO. The Lamborghini Huracán EVO RWD Spyder starts at $422,606 plus on-road costs and as tested my Bianco Monocerus EVO with lime green flecks was $505,706 plus on-roads. Buyers can bundle options with the Lifestyle Pack (Alarm, Smartphone Interface, Parking Sensors, Lifting Kit) or the Driver Pack (Magneto-rheological Suspension and Carbon Ceramic Brakes) to reduce the overall cost compared to purchasing them separately. Visit your preferred Lamborghini dealer to be transformed for yourself.
| Pros | Cons |
| Surround sound V10 experience | Limited time you can enjoy top down driving |
| Lower seating position | Poor performance of headlights |
| How I feel when I drive the Huracán EVO | Need to access the touchscreen for basic cabin operations |
Photographs by Driven Women Magazine.