Tuesday 18th March 2014

Lamborghini Huracan vs new Audi R8: PH Blog

Why Lamborghini and Audi need to put some emotional distance between the Huracan and new R8

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It’s no secret Lamborghini wasn’t entirely delighted to have Audi’s Dr Hackenberg continually butt in to the press conference at the Huracan tech day presentation and remind us how much of the car is shared with, or simply supplied by, the Germans. Parts and platform sharing is, of course, commonplace but I don’t ever recall senior VW personnel gatecrashing Bentley launches and using the press conference to point out which bits were shared with the Skoda Octavia. Or Dr H being welcome at the Porsche Macan launch to tell the assembled throng ‘Ja, but it’s just a Q5 really…”

Hackenberg not shy about asserting ownership

Following a terse introduction from Hackenberg in which he explained how struck he was by the poor quality control when Audi first took over at Sant’Agata you can appreciate why the Lamborghini team may have felt a little aggrieved.

How do I know this? Well, I did have my collar felt by Lamborghini PR at the Geneva VW group night to be told there was a bit too much Audi in the PH Huracan story. With a request that, perhaps, future discussion might focus a little more on the Italian passion of its engineering and styling. Rather than its German roots.

A sense of romance is, of course, what might make you choose to sit behind a wheel with a raging bull in its centre, rather than the four rings. Even if the actual wheel was the same component. And Lamborghini’s habit of attaching evocative sounding Italian descriptions to technical features certainly does pluck the heart strings more successfully. Were you in company where it’s polite to compare gearboxes (I think PH might be that place) would you rather say your car’s gears were shifted by a Lamborghini Doppia Frizione transmission? Or Direkt Schalt Getriebe? Do you prefer your super unleaded injected by Iniezione Diretta Stratificata or Benzin-Direkteinspritzung? Indeed, a Lamborghini technical spec is about the only one of its type you could read in polite company and actually sound half cool. Romantic even.

OK, possibly stretching it a bit there.

Huracan should pluck the heartstrings

Anyway, there’s no escaping much of the engineering muscle in the Huracan is German. So how is Lamborghini to ensure that the soul remains suitably Italian? Going to the considerable effort of a parallel direct and indirect fuel injection system to sneak a 5.2-litre naturally aspirated V10 past the emissions legislators isn’t a bad start. At the press conference Lambo boss Stephan Winkelmann was asked if Lamborghini would ever consider turbo engines and he gave a long and elegant answer that basically said “not until we have a gun to our heads.” Which is cool. If Lamborghini can’t be the last bastion of a proper normally aspirated supercar motor who can be.

Here I sense an opportunity for both Audi and Lamborghini to put some real distance between the Huracan and the forthcoming second-gen R8 with which it will share its carbon/aluminium chassis. Distance that wasn’t necessarily there with the Gallardo and original R8.

Give the next one Vorsprung Durch Turbos

Leave the Huracan to do the mentalist thing and keep Ferrari honest, as was its founder’s intention from the start. And make a version of the 4.0-litre ‘inside out’ twin-turbo V8 Audi developed for the RS6 – and gave to Bentley – that becomes the signature feature of the new R8. Thus equipped it’d be philosophically aligned to go head to head with the similarly powered McLaren 12C/650S and Porsche 911 Turbo and maintain a more distinctively Audi Vorsprung Durch Technik mentality.

They might share the same platform but a Terminator cool twin-turbo R8 and a properly bonkers normally aspirated V10 Huracan would put useful ground between the two brands. And stop the likes of us sniffing around Lamborghini engine bays to snigger at the number of Audi stamped components.

Dan

Vid from Lamborghini of the tech presentation here.
 

 

[jayemm89]

Sounds like a good idea to me. Personally I think a large difference between the old two was the way they sounded, I was never that impressed with the V8 R8's sound as standard - far too quiet for me.

I also could never work out how Audi managed to make the R8 several hundred KGs (if figures are to be believed) heavier than the Gallardo.... it wasn't exactly a Bentley in there

[Dave Hedgehog]

i would still take the R8 as I am a miser and would not like to pay the massively inflated lambo tax on parts and servicing

[edinph]

Having driven a Gallardo and an R8 V10, it would be the Hurrican every day of the week! Now, where is that Lotto ticket?

[Dan Trent]

jayemm89 said:

Sounds like a good idea to me. Personally I think a large difference between the old two was the way they sounded, I was never that impressed with the V8 R8's sound as standard - far too quiet for me.

