Of the three The Grand Tour hosts, Richard Hammond is arguably the most sensible of them. He rarely dives into hyperboles, and his criticisms always come from a fair point of view. That was the case when he admitted to being underwhelmed by the Lamborghini Huracan because, in his mind, Lambo compromised the Huracan’s soul by developing in the name of sales volume. A few years and a new car show later, Hammond once again found himself in the seat of a Huracan, except this time, it was the all-conquering Huracan Performante.

On the surface, the Huracan Performante doesn’t stand head and shoulders above its standard counterpart. Hammond notes that it only has an extra of 20 horsepower and 30 pound-feet of torque over the standard model. It’s hard to justify spending £50,000 ($70,000) on a car with incremental power gains. But judging the Huracan because of its extra power is like judging the taste of a cake by sampling the frosting on top. There’s more to the Huracan Performante than what the numbers show. Hammond found that out quickly when he pushed the pedal down. The ear-piercing roar coming out of the new exhaust is the sound a proper Lamborghini makes.

All the gaudy numbers and lap time records the Huracan Performante has - it’s currently the king among production cars at the Nurburgring Nordschleife — doesn’t paint the entire picture of what it feels like to actually experience the car. Once a skeptic, Hammond had nothing but praise for the Huracan Performance, claiming that the Huracan Performante is what the standard Huracan should’ve been all along. It’s a fair point, one that’s hard to argue against.

References

Lamborghini Huracan

Read our full review on the 2017 Lamborghini Huracan Performante.

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