June 6, 2024 • 35 mins
The Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato is designed to play in the dirt, so we get it dirty. After a spirited drive, hosts Tony Quiroga and Eddie Alterman talk to Lamborghini’s chief technical officer Rouven Mohr to get the inside story on the Sterrato.
For more on the Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato visit Car and Driver online.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello, and welcome to the first episode of Car Drivers
Into Cars, a podcast from iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio, brought to
you by eBay Motors. I'm Tony ki Roger, the editor
in chief of Car and Driver, and I'm joined by
my co host, former editor in chief and current Chief
Brand and Content Officer, Eddie Alterman, and together We're Into Cars.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Each episode of this podcast covers a new car that
we think is worthy of your attention. The cars we
select may feature a novel design, cutting edge engineering, or
something entirely new. We'll cover the stories behind the cars,
answering the whys and exploring the whats to bring you
into the experience. We'll drive the things and let you
listen in, and then we'll sit down with the people
(00:45):
who actually made the cars to answer our questions about them.
Come along for the ride and you'll hear it all
the good, the bad, and the ugly and the way
that only Car and Driver delivers.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
On today's episode, we're talking about Lamborghini's Urticon Strado. The
Lamborghini Uricon Strato is version of the Uricon supercar that's
designed to leave the asphalt and play in the dirt
to get an Uricon. To do that, the suspension gets
a lyft to increase ground clearance. It rides on special
all terrain tires made just for the Strato, and there
are a number of other changes that make it playful
on unpaved roads. It remains a mid engine beast for
(01:17):
the six hundred two horsepower V ten, but unlike other Hurricans,
it prioritizes fun over racetrack lap times.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, this is a crazy car. We've seen off road
versions of sports cars before, so called Safari versions of
nine to eleven's actually, you know, dating back to the
eighties and the original Parie to car races, those portion
nine to fifty threes and nine to fifty nine's and
the beautiful Rothman's Livery. I mean, that's what made me
want to start smoking, was those Rothman's Livery cars.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
So this is not a new concept. It's coming from
an unexpected place. Despite their background in building tractors from
the beginning, Elmberginny also as the history of the L
two right, they also did some off road stuff, so
they know what the importance of being off road and
playing off road is all about. But making an Uricon
into an off roader was really I mean it's not
really an off roader, but like a car that's happy
(02:12):
to go onto dirt roads and play like a rally car.
Is I mean, at least for me, totally unexpected.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I blame the Dubai market, but it's pretty wild.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
I mean, you can just throw it into a dirt
road and there's no guilt, And it has the fender
flares of like a Subaru outback, and it's got some
special tires too, which are pretty cool that allow it
to do that. And you know, there's not really that
much of a trade off on road because the limits
of the car are so high. The performance is so great,
it's almost impossible to use all that performance of a
standard Uricon on the road. So dialing it back just
(02:45):
a little bit, you know, you're still driving a lot
faster than most cars can go.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I mean, Tony, is there ever any guilt in this
line of work? A dealer of used exotic cars once
told me the difference between a Ferrari owner and a
Lamborghini owner is that the Ferrari owner will have had
a car in mind for ten years. And this is
a guy who's paid off his mortgage. Totally responsible citizen
(03:11):
takes out his recycling every Sunday and he's plotted in
schemed to get this car. He might have to buy
a couple Californias to get it, but he's got a plan.
Whereas the Lamborghini guy fell into all this dough and
visa a Lamborghini the first one you can get, and
in eighteen months he's dead, broker in jail. So that's
(03:34):
sort of.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
So it feeds a healthy market of lightly used Lamborghinis,
I guess exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So that's the brand differentiation. But I will say, you know,
Lamborghini has become very professionalized in the time that Audi
has owned it.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, they've totally They've come such a long way.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Ends and the Uricon is really a fully realized lineup.
You know, there's four of them. It starts with the Technica,
then you've got the Evo Spider, then you have this Strato.
I'm going kind of in ascending order of price, and
at the top you have the Sto and all except
the Strato makes six hundred and thirty one horsepower. The Strato,
(04:14):
because of some of the air and take stuff, only
makes six hundred and two only. Oh that's funny, funny
for my purposes.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
But yeah, I mean the tires also limited to just
over one hundred and sixty miles an hour because they're
just that's how fast you can go apparently on all
terrain tires.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
And these are super cool Alterarin tires. They're bridge stones.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
They weren't that far off. I mean in terms of grip.
Most of the oroicons were tests that are one point
one g somewhere in there, and this was at point
ninety six. So it's not even that much off of that,
and that's more grip than you can probably comfortably use
on the road. So why do you think they're building
this car? Starrato means dirt road, Yeah, right, So why
do you think they're building this thing? I guess because
(04:53):
it's fun. I mean it also increases the We've often
talked about this like the bandwidth of cars. It increases
the band with this car, like you can drive it
as a daily driver, and the rides better. You've got
more ground clearance, you don't have to worry about when
you're going in and out of driveways, when you're going
you know, in and out of a gas station or something.
You don't have to worry about the taking it at
just the perfect angle. There's less to worry about with
(05:14):
this car, and that makes it a more pleasant car
to drive on a daily basis, even though you give
up some performance on the top, but that's performance that
you're probably just going to use on a racetrack anyway.
So as a road car, this is probably the best Oricon.
It's funny, it's like this is the craziest one. It
looks totally bizarre, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
It looks like a cross between one of those Liberty
Walk lambows and like one of the Angry Birds pigs,
you know, with those little led lights on the front.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
There's some super u there's some super in there for sure.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Out back wilderness. Yeah yeah, but in many ways it's
the sanest one because roads are terrible in this country.
It definitely improves the ride, and like you said, it's
kind of a more rugged supercar for this modern world.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
And looks wise, you don't give up anything because it's
still an uricon underneath. Sound Wise, you don't give up anything,
so the experience is almost exactly the same. You just
don't have those really really high limits of grip from
the other tires.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Yeah, but when are you really use it? When you're
ever going to exercise that. There's so much built and
capability in these cars and it's just perceived performance. Like,
no Lambeau driver is ever going to chuck this thing
into a turn and feel the point ninety six geese.
They might feel it briefly before the tree arrived, before
the tree arived, right yeah, I mean so it's all
(06:32):
kind of largely theoretical.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
And it's also the last V ten. It's the last
ten on the market. There's no other V tens.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
This is the sendoff naturally aspirated five point two liters
V ten. What an awesome thing it is. I mean, man,
they're all going away. Everything is turbo charged. Now everything
is downsized or electrified, So you lose that linearity of
the powertrain, you lose that super high character VT all
(07:00):
that intake noise, I know, you lose so much of that,
and and the exhaust too, exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
It's special. It feels like the last of something. And
the Serrato is kind of Lamborghini's exclamation point on the
Uricon brand, like we sort of did this model. It
was spectacular, and now we're doing this really silly, crazy
thing that turns out works really well on road.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
It's like the best one. Yeah, it's a I mean
a decade long run for the Uricon. That's amazing, because
supercars sort of age quickly, you know, they have a
quick sort of cell by date. But Lamborghini has done
a good job of keeping new versions, coming new variants.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
And keeping it relevant, just tweaking the style a little,
because I mean, if you see a Lamborghini on the road,
I still get a little weak in the knees like that.
