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Celebrating Ferruccio Lamborghini's 100th birthday

A tremendous thorn in Ferrari's side was born 100 years ago today. His name was Ferruccio Lamborghini, and today his company's cars are among the wildest and most desirable on the market. While the people of Sant'Agata Bolognese are probably raising several glasses of vino to Mr. Lamborghini, Hemmings has put together a great read on the man behind the brand. Lamborghini's start in the auto industry is the stuff of legend. Unsatisfied with the cars he bought from Ferrari and infuriated after being snubbed by the company's founder, Enzo, Lamborghini added an eponymous auto manufacturer to his tractor-building efforts. The Hemmings piece chronicles this feud, but digs far deeper into the brand's early days. Did you know part of the reason Lamborghini founded his company in Sant'Agata was because of the absolutely killer deal the local government cut with the company's founder? Seriously, the government gave out interest-free loans and exemptions from corporate taxes for its first ten years. Not a bad deal. From hiring Giotto Bizzarrini to design the company's early V12 engines to the debut of the iconic Miura, there's a lot of information here about the man and the company he built, going up until the 1970s, when he sold his shares and retired at just 58 years of age. Head over to Hemmings for the full read. Related Video:

2016 Lamborghini Huracan LP 580-2 First Drive [w/video]

The most enjoyable – not necessarily the "best" or "fastest" – driving machines permit latitude with their exactitude, using ruthless precision to support a driver's personal style instead of smother it. Very few cars get it right. The Porsche 911 GT3 is one that does. Add the Lamborghini Huracan LP 580-2 – the new rear-wheel drive variant of the all-wheel drive Huracan LP 610-4 – to the short list. To get a sense of how the rear-drive car stacks up, let's revisit our impressions of the all-wheel version. We drove the LP 610-4 at Laguna Seca back in May for the brand's Intensivo driving school, and two idiosyncracies stood out. The first is that it ticked around corners like the second hand on a watch. That's great for an autocross, pivoting through cones like a Tron lightcycle. But on a circuit, you want the freedom to find your own best way to move the machine around the track, and the all-wheel-drive Huracan won't relent on its commitment to ultimate precision. You aim at grace but you get mechanics – a robot trying to follow your instructions for dancing the Tarantella. The second peculiarity was that it squirmed under heavy braking, coming down from triple-digit speeds into a hairpin like a bull shaking off a swarm of flies. The timed run from 0-62 miles per hour is just 0.2 seconds slower than the 610-4. The LP 580-2 is the prescription to cure both symptoms. As the name attests, output drops from 602 horsepower to 572 hp and torque is reduced from 413 pound-feet to 398 lb-ft, all of it sent to the rear wheels. The timed run from 0-62 miles per hour is just 0.2 seconds slower than the 610-4. No mere devaluation of potency, engineers remapped the 5.2-liter V10's power and torque delivery so it's different from the AWD version. Power delivery is further differentiated between the 580-2's manual and automatic shifting, and it feels more linear when you're working the paddles. You need a fetish for grilles to spot the variance between this car and the all-wheel drive version. Designers reworked the strakes on the lower front intake and removed the hexagonal mesh ornamentation, so you peer straight at radiators. The corners of a larger rear grille cut deeper into the bumper. The badge ahead of the rear wheels says, "LP 580-2." The standard 19-inch wheels are of a new design called "Kari." Those are the visual differences. The cabin is identical.

2016 Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 Spyder First Drive

Convertibles get a bad rap when it comes to performance cars. Once, a lack of a roof meant extra performance. Now it means added weight and loss of structural rigidity. This stigma even applies to supercars, maybe more so. In the case of Lamborghini, the Huracan LP 610-4 Spyder is the "lifestyle" version. Which is silly, but doesn't diminish the appeal. Essentially, the Spyder is a Huracan with a fabric roof. Same 602-horsepower V10 inches behind the cabin, same hybrid aluminum-and-carbon-fiber construction, and same all-wheel-drive (though updated across the line for 2016). The performance compromise is a mere one mile per hour drop in top speed, and two-tenths of a second slower claimed 0-62 mph time of 3.4 seconds. (We suspect this is generously slow, to protect the egos of coupe owners). All told, the Spyder adds about 220 pounds in curb weight versus the coupe (Italian "dry" weight numbers are notoriously optimistic, so take the 3,650-pound Spyder claim with a grain of salt). The aerodynamic management on the Spyder is so good that the 201-mph top speed is valid with both the top up and retracted. In detail, the conversion in making the Huracan convertible is extensive. The roof itself is three layers of fabric, with a middle rubberized ply to cut down on interior noise. The design brief was to maintain the Huracan's hexagons-gone-wild theme with the top up and down. Spend 17 seconds waiting for the fully automatic top to lower, and the shape retains the coupe's motif. Part of the top's electronic ballet is a pair of flaps that extend out to preserve the shape of the B-pillar. Those flaps also feature narrow slits that smooth the wind along the side of the car, reducing turbulence near the driver's and passenger's ears. Additional side deflectors keep more wind away from your head. And with the top down the rear window's maximum height is restricted to prevent it from catching air. The aerodynamic management on the Spyder is so good that the 201-mph top speed is valid with both the top up and retracted. Suck on that, coupe aficionados. The Huracan's performance is so ridiculous that few can explore the margin between the two bodystyles. In any case, we didn't get much chance to stretch the Huracan's legs on our press drive in Miami, due a torrential downpour and the fact that South Florida is a terrible place for driving. Maybe that's where the "lifestyle" portion comes in, because Miami is a fantastic town for flaunting wealth.