2016 Lamborghini Huracan LP 580-2 Review

Doha, Qatar — Thwack, thwack! Chunks of rubber fly off the track and smack the windshield as the speed indicator shows 160 mph. No damage, though, and I continue to follow race driver Giacomo Barri into the braking zone, paddling away at the dual-clutch transmission — ziiing, pop-pop, ziiing pop-pop — through fifth gear, fourth, third, exhaust crackling. Easing off the mighty brakes, we turn hard right, and the sticky Pirellis grip. Then from the apex to beyond the exit, the throttle helps to direct the nose, the chassis is always on alert to the imminence of oversteer.

Whereas the LP 610-4 clocks faster laps, it sometimes feels robotic and is prone to understeer. On the other hand, at the Losail International Circuit, the 3.3-mile, 16-turn course 15 miles north of the huge construction site otherwise known as Doha, the LP 580-2 exhibits a caffeinated, bright-eyed quality, like the student who always asks for extra credit. We could easily induce oversteer, correct it, and continue on our merry, storming way. And even on Losail’s pit road — which looked almost identical to the one at Circuit de la Sarthe — the V-10’s strep-throat growl authenticated our achievement. Completing these hot laps required cunning and reflexes, and we managed it without a slurping turbocharger or unduly influential electronics.

Wait a minute. Had I really driven the newest Lamborghini on a racetrack in Qatar? Fantasies come true on this secondary peninsula of 4,247 square miles that juts from the vast Arabian Peninsula into the Persian Gulf. At the start of World War II, Doha’s 12,000 inhabitants lived in fly-infested, mud-brick houses and longed for the good old days of pearl diving. Today, after oil and gas development, native Qataris now number about 225,000, with another 1.5 million or so European and American managers, English-speaking Filipinos working in hospitality, and Pakistanis and Sudanese holding shovels and loading bricks by hand onto flatbed trucks.

Qataris live in glass towers and behind walls of villas, most of which affect postmodern Arabic style in the same way that new buildings in Santa Fe affect the Pueblo vernacular. Encountering a perfumed Qatari in his long white thob in the lobby of the Four Seasons, I learned not to expect acknowledgement. Otherwise, Doha has a familiar feeling down to the McDonald’s inside the City Center mall. And traffic looks like that of West Los Angeles except for the lack of Teslas and Priuses and the abundance of Land Cruisers.

Qatar is where a young princeling who loves cars can decide to come to America and buy an NHRA team. That’s how Khalid bin Hamad Al-Thani was dubbed drag racing’s “patron sheik” in 2009. Taking its name from the Qataris’ cheer of “Go Team Maroon,” a reference to the maroon-and-white national flag, Al-Anabi Racing spent lavishly to support Alan Johnson Racing; the combination won three Top Fuel championships but few hearts. “I know they were getting a lot of heat from the fans,” said the sport’s legendary Don “The Snake” Prudhomme. “It didn’t put a smile on my face and really didn’t do anything for NHRA. If he was spending the $50 million on me, I’d feel a little different about it.”

Sheikh Khalid pulled support from Al-Anabi Racing just before the 2015 season. Yet his sporting pursuits were only stuck in neutral. On June 23, having heard of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb for the first time, he called up race chairman Tom Osborne asking to participate. As if he’d rubbed a magic lantern, his wish was granted. “He flew in the next day and brought his folks,” Osborne told a local newspaper. By “folks” he meant a full retinue who bombed through Colorado Springs in Porsches.

Qatar has produced other motorsports figures, but Sheikh Khalid’s prodigality has even managed to overshadow countryman Nasser Al-Attiyah, who in 2015 won his second Dakar Rally.

Nowadays, Al-Anabi Racing is active in the Arabian Drag Racing League’s events staged at the Qatar Racing Club facility just beyond Doha’s industrial area. Coming up that weekend was the National Day 4×4 and Stunt Driving Event. It would send up big clouds of tire smoke in tribute to Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed Al-Thani’s 1878 unification of Qatari tribes.

Doha now made sense for the press launch of the LP 580-2. What an automotive culture: drags, drifting, sand buggies, and of course track days at Losail are all within 30 minutes of the Corniche. Anyone with the hankering could go to Lamborghini Doha, located in Al Muftah Plaza. First opened in 2004, the sales point was upgraded in 2007; Automobili Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann stood by at the ceremony as dealer principal Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Hamad bin Mohammed Al-Thani said, “Lamborghini remains the epitome of performance, exclusivity, and luxury, and Qatar is one of the most dynamic and wealthy countries in the Middle East.”

When Winkelmann is back at headquarters in Sant’Agata Bolognese, he samples the latest prototypes. As such, he had a small hand in development of the LP 580-2. “I’m not an extreme driver; I’m the fastest of the slow,” he said, extolling the new car’s “controllability, rawness, and excitement.” He acknowledged Lamborghini’s brand characteristics include naturally aspirated engines, extreme design, and all-wheel drive. “We are the only supersports car manufacturer that is doing four-wheel-drive cars. But this doesn’t mean we’re unable to do what the others are doing, and to do it even better.”

Indeed, the LP 580-2 drives into a corner on the edge of Chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s sushi knife, points the way out like a vizsla hunting dog, and delivers big grins during countersteering. The Ferrari 488 GTB and McLaren 570S make more power with smaller, turbocharged V-8s, but the boost can be overwhelming, and they lack the V-10’s thrilling, high-rpm shriek. On the mean streets of Beverly Hills or main straight of Losail, the new Lambo strikes its own sweet note.