That's completely like flat body basically. I mean, it's still
following the wedge plan from the late sixties early seventies
what a supercar looks like, and it still works.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
The Miura, you know, it's still I think the most
beautiful supercar of all time, transverse twelve cylinder in the
middle of the car, and it's so low and just
extreme looking. And then obviously the Kuntash that filed after it.
You know, Kuntash meaning holy shit in Italian or thereabouts.
And that's what these cars are supposed to do. They're
supposed to like grab you by the scruff of the neck.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you pay attention to Lamborghini's and you
certainly pay attention to this one. Yeah, it's a spectacular car.
It gets a ton of attention on the road too.
And this one's orange. This one's orange and it has
stripes on it. Are those strictly necessary? The stripes? Oh yeah,
you gotta have the stripes. You gotta have this. It's
got a sixty three on the on the hood too,
which commemorates the founding year of Lamborghini. It's not a
(08:34):
race thing at all, it's just it's.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Just starting now. I mean, they do get your attention.
They've stayed with that sort of angular stealth fighter styling,
and I think they've evolved it in a cool way.
There's a tremendous amount of visual interest in this car.
I don'd love to go look at it.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, let's go take a look.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Cool okay, man, I mean look at this thing.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
It's wild. What is this color?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
This color is Aurancio Sampto.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I think you might be able to get this on
a cross track. I don't know. It won't look it
won't look like this good. It's got to realize glow
to it. But I think this is a cross track call.
It's Xanthem orange.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
That cost that's only fourteen thousand dollars Okay, the options
on this car are insane. I mean the starting price
without destination delivery, which is two seventy three one seven
seven on this one, I mean on the Stato this
one is three hundred and eighty four thousand, three hundred
(09:39):
and ninety four dollars, so over one hundred thousand options
and for that you get a whole lot of bullshit.
You get okay, you get the delivery. The stripes on
the front.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Oh yeah, those are painted in, which is pretty nice.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Yeah, but is it seventeen thousand dollars?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I don't know, but I mean they probably had the
special painteds.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I mean, the visual impact of this car is undeniable.
You've got these big fender flares, you got the LED
lights in.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Front, you have this roof rack when the tires look
real knobby, I mean the wheels are I think the
wheels are a size down on the regular Uricon. Just
to give you a little bit more sidewall.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, it's a forty series tire front and back, a
bridge stone.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Dueler yeah to tire I got.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I mean, the whole impression is sort of like a
cop car for Mars.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, it does. It does have that vibe too, it
doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
And look there's a snorkel at the front.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Oh yeah, the snorkels borrow from the sto And I
guess the story is, you know, the air intakes on
the regular oricon are too low, so it might take
in too much dirt or gravel or water. The downside
is you can't see out the back of this thing,
like directly behind you. You can't see out the rear
view mirror. Is there a camera or no, there's no car,
so you're just on your side view mirrors only. Oh great,
Well it's that old Italian race car driver saying, you
(10:53):
know what's behind me doesn't matter. That's right.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
No one's gonna catch up with this thing. But I mean,
I really have. I'm having a problem with the the
stripes for seventeen grand. I don't think they add much
to it visually. In fact, I think they make it
look a little more kick Carl like.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
And the sixty three. What does that cost Eddie? The
sixty three?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I believe that is seven No, that's yeah, that's seventy
seventy four hundreds for that little piece of paint. Additional
lights on front twenty six hundred smartphone interface.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Oh yeah, they don't get that standard No. Thirty two
in basically every car for sale.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Right, a Nissan Versa.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Those floor mats in aluminum, fourteen hundred dollars. Okay, that's
totally worth it.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Dark chrome and carbon what is that just dark chrome
and carbon dashboard?
Speaker 1 (11:41):
I don't know, it must be yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Oh, the fire extinguis sure. Guess how much that is?
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Two hundred, three hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Nine hundred dollars. You know, I did the Lamborghini factor
in there, right, So they take one from the Italian
home depot.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
And the Lamborghini sticker on it presumably.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, and then charge ten times you'd pay there. So
that's your three hundred and eighty five thousand dollars Lamborghini
right there.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
I mean it looks lifted. I mean you can tell
the one point seven inches of ride height that this
has over the standard car. You can really tell that
that's there. Yeah, definitely, But it doesn't detract from the style.
It still looks still looks really cool, and it's still
ridiculous as low.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
And you know what's kind of cool about these fender
additional pieces is they sort of minimize the rear height
of the car visually, it just kind of shrinks it
all down. And in mid engine cars, that sort of
section or area between the tail edge of the door
and the rear wheel can look really big.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Piece and they're going to minimize that there. I think
that's what the Aztec designers, So that's what they claimed
about the cladding.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
That was for the mid engine as Yes.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Right of course it almost made it as a production
and just Pontiac went out of.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Business and from the back hotly smokes. I mean, look
at this with the exhaust shooting out the back, minimizing
the length of the runners.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
If you pop the engine compartment lid, Lamborghini still puts
on a show for the engine. Yeah, and it still
looks spectacular. It's not blocked by anything. There's no big
plastic shroud covering it. You just have the intake runners there,
it says Lamborghini.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Right, and it's fed through the top through that snorkel.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah. The ride height just makes it so that you
can drive this car, you know, up a driveway, perfect,
you can drive it in snow. This is the four
season Lamborghini.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Car, right, take it anywhere and the vacation.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
I mean the tires, the all season tread powdern it
doesn't good, it looks, and they're going to last a
lot longer than any other Lamborghini to that's true.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
The only thing is, I mean, how much room is
there in the front for not a lot. That's a backpack. Yeah,
that's like a notebook. Yeah that's small.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
I mean, this is such a cool concept. I hope
Lamborghini puts it on the rest of their cars.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
My little the Eurus is begging, URIs is begging for
it right there.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Off roader needs to be a Strato style off roader,
and that additional width really Yeah, they increase the front
track and the your track. Yeah, fender flares are always
a win.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
I agree, But I'm a chatt of the eighties exactly. Okay, well,
let's get.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
In and drive it. Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Oh god, let's squeeze it myself.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Endo, this.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Can't fire it up? Yeah? Okay, all right, Tony, can
you believe that we're getting paid right now? We're on
the breging clock and now we're.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
At the ten best routes where we do many of
our vehicle handling value.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Ready to properly exercise it. Take this thing through the
Chubba chetta checkane, that's.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Right, okay, the world famous, Right, let's do it. Oh yeah,
that sounds so sounds pretty good.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Holy shit, Oh my god, dude, oh my god.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah. You don't lose much acceleration versus the regular oricon
I mean, the engine response is there, is there and
around You're like, how is this a supercar?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
And then you get in You're like, oh, okay, that's
a supercar. You just have to make sure that we
don't get arrested.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
So the handling limits are still high enough for.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Public road driving. You can still go incredibly fast, but
you're still well within the limits of the car.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
It just does not beat you up. And this sort
of poses an existential question. Is it really a Lamborghini
if it doesn't make you suffer, if.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
There's no abuse to it? Yeah, I mean because the
kutash amazing car, beautiful car, important car historically, but it's
probably not something you always want to drive. You're probably
pretty relieved when you step out of it. And is
that bit of pain? I mean, I guess that ours
is a pain free Lamborghini. But then people have questioned
it's Lamborghini as too.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
It's moving around. Chassis is communicating beautifully with you. The
steering is actually you know, look it's not hydraulic assists.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
But it feels good. I mean, but it feels really good. Yeah,
I mean, it feels as good as any car on
the market today. There's nothing like that engine sound, naturally
aspirated V ten engine sound. It's just it's otherworldly. Let's
hear it a little bit and it reps to eighty
five hundred rpm, all five point two liters of it.
