INQUISITR.COM / Science & Tech

New Lamborghini Huracán Performante Breaks Speed Record At Nürburgring Track

By Darien Cavanaugh
Published on: 10:58 PST, Mar 26, 2017

There’s a new kid on the block when it comes to being the fastest car ever off the production line. Earlier this month, there were reports that the new Lamborghini Huracán Performante had beaten the previous record for the fastest lap around the “grueling” Nürburgring track in Germany. Now Digital Trends and Lamborghini are confirming that the reports are official and have been recorded and accepted.

It turns out that the Huracán Performante completed a lap at Nürburgring in 00:06:52:01, beating the previous record holder, the Porsche 918 Spyder, by nearly five full seconds, Car and Driver noted.

Lamborghini has not wasted any time boasting about the exploits of the model—an upgrade from earlier versions of the Huracán—either.

“The Huracán Performante has reworked the concept of super sports cars and taken the notion of performance to levels never seen before,” reads a post on the official Lamborghini website.

“The vehicle has been re-engineered in its entirety, as regards its weight, engine power, chassis and above all by introducing an innovative system of active aerodynamics: ALA. The combination of these modifications and the skilled work of the team at Lamborghini, took the Huracán Performante to complete a lap at Nürburgring in 00:06:52:01 setting a new record for best lap and becoming the fastest standard production car at the Shrine of Speed.”

Breaking the record surely came as both a joy and a relief for the people at Lamborghini, as the company has heavily invested in upgrading the Huracán in hopes that it would be able to outperform the Porsche Spyder and its other competitors. As Car and Driver explained, the Huracán has already gone through several makeovers despite being a new addition to the Lamborghini line up.

“The Huracán has been spun into several variants in the relatively short time since it arrived as a 2015 model. There have been rear-wheel-drive versions, the typical Spyder treatment, and limited editions. But none has been as specialized as the new Performante. Every part of this particular Huracán has been massaged, from the chassis tuning and aerodynamics to the powertrain and even its mass.”

Maurizio Reggiani, the head of the company’s research and development department, told Digital Trends that the Italian auto maker had always intended for the Huracán to evolve through several phases.

“The Performante was always part of our strategy. Every time we build a super sports car, we follow-up by developing a more extreme version of it. In the Aventador family, it’s the Superveloce. In the Gallardo family, we called it Superleggera. This time around we went with the Performante name to reflect what’s possible to achieve with this car in terms of performance.”

When asked what the word performante means, Reggiani said that in Italian the term “refers to something that achieves a high level of performance, and that is able to do something exceptional.”

That seems quite fitting given the Lamborghini Huracán Performante’s results at Nürburgring.

Indeed, the Performante comes with some impressive specs. It’s 5.2-liter V-10 engine can produce 640 horsepower with a maximum torque of 442 foot-pounds. Due to adjustments in suspension and alignment made to the Performante, 70 percent of the engine’s maximum torque is available at 1,500 rpm.

Lamborghini will begin delivering the first Huracán Performantes to customers this summer. The price tag for a base model of the vehicle is $274,390, before taxes or any other fees. That makes it far less expensive than the diamond-coated $4.8 million Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita, but it’s still a pretty expensive car.

[Featured Image by Harold Cunningham/Getty Images]

Share this article: New Lamborghini Huracán Performante Breaks Speed Record At Nürburgring Track
More from Inquisitr