Lamborghini Huracan Evo Fluo Capsule review: get ready to rumble

This latest iteration of Lamborghini’s Huracan supercar looks crazy, sounds like thunder — and goes like lightning.

Bonkers: the Lamborghini Huracan Evo Fluo Capsule

Parked atop a heavenly mountain, enlivened by a quasi-religious, out-of-body (or at least out-of-town) experience, I find myself in a confessional mood. If you are a police officer reading this, please turn away now.

Here’s the thing: I’m not really what you’d call a car fanatic, and the privations of the pandemic have only made this clearer. I have a lot of respect for the bloke up the road with his bum crack showing as he beavers away under the hood of an old car he is restoring, but honestly, I’d rather cut off my hands than get them all oily working on an engine.

I find the technology in cars interesting in a geeky, nerdy sense, and I really enjoy the work of car designers, who I think are under-recognised as artists wielding crayons in a very difficult and competitive format. But while I often get stuck doing it, I don’t really love talking about cars that much.

What I love, and what really hit me in the past few months during lockdown when I wasn’t allowed to do it, is driving. I used to love riding motorcycles even more, partly for the extra danger – I think there’s something wrong with the endorphin centres of my brain – but also because it was so physical, and invigoratingly involving, that it made me froth with excitement.

This year, I went several months without exceeding a speed limit, or even 80km/h, and it’s safe to say that has not happened since I was 17 (I blame all the fast cars, obviously, although this excuse is yet to wash with the constabulary). So when the chance finally arrived to escape the bounds of my city and its 60km/h limits, I was most fortunate to be given the perfect vehicle for reacquainting myself with my deep love of driving “spiritedly”: a Lamborghini Huracan Evo Fluo Capsule in Verde Shock, which sounds like a headline from an Italian tabloid about a drug overdose, and looks like an exploding star has somehow been slapped onto the violently sexy shape of a supercar. Yes, in the flash, sorry flesh, it hurts your eyes to look at, but you can’t really see all that wild “fluo” green from the inside (I’m sure it’s yellow, personally, but perhaps it’s like standing too close to the sun and my eyes are damaged).

Another thing I must admit is that, after so long, I felt a little frightened of driving something with a 5.2-litre V10 engine and the ability to hit 100km/h in 2.9 seconds. People often ask whether cars like this are intimidating to drive, but I’d been so spoilt that I’d forgotten. And yes, it turns out, they are.

From the rear

The noise is scary enough on its own, as every touch of the throttle in Sport mode produces deafening explosions and raucous roars that shout Arrest me, I am breaking several laws at once. I had also forgotten how hard-riding a car like this is on public roads (it’s perfect on a race track), and how stupidly firm its seats are – like sitting on the knee of someone who really doesn’t like you and is using their elbows to show it. The trundle out along the freeway to my favourite stretch of road was almost a chore.

But then I was there, back on a familiar, fabulous collection of corners, rising and twisting around a mountainside with open-cut rock walls that are just made for magnifying exhaust sounds. At first it was scary, like a batsman facing a fast bowler in the nets after a few enforced months off – everything just seemed to happen too quickly. But gradually, it all came back to me: how hard you can hit the brakes, how carefully you need to caress the throttle. And just how fast Lamborghinis are.

And then I was in nirvana – the savage suction of gravity through a corner taken at pace, the punch in the coccyx when the engine pushes you out the other side, the g-forces squashing your kidneys into your hips, the grunting and grinning, and the fabulous feel through your fingertips of properly awesome supercar steering (all-wheel steering in the case of this Lambo, which is freakishly good).

Yes, this latest and brightest iteration of the Huracan has its flaws – you can’t see anything behind you (it’s probably just a blur of faces in open-mouthed shock), the multi-media system is impenetrable and you can’t hear the stereo anyway because the engine is too loud – but, for once, I didn’t notice any of them. What this Lamborghini delivers, probably more than any of the slightly softer or more stupidly powerful V12 versions, is an amazing level of driving enjoyment. It was just what I needed.

I have to confess, however, that as much as I love it, I would struggle to spend $571,475 – plus speeding fines – on one.

Lamborghini Huracan Evo Fluo Capsule

ENGINE: 5.2-litre V10 (470kW/600Nm). Average fuel 16.4 litres per 100km TRANSMISSION: 7-speed dual-clutch automatic, all-wheel drive

PRICE: $571,475

STARS: ★★★★½