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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.

Ferruccio Lamborghini's life to be chronicled in new film

A new movie is in the works to chronicle the life and times of Ferruccio Lamborghini. The biopic, currently in development under the working title Lamborghini – the Legend, is being undertaken by Italian-Canadian producer Andrea Iervolino though his studio Ambi Group. Shooting for the film is said to begin in Italy this summer. According to Variety, the film will follow the career of the Lamborghini founder born a century ago, from his start building agricultural tractors, through the manufacturing of military equipment during the Second World War, the establishment of his supercar company in 1963, and on to his passing in 1993. Ferruccio sold both of his companies in 1972, with the automaker passing through several hands (including Chrysler's) before the Volkswagen Group bought it in 1999 – several years after the founder's passing – through its subsidiary Audi. Ferruccio's son Tonino Lamborghini, who runs a designer merchandise company, is reportedly consulting on the film's production. The producer Andrea Iervolino is an Italian filmmaker based in Toronto. He's undertaken a couple of projects with Al Pacino, including the 2004 movie adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and 2014's The Humbling. He also co-produced this year's Septembers of Shiraz starring Adrien Brody and Salma Hayek. He and the Ambi Group he co-founded with Lady Monika Bacardi currently have several projects in post-production, including a film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel In Dubious Battle starring James Franco, Bryan Cranston, Ed Harris, and Robert Duval. Ferruccio's nemesis Enzo Ferrari is similarly said to be the subject of two films under development – one starring Robert De Niro, and another featuring Christian Bale. There's also a project being undertaken in New Zealand to document the life of Bruce McLaren. The bottom line is that the year ahead looks like it'll be a good one for films about the founders of racing teams and supercar manufacturers. Related Video:

2019 Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster First Drive Review: Refined bull

It fires up the same way as the fixed-roof coupe, via a missile launcher-style shield hiding a small hexagonal Start button. With a firm press the starter whirs as fuel dumps into all 12 cylinders, igniting 6.5 liters of air and gasoline in a riot of internal combustion. But with its roof off, the $460,247 Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster stirs to life with an incrementally different auditory punch, a cascade of deep, raspy notes pours more clearly out of the enormous exhaust pipes and into the snug cabin. Sound connoisseurs may notice the more mechanical whirs of valvetrain seeping into the cockpit, but we suspect the vast majority of Aventador S Roadster buyers are here for the sun – no doubt the reason Lamborghini organized this particular test-drive in Malibu, Calif. Our tester awaits with its twin carbon-fiber roof panels stowed in the nose, a rather convenient state because, as memory serves from our first-generation Aventador Roadster, the lid removal process requires a fairly awkward dance. Climbing inside is a considerably easier task when this Lambo is opened up to the elements. There's no head-ducking or awkward sliding, though once settled you will struggle for a place to stow your cell phone. Apart from the shallow glove box there are no other storage compartments, just a tiny USB/12-volt outlet beneath a flip-up lid that's barely big enough to hold a key fob. At least a small concession to convenience comes in the form of a removable cupholder mounted on the passenger side of the center console. When the massive V12 stirs to life, any concerns about practicality quickly fade away. The S Roadster gains the same improvements made to the S coupe, among them smoother suspension and improved aerodynamics (more downforce or less drag, depending on spoiler settings), the addition of four-wheel steering and a 38-horsepower gain, for a total of 729 hp. Also welcome is the ability to independently control suspension, steering and engine modes in what Lamborghini dubs the EGO setting. That said, it's all but impossible to ignore the human ego when rolling through town in an al fresco Lamborghini: The pointy two-seater cuts through traffic like a blade, leaving a wake of camera phone-wielding gawkers and swivel-necked onlookers fixated on its origami edges. But more crucially to those who care more about driving than posing, the updated Lambo delivers a palpably different left-seat experience compared with the first-gen Roadster.