(16:35):
Switch it to sport mode and that opens up the
exhaust valve, so it's even louder. Oh nice, Okay, So.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
We have three modes strata which means straight right, sport,
which is sport.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
And then that dials in addition to making the car
a little louder, it dials back the stability control and
then puts a more aggressive shifting strategy for the automatic,
for the dual fletch automatic. And then you've got rally yes,
which is for the dirt. Oh it's okay, we'll save that.
That has its own special stability control programming which accounts for,
you know, the slipperiness of a gravel road, so you
(17:08):
can do some rally stuff. But still have a safety
net to catch you before you go flying off.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I mean the interior is really great in this thing.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
I spacious too, Yeah, like there's tons of foot room. Yeah,
this is totally comfortable. It looks great.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
You've got alcantara over everything.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Oh yeah, beautiful, worst.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Stitching, it's really cool.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Okay, that's a hundred. Let's not.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Anger the locals here.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Under kilometers already clear, Yeah, of course, totally legal.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
And you know you're sort of tempted to go faster
in this thing because of all the ride compliance. You're
not really worried about how much it's gonna wreck the car.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah, very true, and I'm sure that's true on dirt roads. Well,
let's find one. This is our street. Yeah, okay, I
can't wait to drive. Okay, let's do a swap here.
All right.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I'm gonna set it up for your tone, put it
in rally mode.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Excellent, and uh not even gonna turn it off. All right. Well,
thanks for giving up the wheel, Eddie.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Well it was tough to do, but for you anything,
it didn't take that much convincing.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
So here you are on a little dirt road off
of the ten bus loop. Okay, now, Tonyang. The ride,
it's crazy, It's like it's shocking. And also I feel well,
I feel a little bit of guilt, but I feel
a lot less guilt than if I was driving an
Uricon down this road.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Well, you definitely need the uh, the plastic protective film.
There's a good corner up here. It will be sluet sideways.
In the grand tradition of rally car driving.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I we'll see what we can do up here. Oh yeah, yeah,
kind of, lets you catch it. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Did these that pothole right in the middle of the
cars just it just doesn't care, doesn't care.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Wow, this is so amazing. Yeah, they all oil drive
just makes like no problem, and the altering tires just
work beautifully on this.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
And it just so expands the performance envelope of the
con you know.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
I mean, I wonder how many of the they're making
fourteen hundred and ninety nine of these fourteen how many
owners will actually drive them on a dirt road with
a little bit of anger. I wonder they're missing out
if they don't. I know, that's the whole point. Great
(20:14):
side slide.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
I mean you were looking through the side windows there
to go straight, but it's so for I mean.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
It's just it slides so easily and happily. Oh gently.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah, Fortunately there aren't as many corners as we'd like to. Oh,
look at the plume of dust coming out. Amazing. Be
interesting to see what Lamborghini does to as a follow
up to the Hurrican. It's supposed to be coming later
this year. Yeah, I mean it'll have some sort of
electrification to it, right as in a hybrid, sort of
(20:47):
performance hybrid way. But it remains to be seen if
it'll look as good, if it'll drive this well.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
This is a real high point for the brand. I
think this car lasted so long because it was so good.
But yeah, it's time is run out.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, this is a nice sendoff. They save the best
for last. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Hey did he know that you can sink your Apple
Watch to this car?
Speaker 1 (21:13):
No, I don't have an Apple Watch.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
And it'll give you a heart rate information, so if
you have a cardiac in farnction, it'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Well, it'll be due to the car. No entirely possible.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Oh man, this thing just loves to drift so good,
so good.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
It wants to go sideways. The steering is really nice.
I mean it's it's not exactly a light car. No,
it's like.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Thirty six twenty nine. I think this one is, but
sure feels light on its feet.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
And I let to point out that we wait that
because Lamborghini will put out these ridiculous dry numbers where
like it's like with the car ways on the Moon
on the second Tuesday of every month with no fluids
in it, and we actually weigh the cars. We fill
them up with gas and we weigh them so we
know exactly what they weigh, so we could see through
their bs. We're back on the asphalt. Now, excellent, I'll
(22:15):
take a couple of corners and see what this is like. Cool.
Let's just hear that.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Engine when we're time. Damn so good.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
The revs just built so quickly. The engine is just
completely unfazed by this car, Like zero effect on this thing.
It's almost like an electric car. But sounds like that.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
Oh yeah, the last of the V tens.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Long may it run? All right, let's pull over before
we get into any trouble.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Okay, sounds good. Yeah, we got away with our dignity
and our lives.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
That was fun. This is really fun. Great great Cardinally
four hundred. Would you buy one? I would buy one.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Well, that was amazing.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that chopper that we saw was
not related to what we did. I hope not.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
After the break, we'll be speaking with Lamborghini's chief technical officer,
Reuven Moore. He's the guy who signs off on these cars,
and he has a lot of cool things to say
about this one. Stay tuned, Welcome back to Car and
Drivers into Cars. Now we're sitting down with Lamborghini's chief
(23:49):
technical officer, Reuven Moore. Hi, Ruvin, thanks so much for
joining us. We want to talk a little bit about
the Urkan Strado as a sendoff for this incredible run
of V ten powered sports cars. Why did you decide
to go with sort of an off road rally inspired
(24:10):
version as the last version of Urakan instead of an
ultimate high performance car.
Speaker 6 (24:15):
First of all, let me answer in a more let
me say, general way. Lamborghini was in the past always
surprising the people, and therefore it fits perfectly general approach.
But I can also give you a little bit insights
about the basic idea of the Huracan Sterrato because it
was born really let me say, some years ago the idea.
(24:38):
We recognized that the Urus is the most fun to
drive on crevel road, how incredible it could be to
have cars in these conditions. We were very in love
with the old rally era, so also about cars like
the Lanchestrados. We were so excited about the outcome that
we said, okay, but we have to bring this also
to the market. So this was like the idea was born.
(25:01):
Now coming finally back to your original question, from my
point of view, it's also fitting perfectly as the last
version of our fantastic history of let me say of
the whole because it's the sense of driving fun, not
only on the racetrack and from the pure performance point
of view, but driving fun also in the sense of
(25:24):
playful character, achievable performance. Still a very fast car, but
a very playful car. For my vision, Lumbo is not
only about the pure performance. Lumbo is always about driver excitement,
driver involvement and the best in glass driving experience.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Do you foresee a rally or a Strato version becoming
a normal thing in either the Urakan successor lineup or
in the Rivolto's lineup? I mean, this is this something that
Lamborghini wants to continue pursuing in the future.
Speaker 6 (25:55):
I'm not saying that it's for sure never coming this.
I would also not exclude I can exclude that it's
a part of the standard line up, like performance oriented version,
because as I said, it's always a little bit about
surprising the people doing something different that the others are
not doing. More from the technical point of view, it
has to fit also to the character of the basic car.
(26:18):
If you have driven it, it's really like a clove
that is fitting to you and enables also to have
really driving fun, not only the racetrack but also in
the mountain road or something. And this is not possible
with every car concept.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Were there any internal fights to get this car made,
that's to say, were there any people within the company
that could not understand why you would want to make
an Urcan into an Urcan s Dorado. No, so unanimous.
