Lamborghini Huracan Evo RWD 2020 UK first drive

Lamborghini likes to keep us waiting for the sweetest derivative of its entry-level supercar.

It’s a cruel habit, I know, and one that took root in 2009 with the much-loved Gallardo LP550-2 Balboni, which arrived a mere six years after the introduction of the original ‘baby Lambo’. There was then a delay of two years between the launch of Lamborghini the Huracán LP610-4 and the considerably better LP580-2. And now, only after the coupé and Spyder versions of Lamborghini the widely revised Huracán Evo have enjoyed generous head starts, has Lamborghini presented its latest potential gem: the Huracán Evo RWD.

As the name suggests, and as formerly denoted in Lamborghini nomenclature by the number ‘2’, this is a rear-wheel-drive model. It is also now the most attainable rung on the Huracán ladder, costing £34,000 less than the ‘normal’, four-wheel-drive Evo. At £164,000, the RWD is priced closer to the £149,000 McLaren 570S than Ferrari’s £203,500 F8 Tributo and therefore looks good value, although there are some eye-watering options. The transparent engine cover alone costs £4860, while composite brake discs will set you back £5412 and a DAB radio an indefensible £648. All in, the Verde Selvans example seen here totals £223,000.

What you lose, apart from the front driveshafts, is the standard Evo’s four-wheel steering and highly effective torque-vectoring electronics. You also lose 33kg from the kerb weight and 29bhp from the howling 5.2-litre V10, which is otherwise transplanted directly, titanium valves and all, from the bowels of the outgoing Huracán Performante.

It’s a nominal decrease in power, and one designed to usher more suggestible customers towards the more expensive four-wheel-drive Huracán. For the rest of us, the RWD’s 602bhp, 413lb ft and 0-62mph time of 3.3sec (versus 2.9sec for the regular Evo) are more than enough to be getting on with.

The RWD is also the finer driver's car, although what you gain from this new layout can take a moment to fully appreciate. As always with Lamborghini, you need to get the absurdity of it all out of your system before you can properly burrow under the car’s skin. When combined, the sound and the performance are as giddily pulverising as ever, and even without four-wheel drive, there’s never any issue with straight-line traction, at least on dry roads.

All you ever hear about is this magnificent engine’s top end, but so big are its lungs that you’ll have left almost anything else for dead by the time the needle has reached even 4000rpm, and from then on, things only get wilder. It's one of the greatest road car engines ever built, no question.