Opinion: Why Lamborghini loves rear-wheel drive again Car News

Since the days of Diablo, Lamborghini has embraced four-wheel drive as one of its dynamic mainstays – and the result has too often been cars slightly lacking in adjustability and with more understeer balance than is suitable for any mid-engined supercar.

Rear-drive specials such as the Gallardo Balboni have been rare, and even these have often lacked the finesse of Ferrari’s mainline alternatives.

But then, with the recent arrival of the Lamborghini Huracán Evo RWD, things improved markedly, and those improvements were cemented with the playful and superbly progressive Lamborghini. Huracánot STO. So what exactly has changed at Lamborghini? Why is he bucking an industry trend and developing more RWD cars when most are going the other way?

It was all part of the plan, according to technical director Rouven Mohr., who was on hand to show us around the new car at the Sant’Agata factory. This is in addition to the fact that customer tastes are now moving away from spec sheet superiority and towards drivability and fun.

“We started as a manufacturer with a very high power output for a mid-engine car,” says Mohr. “At the beginning, when the control systems were not at the same level [as the power], you had to make sure the car was stable and safe. For a mid-engine car, that’s a much bigger challenge than [for anything] front-engine and rear-wheel-drive. Therefore, the primary goal was to have a car that the customer can handle.

This therefore explains why all models since the Murciélago have been launched with AWD, but why change now?

“Well, in the meantime,” Mohr replies, “the steps of electronics integration, configuration knowledge, etc. have been greatly increased, and it is now possible to have a car [like the just-announced Lamborghini Huracan Tecnica] with 631 hp and rear-wheel drive so easy to control every customer can enjoy.

“Also, if you look at the super sports car realm, there’s a bit of a change for sure. In the past it was all about lap performance. But the cars are [now] so incredibly fast you can’t drive them to the limit on the road. Therefore, we decided to offer another aspect of the Lamborghini brand – one related to driver involvement and controllability. [in the context of having fun].”