It was a unanimous everybody got it right after bat
for sure.
Speaker 6 (26:49):
If you do it via PowerPoint, sometimes it's hard to
transport this kind of message, but we speak about emotions,
and emotions you cannot describe on the PowerPoint. But if
you bring all the relevant people, marketing colleagues, stakeholder does
all the decision. Make us to the car, you can
feel it, and therefore everyone was convinced.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
After this experience, I know another member of the group
does a similar car, the portion nine to eleven DA car,
and I was wondering if there was any sort of
cross pollination there between the teams. Did you call on Porsche?
It all for any expertise.
Speaker 6 (27:24):
To be honest, it was really one a percent only
by chance to pick. The cars were developed more or
less at the same time and also presented to the market.
I think with the time difference one month or something
like this, but this was not blend during the development.
There was also not a real exchange. For sure, we're
always in contact with the colleagues within the volks One group,
(27:45):
exchanging expertise and competence, but regarding the specific application, the
specific setup of the car, there was not an exchange
because our Straato project was a kind of undercover project.
It was not starting with the idea that was coming
as a request from the market, because this was a
kind of anticipation of something that could be cool. But
(28:08):
if you drive both cars, you will confirm that the
character of the cars is still different enough.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Ruven, is there a particular part of the Stato, which
you're particularly proud, Like every time you see it, touch it,
use it, you're like, wow, yes, I'm so glad that
that got in.
Speaker 6 (28:23):
What I really like is that we were able to
industrialize our basic idea because there were some challenges regarding
the tire. Development did really a super good job to
bring a tire on the market that was before simply
not available. The car is still fast on a standard track,
is still let me say, very easy to control. You
(28:45):
have also grip services. That we were able really to
transfer the basic idea to the serious production car. This
is something I'm super proud because the car is not
the show off case like some people might think that
I ever driven the car, because the car is much
more about additional over fenders or a little bit off style,
(29:07):
the off road style and all the things they were
coming later. The first thing was really the driveability, the
different setup philosophy, the different talk distribution, and all the
dynamics that I'm making this car so exciting.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Yeah, definitely, and our testing. I think it's the only
all terrain tire that's even gotten close to a G
and they go one hundred and sixty miles an hour.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
So what are you driving every day? Reuven? What is
your daily driver? Lamborghini.
Speaker 6 (29:33):
One nice part of my job is that I have
a lot of opportunities to drive our of a tastic product.
So I'm trying to drive not every day. It's also wrong,
but I'm driving a lot of different cars, you know,
because for me it's part of my job also to
have an understanding about all our product range. So starting
from the Urus, but also Steato. The last car I
(29:54):
was driving to the airport was a Strato by the way,
but also some competitor cars because it's that I have
also the personal feeding, the personal touching point about the
driveability of our competitors. This is part of being professional
and also understanding what is going around.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
How big of a bag could you fit into the Strata?
Speaker 6 (30:15):
It was at least sufficient for my cabin trolley that
I needed for this trip to US. And also this
was in this case.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Enough Okay, international travel, it's possible. In the Stererrado.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yeah, you mentioned all the Lamborghini automobiles you've driven, So
I've got to ask Mura or Kuntash or you're a
Mura person or you a Kuntash person.
Speaker 6 (30:36):
Even if some people now will hate me, but definitively
the Coon.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Touch excellent, that's the answer I would give.
Speaker 6 (30:45):
But to be honest, I mean, since I was born
seventy nine, so my favorite automotive that influenced me when
I was young is for sure the late eighties early nineties,
I have to say. So therefore the coon Touch, but
also the Arblow was something that was the poster in
my room in my parents' house. So the kon Dutch
(31:06):
for instance, probably you know the Hollywood movie Cannonball Run.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Of course, definitely some.
Speaker 6 (31:11):
Weeks ago I had the opportunity to drive exactly the
car of the movie, and this was something that I
had really goosebumps because I remember this was the first
time I can remember that I was in touch as
a child with Lamborghini because it was so cool movie
and even today I like a lort. Let me say
the opening scene with a black coon doudg. Therefore, I
(31:32):
can tell you this is something that I really loved.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
And I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention that
Cannonball Run before it was a movie, started as a
story in Current Driver. It started as a race across
the country. Yeah, Dan Gurney and Brociates in the three
sixty five Daytona Ferrari.
Speaker 6 (31:52):
I mean, this is incredible the story, to be honest,
it's part of autovotive culture. This is exactly what I'm
so fascinating by cars, because cars are generating this kind
of let me say, common experience. Even if this is
something that makes for my point of view, the automotive
culture so exceptional because there are only few pieces of you,
let me say, things that are generating this kind of
(32:14):
let me say memories. You know you will not probably
will not let me say, recognize a fridge or something
of the of the eighties. But the cars, I mean,
this is always something that you want to have and
that stays in your memories.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Speaking of which, what was your first car? You've had
some Lamborghini posters on the wall, but what was your
first car when you got your driver's license.
Speaker 6 (32:34):
My first car was for sure, far far away from
a lump from being a Lamborghini. My very first car
was a Ford Escort station wagon super less power or
low power car. But I had the opportunity at this
time to drive the car of my mom a lot
and she had a Pulsue two or five GTI one
point nine, and.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
This was for sure sweet at this time.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
And you know I was.
Speaker 6 (32:58):
Born close to the front of France, or in my
neighborhood there were a lot of French cars or Renuclio
Pugo two or five. Therefore, I was happy that at
least during the weekend I was allowed to drive it.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Love it. That's great.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah, that's a great car to borrow.
Speaker 6 (33:15):
Yeah, that's true, and even today it's a lot of
driving fund even if for sure from today purposes it's
not as fast, but the Ki is very light, the
car is let me say, very adri the Cai is
very direct, and it's very houristic compared to today's mainstream cars.
Let me formulate it in this week.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Yeah, it's analogy. You're right. This was great, Thank you, Reuvin.
Speaker 6 (33:36):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
That interview was brought to you by Ebaymotors. All the
parts you need at the prices you want. Visit ebaymotors
dot com for more.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
That's the most fun I've ever had in a Lamborghini,
and I've driven every Lamborghini made in the past twenty years.
I've driven Murcielago's Gayardo's Uricans eventa doors and the URIs
this is the wildest Lamborghini and that makes it the
most Lamborghini of the Lamborghinis.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Yes, well, said Tone. I mean it's as crazy as
anything these guys have ever produced, Kuntash included, but it's
way more drivable than anything. This nutty has a right
to be Hell, I'd buy one. Be sure to tune
in next week when we'll be taking a look at
the accurate integrat type s and talking with Accura product
(34:23):
planner Jonathan Rivers.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Early on in development had a very ulterior motive to
push our development engineers and they started benchmarking the M
two and all these cars that have these berbos and crackles,
and they're like, this is what people like, and I'm like, yes,
give us, give us lots of that.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Thank you for joining us for this first episode of
Car and Drivers Into Cars. If you enjoyed the show,
join us every week for new episodes, and don't forget
to rate and review wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
For more on the Lamborghini Uricon Sterrato, visit Car and
Driver dot com and be sure to pick up the
latest issue of Car and Driver magazine. Car and Drivers
Into Cars is a production of Car and Driver in
iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio. Our show is hosted by Eddie Alterman
and myself, Tony Kiroga. Our executive producer is Matt Romano.
