Lamborghini leaves the door open to more off-road specials
Off the back of the success of the Huracan Sterrato, Lamborghini hasn’t ruled out offering more jacked-up, off-road ready models.
When Lamborghini launched the Huracan Sterrato in 2022, it felt like there was a new movement in the automotive industry, with a renewed focus on off-road capabilities – even for some of the fastest on-road vehicles.
By jacking up the supercar, giving it knobbly tyres, roof racks and other gear better suited to a rally raid machine, Lamborghini moved away from its traditional base of on-road excellence, and it worked.
At roughly the same time, Porsche had launched the 911 Dakar, built with a similar formula of making a sports/supercar be able to perform well on rough surfaces.
A few years down the track and we’ve seen no follow-up acts from either manufacturer, though Lamborghini’s latest Urus SE Performance SUV does include a new ‘Rally’ mode, designed to give drivers a bit more freedom when not on sealed surfaces.
Speaking to Motor1 on the sidelines of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Lamborghini’s Chief Marketing and Sales Officer, Federico Foschini, said the Italian brand is open to more Sterrato-flavoured vehicles in the future, even if they may not be based on supercars.
“We have customers who live in the country; we have customers who use the car to hook up a trolley with the horses. So, there are multiple use cases for the Urus,” Foschini said.
“We not only go on the road and on the track, but you can also drive these off-road. So that is definitely something that our customers are looking for.
“The [Urus SE] is already a Sterrato. The distance between the Huracan and the Huracan Sterrato, and the Urus and a possible Sterrato version is not huge... We always have the idea, because the platform is incredibly versatile.
“You can do a track-oriented car... You can also have more emphasis on the off-road aspect, maybe a different kind of tire, a different setup. So, you can do it.”
According to Foschini, the success of the Huracan Sterrato was that it was a surprise, rather than something expected of the company – something it will have to think about if it does go down the same path again.
“One of our brand values is unexpected... and the Huracán Sterrato was really unexpected as a concept,” he added.
“It's an opportunity that we can evaluate, for sure. Because there is a sequence of things that you have to do, and we cannot overlap everything in the same moment. But for sure, once we do it and we succeed, it's something we always keep in our background.”
Jordan Mulach
