2021 Lamborghini Huracan STO

The Lamborghini Huracan made landfall in the U.S. back in 2014 and with it came the winds of change for the Italian brand.

Not only did it churn up sales records, but it brought on a flood of motorsport success, including three straight wins at the Daytona 24 Hours, which has led to this Huracan STO.

STO stands for Super Trofeo Omologata. Before you go digging for your Italian to English dictionary, Omologata means homologation. So this STO is a street-legal Huracan heavily inspired by the Huracan Supertrofeo and GT3 EVO race cars. And that’s evident even at a quick glance.

The front bonnet, fenders and bumper are all one single piece while these new ducts direct airflow for cooling and downforce.

Speaking of downforce, this fixed rear wing has three manual settings and when set to its most aggressive position can create over 900 pounds of downforce.

This shark fin and air scoop are just two more of the many air manipulating features sprinkled all over the body, which itself is 75% carbon fiber.

And there’s more of it inside the cabin, which has been thoroughly stripped of excess weight. I mean we’re talking pull straps instead of door handles type weight-savings. Although Lamborghini did leave the AC and touch screen.

The engine is still a 5.2-liter naturally aspirated V10 with 631 horsepower going to the rear wheels via 7-speed dual clutch transmission. It’s no more powerful than the Huracan Performante, but quicker gear changes, stickier Bridgestone rubber, and rear-wheel steering make it considerably faster on a road course.

Which is why Lamborghini brought me to the frighteningly fast desert oasis known as Willow Springs.

"There are quite a few high and high-er speed sweepers on this track and this thing just accels at them I mean you feel everything. You feel every bump, that’s for sure. It doesn’t upset the car. There’s plenty of grip.

At this point in the corner, in the original Huracan I felt like there would have been some understeer, but I have not perceived any understeer yet in this car.

The cornering grip in this thing is absolutely insane. I’m taking this corner at 111 mph...just when I think I should probably let off because I’m gonna run out of grip, it’s just still there. It never relents.

Let’s go hard brakes from 152...coming down from over 150 mph is nothing to these brakes."

That’s because they’re Formula 1-inspired Brembo Carbon Ceramics, which are even more heat resistant than your run-of-the-mill carbon ceramics.

"I mean what else can you say? You basically just treat this car like a race car. Hard braking into the corners, you let off it takes you right into the apex. I mean as long as you’re looking where you’re going and you have some sense of what you’re doing on a race track, this thing takes care of you."

An STO-Exclusive connected telemetry system records video and performance data, which you can view on your phone for analysis or proof-of-awesomeness.

With a price tag of over $328,000 Lamborghini admits most buyers won’t ever take the Huracan STO to a racetrack and if that is the case, well, that’s just a depressing waste of a great track car.

But cheer up, we’ll have more this car and others coming up on MotorWeek.