Our EP of Post Production is Matt Stillo. Our Supervising
(35:13):
producer is Sierra Kaiser. This show was edited by Sierra
Spreen special thanks to our location sound recordist Matthew Cisco.
Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.
Hello, and welcome to the first episode of Car Drivers
Into Cars, a podcast from iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio, brought to
you by eBay Motors. I'm Tony ki Roger, the editor
in chief of Car and Driver, and I'm joined by
my co host, former editor in chief and current Chief
Brand and Content Officer, Eddie Alterman, and together We're Into Cars.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Each episode of this podcast covers a new car that
we think is worthy of your attention. The cars we
select may feature a novel design, cutting edge engineering, or
something entirely new. We'll cover the stories behind the cars,
answering the whys and exploring the whats to bring you
into the experience. We'll drive the things and let you
listen in, and then we'll sit down with the people
(00:45):
who actually made the cars to answer our questions about them.
Come along for the ride and you'll hear it all
the good, the bad, and the ugly and the way
that only Car and Driver delivers.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
On today's episode, we're talking about Lamborghini's Urticon Strado. The
Lamborghini Uricon Strato is version of the Uricon supercar that's
designed to leave the asphalt and play in the dirt
to get an Uricon. To do that, the suspension gets
a lyft to increase ground clearance. It rides on special
all terrain tires made just for the Strato, and there
are a number of other changes that make it playful
on unpaved roads. It remains a mid engine beast for
(01:17):
the six hundred two horsepower V ten, but unlike other Hurricans,
it prioritizes fun over racetrack lap times.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, this is a crazy car. We've seen off road
versions of sports cars before, so called Safari versions of
nine to eleven's actually, you know, dating back to the
eighties and the original Parie to car races, those portion
nine to fifty threes and nine to fifty nine's and
the beautiful Rothman's Livery. I mean, that's what made me
want to start smoking, was those Rothman's Livery cars.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
So this is not a new concept. It's coming from
an unexpected place. Despite their background in building tractors from
the beginning, Elmberginny also as the history of the L
two right, they also did some off road stuff, so
they know what the importance of being off road and
playing off road is all about. But making an Uricon
into an off roader was really I mean it's not
really an off roader, but like a car that's happy
(02:12):
to go onto dirt roads and play like a rally car.
Is I mean, at least for me, totally unexpected.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I blame the Dubai market, but it's pretty wild.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
I mean, you can just throw it into a dirt
road and there's no guilt, And it has the fender
flares of like a Subaru outback, and it's got some
special tires too, which are pretty cool that allow it
to do that. And you know, there's not really that
much of a trade off on road because the limits
of the car are so high. The performance is so great,
it's almost impossible to use all that performance of a
standard Uricon on the road. So dialing it back just
(02:45):
a little bit, you know, you're still driving a lot
faster than most cars can go.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I mean, Tony, is there ever any guilt in this
line of work? A dealer of used exotic cars once
told me the difference between a Ferrari owner and a
Lamborghini owner is that the Ferrari owner will have had
a car in mind for ten years. And this is
a guy who's paid off his mortgage. Totally responsible citizen
(03:11):
takes out his recycling every Sunday and he's plotted in
schemed to get this car. He might have to buy
a couple Californias to get it, but he's got a plan.
Whereas the Lamborghini guy fell into all this dough and
visa a Lamborghini the first one you can get, and
in eighteen months he's dead, broker in jail. So that's
(03:34):
sort of.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
So it feeds a healthy market of lightly used Lamborghinis,
I guess exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So that's the brand differentiation. But I will say, you know,
Lamborghini has become very professionalized in the time that Audi
has owned it.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, they've totally They've come such a long way.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Ends and the Uricon is really a fully realized lineup.
You know, there's four of them. It starts with the Technica,
then you've got the Evo Spider, then you have this Strato.
I'm going kind of in ascending order of price, and
at the top you have the Sto and all except
the Strato makes six hundred and thirty one horsepower. The Strato,
(04:14):
because of some of the air and take stuff, only
makes six hundred and two only. Oh that's funny, funny
for my purposes.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
But yeah, I mean the tires also limited to just
over one hundred and sixty miles an hour because they're
just that's how fast you can go apparently on all
terrain tires.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
And these are super cool Alterarin tires. They're bridge stones.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
They weren't that far off. I mean in terms of grip.
Most of the oroicons were tests that are one point
one g somewhere in there, and this was at point
ninety six. So it's not even that much off of that,
and that's more grip than you can probably comfortably use
on the road. So why do you think they're building
this car? Starrato means dirt road, Yeah, right, So why
do you think they're building this thing? I guess because
(04:53):
it's fun. I mean it also increases the We've often
talked about this like the bandwidth of cars. It increases
the band with this car, like you can drive it
as a daily driver, and the rides better. You've got
more ground clearance, you don't have to worry about when
you're going in and out of driveways, when you're going
you know, in and out of a gas station or something.
You don't have to worry about the taking it at
just the perfect angle. There's less to worry about with
(05:14):
this car, and that makes it a more pleasant car
to drive on a daily basis, even though you give
up some performance on the top, but that's performance that
you're probably just going to use on a racetrack anyway.
So as a road car, this is probably the best Oricon.
It's funny, it's like this is the craziest one. It
looks totally bizarre, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
It looks like a cross between one of those Liberty
Walk lambows and like one of the Angry Birds pigs,
you know, with those little led lights on the front.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
There's some super u there's some super in there for sure.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Out back wilderness. Yeah yeah, but in many ways it's
the sanest one because roads are terrible in this country.
It definitely improves the ride, and like you said, it's
kind of a more rugged supercar for this modern world.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
And looks wise, you don't give up anything because it's
still an uricon underneath. Sound Wise, you don't give up anything,
so the experience is almost exactly the same. You just
don't have those really really high limits of grip from
the other tires.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Yeah, but when are you really use it? When you're
ever going to exercise that. There's so much built and
capability in these cars and it's just perceived performance. Like,
no Lambeau driver is ever going to chuck this thing
into a turn and feel the point ninety six geese.
They might feel it briefly before the tree arrived, before
the tree arived, right yeah, I mean so it's all
(06:32):
kind of largely theoretical.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
And it's also the last V ten. It's the last
ten on the market. There's no other V tens.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
This is the sendoff naturally aspirated five point two liters
V ten. What an awesome thing it is. I mean, man,
they're all going away. Everything is turbo charged. Now everything
is downsized or electrified, So you lose that linearity of
the powertrain, you lose that super high character VT all
(07:00):
that intake noise, I know, you lose so much of that,
and and the exhaust too, exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
It's special. It feels like the last of something. And
the Serrato is kind of Lamborghini's exclamation point on the
Uricon brand, like we sort of did this model. It
was spectacular, and now we're doing this really silly, crazy
thing that turns out works really well on road.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
It's like the best one. Yeah, it's a I mean
a decade long run for the Uricon. That's amazing, because
supercars sort of age quickly, you know, they have a
quick sort of cell by date. But Lamborghini has done
a good job of keeping new versions, coming new variants.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
And keeping it relevant, just tweaking the style a little,
because I mean, if you see a Lamborghini on the road,
I still get a little weak in the knees like that.
That's completely like flat body basically. I mean, it's still
following the wedge plan from the late sixties early seventies
what a supercar looks like, and it still works.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
The Miura, you know, it's still I think the most
beautiful supercar of all time, transverse twelve cylinder in the
middle of the car, and it's so low and just
extreme looking. And then obviously the Kuntash that filed after it.
