Lamborghini Huracan STO

The car's naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V-10 makes no more power and slightly less torque than the Performante—631 horsepower and 417 pound-feet of torque, to be exact—but has been tuned for sharper responses. The car also comes only with rear-wheel drive, its body is almost entirely carbon fiber (including a one-piece front clamshell), and the cabin has been largely gutted. Lamborghini claims these modifications shave 95 pounds of mass over the 3429-pound Performante, despite the STO's addition of a new rear-axle steering system.

Unlike many committed, track-focused cars, the STO retains its climate-control system. Still, beyond leather seats and a microfiber-trimmed dashboard, its interior is otherwise stripped of unnecessary items. There is no carpet, and the door panels have been replaced with naked carbon-fiber pieces with pull straps for door releases; the windshield glass is 20-percent thinner than in the regular Huracán. A central touchscreen interface remains and has been reconfigured to provide a variety of data options.

This Lambo will pummel your eardrums even through a helmet. This is largely due to the increased savagery of its exhaust note, particularly in Trofeo mode above 4500 rpm when the flaps in its active exhaust open. But the STO also features a far more direct throttle map that removes almost all of the top-end play that even the most potent street cars generally have for real-world drivability. Fully unleashed, this Lambo devours the ratios of its seven-speed dual-clutch automatic at a rate that makes it genuinely hard for human hands to keep up with when using the paddle shifters.

Cornering is equally impressive. The STO's steering is pinpoint accurate.

The STO is working plenty hard in the background to make all of this seem easy. In tighter turns, its limited-slip differential and rear-wheel steering working to combat understeer when early throttle openings nudged the car wide of our chosen line. The V-10 lacks the low-down torque of a modern turbocharged engine, but it also has a more linear power build, which helps when pushing the car to the edge of adhesion in longer corners. 

Faster corners also reveal the contribution of the STO's aerodynamic package, with faith in the atmospheric assistance growing more through experience than feedback. The car's steering doesn't grow noticeably heavier as cornering forces rise nor does the ride get much harsher. 

This is a Lamborghini that truly is born for the racetrack so, what are you waiting for?