Lamborghini Huracán EVO Spyder Spices Up Lambo's Open-Top Onslaught At Geneva

TopSpeed

By Michael Fira

Published Mar 5, 2019

The Huracan Evo loses its head but none of its power

The Geneva Auto Show with its early Spring date is the ideal place for automakers to showcase the cars that will be on everyone's lips this summer. Case in point: Lamborghini. The supercar maker from Sant'Agata Bolognese brings to the Swiss show not one but two offerings that are bound to mess up your hair and make you hard of hearing for a few days: the Aventador SVJ Roadster and this one, the Huracan Evo Spyder.

Lamborghini is no longer a company satisfied with making cars that are fast in a straight line but that will, otherwise, try to endanger your health. Ever since Ferrari started putting out flawless car after flawless car, Lambo's been upping its game significantly too. Last year, the floor of the Geneva Auto Show was graced by the Huracan Performante Spyder and the Evo is simply a Performante that decided to double down on its dose of steroids. It also shares the Performante's restyled face with some tweaks.

Has anyone gotten tired of green Lamborghinis yet? Not us!

It's barely been a couple of months since Lamborghini treated us with the Huracan Evo in fixed-head form and, now, the one that carries a soft top is here just in time for the warm weather. Just like the coupe, the spyder drops the company's alphanumerical designation that's been around since the original Gallardo for marketing purposes but, happily for us, doesn't drop any of the many ponies nestled under the midship hood of the coupe.

The source of all of the mayhem is still Lamborghini's 5.2-liter V-10 mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission with a number of shifting modes to choose from via the Anima interface. Although it weighs 265 pounds more than the 3,135 pounds of the coupe, the spyder can still go fro 0 to 62 mph in 3.1 seconds and from 0 to 124 mph in just 9.3 seconds on its way to a top speed of 202 mph.

Those are some respectable numbers from a car that's pegged back by its electrohydraulic soft top that can be raised or lowered in just 17 seconds as long as you don't exceed 31 mph. However, when you pit it against Ferrari's finest - the 488 Pista Spider - the Lamborghini doesn't seem all that menacing. The Prancing Horse launched last year blasts down the road thanks to the Pista Coupe's 3.9-liter, twin-turbocharged, V-8 mill capable of 711 horsepower and 568 pound-feet of torque. The added 70-odd horsepower help the Pista Spider reach 62 mph from a standstill in 2.85 seconds and 0 to 124 mph takes a blistering 8.0 seconds, 1.3 seconds quicker than the Lambo but also 0.4 seconds slower than the always-enclosed 488 Pista Coupe. Oh, and, somehow, the 488 Pista Spider is actually 11 pounds lighter than the coupe tipping the scales at 3,042 pounds, a whole reindeer lighter than the Huracan Evo Spyder.

So, we know that the fastest baby Lambo ready for your cruise to the Mediterranean isn't beating the benchmark Ferrari in this segment (on paper) but, at least, it beats the older 'quickest' Huracan and the quickest Gallardo, right? Well, sort of. The Performante Spyder brings to the table nine fewer ponies and just as many torques. What is more, it also needs 3.1 seconds to reach 62 mph and the 0 to 124 mph sprint takes an identical amount of time too. However, it does decimate the Gallardo LP570-4 Spyder Performante with its 570 horsepower at 8,000 rpm 398 pound-feet of torque at 6,500 rpm.

That's because the Performante is priced at $308,859, almost $35,000 more than a standard Huracan Spyder that lacks 29-horsepower and 18-pound-foot of torque in comparison and, get this, little over $20,000 more expensive than the $287,400 Evo Spider!

Simply put, the Evo Spider is quite the bargain although that price doesn't include taxes but the same applies to the Performante's recommended price tag. If you want the superior Ferrari, you'll have to pay over $60,000 more or as much as a somewhat well-equipped Mercedes C-Class, BMW 3 Series, or Audi A4.