You know, Kuntash meaning holy shit in Italian or thereabouts.
And that's what these cars are supposed to do. They're
supposed to like grab you by the scruff of the neck.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you pay attention to Lamborghini's and you
certainly pay attention to this one. Yeah, it's a spectacular car.
It gets a ton of attention on the road too.
And this one's orange. This one's orange and it has
stripes on it. Are those strictly necessary? The stripes? Oh yeah,
you gotta have the stripes. You gotta have this. It's
got a sixty three on the on the hood too,
which commemorates the founding year of Lamborghini. It's not a
(08:34):
race thing at all, it's just it's.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Just starting now. I mean, they do get your attention.
They've stayed with that sort of angular stealth fighter styling,
and I think they've evolved it in a cool way.
There's a tremendous amount of visual interest in this car.
I don'd love to go look at it.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, let's go take a look.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Cool okay, man, I mean look at this thing.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
It's wild. What is this color?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
This color is Aurancio Sampto.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I think you might be able to get this on
a cross track. I don't know. It won't look it
won't look like this good. It's got to realize glow
to it. But I think this is a cross track call.
It's Xanthem orange.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
That cost that's only fourteen thousand dollars Okay, the options
on this car are insane. I mean the starting price
without destination delivery, which is two seventy three one seven
seven on this one, I mean on the Stato this
one is three hundred and eighty four thousand, three hundred
(09:39):
and ninety four dollars, so over one hundred thousand options
and for that you get a whole lot of bullshit.
You get okay, you get the delivery. The stripes on
the front.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Oh yeah, those are painted in, which is pretty nice.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Yeah, but is it seventeen thousand dollars?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I don't know, but I mean they probably had the
special painteds.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I mean, the visual impact of this car is undeniable.
You've got these big fender flares, you got the LED
lights in.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Front, you have this roof rack when the tires look
real knobby, I mean the wheels are I think the
wheels are a size down on the regular Uricon. Just
to give you a little bit more sidewall.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, it's a forty series tire front and back, a
bridge stone.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Dueler yeah to tire I got.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I mean, the whole impression is sort of like a
cop car for Mars.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, it does. It does have that vibe too, it
doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
And look there's a snorkel at the front.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Oh yeah, the snorkels borrow from the sto And I
guess the story is, you know, the air intakes on
the regular oricon are too low, so it might take
in too much dirt or gravel or water. The downside
is you can't see out the back of this thing,
like directly behind you. You can't see out the rear
view mirror. Is there a camera or no, there's no car,
so you're just on your side view mirrors only. Oh great,
Well it's that old Italian race car driver saying, you
(10:53):
know what's behind me doesn't matter. That's right.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
No one's gonna catch up with this thing. But I mean,
I really have. I'm having a problem with the the
stripes for seventeen grand. I don't think they add much
to it visually. In fact, I think they make it
look a little more kick Carl like.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
And the sixty three. What does that cost Eddie? The
sixty three?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I believe that is seven No, that's yeah, that's seventy
seventy four hundreds for that little piece of paint. Additional
lights on front twenty six hundred smartphone interface.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Oh yeah, they don't get that standard No. Thirty two
in basically every car for sale.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Right, a Nissan Versa.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Those floor mats in aluminum, fourteen hundred dollars. Okay, that's
totally worth it.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Dark chrome and carbon what is that just dark chrome
and carbon dashboard?
Speaker 1 (11:41):
I don't know, it must be yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Oh, the fire extinguis sure. Guess how much that is?
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Two hundred, three hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Nine hundred dollars. You know, I did the Lamborghini factor
in there, right, So they take one from the Italian
home depot.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
And the Lamborghini sticker on it presumably.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, and then charge ten times you'd pay there. So
that's your three hundred and eighty five thousand dollars Lamborghini
right there.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
I mean it looks lifted. I mean you can tell
the one point seven inches of ride height that this
has over the standard car. You can really tell that
that's there. Yeah, definitely, But it doesn't detract from the style.
It still looks still looks really cool, and it's still
ridiculous as low.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
And you know what's kind of cool about these fender
additional pieces is they sort of minimize the rear height
of the car visually, it just kind of shrinks it
all down. And in mid engine cars, that sort of
section or area between the tail edge of the door
and the rear wheel can look really big.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Piece and they're going to minimize that there. I think
that's what the Aztec designers, So that's what they claimed
about the cladding.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
That was for the mid engine as Yes.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Right of course it almost made it as a production
and just Pontiac went out of.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Business and from the back hotly smokes. I mean, look
at this with the exhaust shooting out the back, minimizing
the length of the runners.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
If you pop the engine compartment lid, Lamborghini still puts
on a show for the engine. Yeah, and it still
looks spectacular. It's not blocked by anything. There's no big
plastic shroud covering it. You just have the intake runners there,
it says Lamborghini.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Right, and it's fed through the top through that snorkel.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah. The ride height just makes it so that you
can drive this car, you know, up a driveway, perfect,
you can drive it in snow. This is the four
season Lamborghini.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Car, right, take it anywhere and the vacation.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
I mean the tires, the all season tread powdern it
doesn't good, it looks, and they're going to last a
lot longer than any other Lamborghini to that's true.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
The only thing is, I mean, how much room is
there in the front for not a lot. That's a backpack. Yeah,
that's like a notebook. Yeah that's small.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
I mean, this is such a cool concept. I hope
Lamborghini puts it on the rest of their cars.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
My little the Eurus is begging, URIs is begging for
it right there.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Off roader needs to be a Strato style off roader,
and that additional width really Yeah, they increase the front
track and the your track. Yeah, fender flares are always
a win.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
I agree, But I'm a chatt of the eighties exactly. Okay, well,
let's get.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
In and drive it. Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Oh god, let's squeeze it myself.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Endo, this.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Can't fire it up? Yeah? Okay, all right, Tony, can
you believe that we're getting paid right now? We're on
the breging clock and now we're.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
At the ten best routes where we do many of
our vehicle handling value.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Ready to properly exercise it. Take this thing through the
Chubba chetta checkane, that's.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Right, okay, the world famous, Right, let's do it. Oh yeah,
that sounds so sounds pretty good.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Holy shit, Oh my god, dude, oh my god.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah. You don't lose much acceleration versus the regular oricon
I mean, the engine response is there, is there and
around You're like, how is this a supercar?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
And then you get in You're like, oh, okay, that's
a supercar. You just have to make sure that we
don't get arrested.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
So the handling limits are still high enough for.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Public road driving. You can still go incredibly fast, but
you're still well within the limits of the car.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
It just does not beat you up. And this sort
of poses an existential question. Is it really a Lamborghini
if it doesn't make you suffer, if.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
There's no abuse to it? Yeah, I mean because the
kutash amazing car, beautiful car, important car historically, but it's
probably not something you always want to drive. You're probably
pretty relieved when you step out of it. And is
that bit of pain? I mean, I guess that ours
is a pain free Lamborghini. But then people have questioned
it's Lamborghini as too.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
It's moving around. Chassis is communicating beautifully with you. The
steering is actually you know, look it's not hydraulic assists.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
But it feels good. I mean, but it feels really good. Yeah,
I mean, it feels as good as any car on
the market today. There's nothing like that engine sound, naturally
aspirated V ten engine sound. It's just it's otherworldly. Let's
hear it a little bit and it reps to eighty
five hundred rpm, all five point two liters of it.
(16:35):
Switch it to sport mode and that opens up the
exhaust valve, so it's even louder. Oh nice, Okay, So.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
We have three modes strata which means straight right, sport,
which is sport.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
And then that dials in addition to making the car
a little louder, it dials back the stability control and
then puts a more aggressive shifting strategy for the automatic,
for the dual fletch automatic. And then you've got rally yes,
which is for the dirt. Oh it's okay, we'll save that.
That has its own special stability control programming which accounts for,
you know, the slipperiness of a gravel road, so you
(17:08):
can do some rally stuff. But still have a safety
net to catch you before you go flying off.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I mean the interior is really great in this thing.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
I spacious too, Yeah, like there's tons of foot room. Yeah,
this is totally comfortable. It looks great.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
You've got alcantara over everything.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Oh yeah, beautiful, worst.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Stitching, it's really cool.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Okay, that's a hundred. Let's not.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Anger the locals here.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Under kilometers already clear, Yeah, of course, totally legal.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
And you know you're sort of tempted to go faster
in this thing because of all the ride compliance. You're
not really worried about how much it's gonna wreck the car.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah, very true, and I'm sure that's true on dirt roads. Well,
let's find one. This is our street. Yeah, okay, I
can't wait to drive. Okay, let's do a swap here.
All right.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I'm gonna set it up for your tone, put it
in rally mode.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Excellent, and uh not even gonna turn it off. All right. Well,
thanks for giving up the wheel, Eddie.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Well it was tough to do, but for you anything,
it didn't take that much convincing.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
So here you are on a little dirt road off
of the ten bus loop. Okay, now, Tonyang. The ride,
it's crazy, It's like it's shocking. And also I feel well,
I feel a little bit of guilt, but I feel
a lot less guilt than if I was driving an
Uricon down this road.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Well, you definitely need the uh, the plastic protective film.
There's a good corner up here. It will be sluet sideways.
In the grand tradition of rally car driving.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I we'll see what we can do up here. Oh yeah, yeah,
kind of, lets you catch it. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Did these that pothole right in the middle of the
cars just it just doesn't care, doesn't care.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Wow, this is so amazing. Yeah, they all oil drive
just makes like no problem, and the altering tires just
work beautifully on this.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
And it just so expands the performance envelope of the
con you know.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
I mean, I wonder how many of the they're making
fourteen hundred and ninety nine of these fourteen how many
owners will actually drive them on a dirt road with
a little bit of anger. I wonder they're missing out
if they don't. I know, that's the whole point. Great
(20:14):
side slide.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
I mean you were looking through the side windows there
to go straight, but it's so for I mean.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
It's just it slides so easily and happily. Oh gently.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah, Fortunately there aren't as many corners as we'd like to. Oh,
look at the plume of dust coming out. Amazing. Be
interesting to see what Lamborghini does to as a follow
up to the Hurrican. It's supposed to be coming later
this year. Yeah, I mean it'll have some sort of
electrification to it, right as in a hybrid, sort of
(20:47):
performance hybrid way. But it remains to be seen if
it'll look as good, if it'll drive this well.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
This is a real high point for the brand. I
think this car lasted so long because it was so good.
But yeah, it's time is run out.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, this is a nice sendoff. They save the best
for last. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Hey did he know that you can sink your Apple
Watch to this car?
Speaker 1 (21:13):
No, I don't have an Apple Watch.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
And it'll give you a heart rate information, so if
you have a cardiac in farnction, it'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Well, it'll be due to the car. No entirely possible.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Oh man, this thing just loves to drift so good,
so good.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
It wants to go sideways. The steering is really nice.
I mean it's it's not exactly a light car. No,
it's like.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Thirty six twenty nine. I think this one is, but
sure feels light on its feet.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
And I let to point out that we wait that
because Lamborghini will put out these ridiculous dry numbers where
like it's like with the car ways on the Moon
on the second Tuesday of every month with no fluids
in it, and we actually weigh the cars. We fill
them up with gas and we weigh them so we
know exactly what they weigh, so we could see through
their bs. We're back on the asphalt. Now, excellent, I'll
(22:15):
take a couple of corners and see what this is like. Cool.
Let's just hear that.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Engine when we're time. Damn so good.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
The revs just built so quickly. The engine is just
completely unfazed by this car, Like zero effect on this thing.
It's almost like an electric car. But sounds like that.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
Oh yeah, the last of the V tens.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Long may it run? All right, let's pull over before
we get into any trouble.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Okay, sounds good. Yeah, we got away with our dignity
and our lives.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
That was fun. This is really fun. Great great Cardinally
four hundred. Would you buy one? I would buy one.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Well, that was amazing.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that chopper that we saw was
not related to what we did. I hope not.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
After the break, we'll be speaking with Lamborghini's chief technical officer,
Reuven Moore. He's the guy who signs off on these cars,
and he has a lot of cool things to say
about this one. Stay tuned, Welcome back to Car and
Drivers into Cars. Now we're sitting down with Lamborghini's chief
(23:49):
technical officer, Reuven Moore. Hi, Ruvin, thanks so much for
joining us. We want to talk a little bit about
the Urkan Strado as a sendoff for this incredible run
of V ten powered sports cars. Why did you decide
to go with sort of an off road rally inspired
(24:10):
version as the last version of Urakan instead of an
ultimate high performance car.
Speaker 6 (24:15):
First of all, let me answer in a more let
me say, general way. Lamborghini was in the past always
surprising the people, and therefore it fits perfectly general approach.
But I can also give you a little bit insights
about the basic idea of the Huracan Sterrato because it
was born really let me say, some years ago the idea.
(24:38):
We recognized that the Urus is the most fun to
drive on crevel road, how incredible it could be to
have cars in these conditions. We were very in love
with the old rally era, so also about cars like
the Lanchestrados. We were so excited about the outcome that
we said, okay, but we have to bring this also
to the market. So this was like the idea was born.
(25:01):
Now coming finally back to your original question, from my
point of view, it's also fitting perfectly as the last
version of our fantastic history of let me say of
the whole because it's the sense of driving fun, not
only on the racetrack and from the pure performance point
of view, but driving fun also in the sense of
(25:24):
playful character, achievable performance. Still a very fast car, but
a very playful car. For my vision, Lumbo is not
only about the pure performance. Lumbo is always about driver excitement,
driver involvement and the best in glass driving experience.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Do you foresee a rally or a Strato version becoming
a normal thing in either the Urakan successor lineup or
in the Rivolto's lineup? I mean, this is this something that
Lamborghini wants to continue pursuing in the future.
Speaker 6 (25:55):
I'm not saying that it's for sure never coming this.
I would also not exclude I can exclude that it's
a part of the standard line up, like performance oriented version,
because as I said, it's always a little bit about
surprising the people doing something different that the others are
not doing. More from the technical point of view, it
has to fit also to the character of the basic car.
(26:18):
If you have driven it, it's really like a clove
that is fitting to you and enables also to have
really driving fun, not only the racetrack but also in
the mountain road or something. And this is not possible
with every car concept.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Were there any internal fights to get this car made,
that's to say, were there any people within the company
that could not understand why you would want to make
an Urcan into an Urcan s Dorado. No, so unanimous.
It was a unanimous everybody got it right after bat
for sure.
Speaker 6 (26:49):
If you do it via PowerPoint, sometimes it's hard to
transport this kind of message, but we speak about emotions,
and emotions you cannot describe on the PowerPoint. But if
you bring all the relevant people, marketing colleagues, stakeholder does
all the decision. Make us to the car, you can
feel it, and therefore everyone was convinced.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
After this experience, I know another member of the group
does a similar car, the portion nine to eleven DA car,
and I was wondering if there was any sort of
cross pollination there between the teams. Did you call on Porsche?
It all for any expertise.
Speaker 6 (27:24):
To be honest, it was really one a percent only
by chance to pick. The cars were developed more or
less at the same time and also presented to the market.
I think with the time difference one month or something
like this, but this was not blend during the development.
There was also not a real exchange. For sure, we're
always in contact with the colleagues within the volks One group,
(27:45):
exchanging expertise and competence, but regarding the specific application, the
specific setup of the car, there was not an exchange
because our Straato project was a kind of undercover project.
It was not starting with the idea that was coming
as a request from the market, because this was a
kind of anticipation of something that could be cool. But
(28:08):
if you drive both cars, you will confirm that the
character of the cars is still different enough.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Ruven, is there a particular part of the Stato, which
you're particularly proud, Like every time you see it, touch it,
use it, you're like, wow, yes, I'm so glad that
that got in.
Speaker 6 (28:23):
What I really like is that we were able to
industrialize our basic idea because there were some challenges regarding
the tire. Development did really a super good job to
bring a tire on the market that was before simply
not available. The car is still fast on a standard track,
is still let me say, very easy to control. You
(28:45):
have also grip services. That we were able really to
transfer the basic idea to the serious production car. This
is something I'm super proud because the car is not
the show off case like some people might think that
I ever driven the car, because the car is much
more about additional over fenders or a little bit off style,
(29:07):
the off road style and all the things they were
coming later. The first thing was really the driveability, the
different setup philosophy, the different talk distribution, and all the
dynamics that I'm making this car so exciting.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Yeah, definitely, and our testing. I think it's the only
all terrain tire that's even gotten close to a G
and they go one hundred and sixty miles an hour.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
So what are you driving every day? Reuven? What is
your daily driver? Lamborghini.
Speaker 6 (29:33):
One nice part of my job is that I have
a lot of opportunities to drive our of a tastic product.
So I'm trying to drive not every day. It's also wrong,
but I'm driving a lot of different cars, you know,
because for me it's part of my job also to
have an understanding about all our product range. So starting
from the Urus, but also Steato. The last car I
(29:54):
was driving to the airport was a Strato by the way,
but also some competitor cars because it's that I have
also the personal feeding, the personal touching point about the
driveability of our competitors. This is part of being professional
and also understanding what is going around.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
How big of a bag could you fit into the Strata?
Speaker 6 (30:15):
It was at least sufficient for my cabin trolley that
I needed for this trip to US. And also this
was in this case.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Enough Okay, international travel, it's possible. In the Stererrado.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yeah, you mentioned all the Lamborghini automobiles you've driven, So
I've got to ask Mura or Kuntash or you're a
Mura person or you a Kuntash person.
Speaker 6 (30:36):
Even if some people now will hate me, but definitively
the Coon.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Touch excellent, that's the answer I would give.
Speaker 6 (30:45):
But to be honest, I mean, since I was born
seventy nine, so my favorite automotive that influenced me when
I was young is for sure the late eighties early nineties,
I have to say. So therefore the coon Touch, but
also the Arblow was something that was the poster in
my room in my parents' house. So the kon Dutch
(31:06):
for instance, probably you know the Hollywood movie Cannonball Run.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Of course, definitely some.
Speaker 6 (31:11):
Weeks ago I had the opportunity to drive exactly the
car of the movie, and this was something that I
had really goosebumps because I remember this was the first
time I can remember that I was in touch as
a child with Lamborghini because it was so cool movie
and even today I like a lort. Let me say
the opening scene with a black coon doudg. Therefore, I
(31:32):
can tell you this is something that I really loved.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
And I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention that
Cannonball Run before it was a movie, started as a
story in Current Driver. It started as a race across
the country. Yeah, Dan Gurney and Brociates in the three
sixty five Daytona Ferrari.
Speaker 6 (31:52):
I mean, this is incredible the story, to be honest,
it's part of autovotive culture. This is exactly what I'm
so fascinating by cars, because cars are generating this kind
of let me say, common experience. Even if this is
something that makes for my point of view, the automotive
culture so exceptional because there are only few pieces of you,
let me say, things that are generating this kind of
(32:14):
let me say memories. You know you will not probably
will not let me say, recognize a fridge or something
of the of the eighties. But the cars, I mean,
this is always something that you want to have and
that stays in your memories.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Speaking of which, what was your first car? You've had
some Lamborghini posters on the wall, but what was your
first car when you got your driver's license.
Speaker 6 (32:34):
My first car was for sure, far far away from
a lump from being a Lamborghini. My very first car
was a Ford Escort station wagon super less power or
low power car. But I had the opportunity at this
time to drive the car of my mom a lot
and she had a Pulsue two or five GTI one
point nine, and.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
This was for sure sweet at this time.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
And you know I was.
Speaker 6 (32:58):
Born close to the front of France, or in my
neighborhood there were a lot of French cars or Renuclio
Pugo two or five. Therefore, I was happy that at
least during the weekend I was allowed to drive it.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Love it. That's great.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah, that's a great car to borrow.
Speaker 6 (33:15):
Yeah, that's true, and even today it's a lot of
driving fund even if for sure from today purposes it's
not as fast, but the Ki is very light, the
car is let me say, very adri the Cai is
very direct, and it's very houristic compared to today's mainstream cars.
Let me formulate it in this week.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Yeah, it's analogy. You're right. This was great, Thank you, Reuvin.
Speaker 6 (33:36):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
That interview was brought to you by Ebaymotors. All the
parts you need at the prices you want. Visit ebaymotors
dot com for more.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
That's the most fun I've ever had in a Lamborghini,
and I've driven every Lamborghini made in the past twenty years.
I've driven Murcielago's Gayardo's Uricans eventa doors and the URIs
this is the wildest Lamborghini and that makes it the
most Lamborghini of the Lamborghinis.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Yes, well, said Tone. I mean it's as crazy as
anything these guys have ever produced, Kuntash included, but it's
way more drivable than anything. This nutty has a right
to be Hell, I'd buy one. Be sure to tune
in next week when we'll be taking a look at
the accurate integrat type s and talking with Accura product
(34:23):
planner Jonathan Rivers.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Early on in development had a very ulterior motive to
push our development engineers and they started benchmarking the M
two and all these cars that have these berbos and crackles,
and they're like, this is what people like, and I'm like, yes,
give us, give us lots of that.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Thank you for joining us for this first episode of
Car and Drivers Into Cars. If you enjoyed the show,
join us every week for new episodes, and don't forget
to rate and review wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
For more on the Lamborghini Uricon Sterrato, visit Car and
Driver dot com and be sure to pick up the
latest issue of Car and Driver magazine. Car and Drivers
Into Cars is a production of Car and Driver in
iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio. Our show is hosted by Eddie Alterman
and myself, Tony Kiroga. Our executive producer is Matt Romano.
Our EP of Post Production is Matt Stillo. Our Supervising
(35:13):
producer is Sierra Kaiser. This show was edited by Sierra
Spreen special thanks to our location sound recordist Matthew Cisco.
Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.
Hosts And Creators
Eddie Alterman
Tony Quiroga
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