I also could never work out how Audi managed to make the R8 several hundred KGs (if figures are to be believed) heavier than the Gallardo.... it wasn't exactly a Bentley in there

I'd expect that's down to Lamborghini's insistence on only quoting dry weights; an Italian habit you'll find replicated across all the supercar manufacturers.

Cheers,

Dan

[Wanta996Gotta]

Is one of the main reasons Lamborghini still exists not due to Audis financial clout and influence to the quality aspect of things. The build quality,handling and overall ownership experience on previous Lambo's was from a different age and times had to move on. The Gallardo was a great car selling in record numbers with a build quality on par with a Porsche in my opinion. I drove a 2005 Gallardo and a 08 R8 and they were both great high performance cars that you feel you could actually use everyday without worrying about it letting you down in the middle of nowhere.

With regards to not introducing the turbos? Big mistake in my opinion as Mclaren and Ferrari will leave them floundering in the performance stats. You could however argue that Lamborghini are indeed relying on the aesthetic appeal of there cars over performance figures as i believe the car is sold out for 2 years(1200 units apparently). Those are the kind of stats that i believe Mclaren would kill for.

I cant see how anyone can possibly fault this Audi/Lamborghini love in.

[chelme]

Hackenberg is right...its just a jumped up Audi.

[Monty Zoomer]

It's an incredibly boring video, the bloke's just talking a load of crap.

It's no better than listening to other videos talking about DNA and design language.

I can't watch the whole thing, it's too farfetched for me.

[JohnT993]

the more people that can keep making 8000rpm+ screaming engines the better I think!
I HATE TURBO'S!
that said, whilst I respect the R8, I have never wanted one, whatever engine it has...

[garypotter]

crikey, had to take a double look at those 2 VAG as thought it was the same car, a bit disappointing really as the Lambo should be a wild crazy looking car painted in orange, the audi painted in silver boring bland and blends into the traffic.

[Gio G]

Why can't they let an Italian run this business? I suspect the Germans like to keep it safe..

[threespires]

"Leave the Huracan to do the mentalist thing and keep Ferrari honest, as was its founder’s intention from the start. And make a version of the 4.0-litre ‘inside out’ twin-turbo V8 Audi developed for the RS6 – and gave to Bentley – that becomes the signature feature of the new R8."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But surly edibles in tandem with hiking shoes will compound external floating camshaft wobble.

[E65Ross]

The issue with that is likely the turbo V8 would out-perform the V10

[JCB123]

I don't get people saying they'd take the 'sensible option' over a Lambo?

If you want the sensible option, buy an Octavia.

I couldn't care if they were exactly the same car underneath - if I could afford a Lambo, I'd buy it over the Audi.

[k-ink]

jayemm89 said:

I also could never work out how Audi managed to make the R8 several hundred KGs (if figures are to be believed) heavier than the Gallardo.... it wasn't exactly a Bentley in there

How do Audi manage to make a small a1 39kg heavier than a golf?! They are stashing concrete slabs under the carpets is all I can think of.

[Fittster]

JCB123 said:

I couldn't care if they were exactly the same car underneath - if I could afford a Lambo, I'd buy it over the Audi.

The power of marketing.

[JCB123]

Fittster said:

JCB123 said:

I couldn't care if they were exactly the same car underneath - if I could afford a Lambo, I'd buy it over the Audi.

The power of marketing.

Yeah, to a degree. But there's also people's perception (if you care, which I do), the age old 'what car do you drive' question, and personal satisfaction of knowing that I've done well enough that I didn't have to choose the sensible option.

[Robbie K]

JCB123 said:

Yeah, to a degree. But there's also people's perception (if you care, which I do), the age old 'what car do you drive' question, and personal satisfaction of knowing that I've done well enough that I didn't have to choose the sensible option.

Good to see someone being honest! Well done..

[jason61c]

For me, any Lamborghini is a supercar and something to enjoy. An audi is just an audi.

[jdw1234]

JCB123 said:

Fittster said:

JCB123 said:

I couldn't care if they were exactly the same car underneath - if I could afford a Lambo, I'd buy it over the Audi.

The power of marketing.

Yeah, to a degree. But there's also people's perception (if you care, which I do), the age old 'what car do you drive' question, and personal satisfaction of knowing that I've done well enough that I didn't have to choose the sensible option.

And the follow up question of ..."ooh, do the doors go up in the air?"...and the resulting look of disappointment.

[UltimaCH]

For me a Lambo will remain a Lambo and an Audi an Audi, even if they belong to the same conglomerate,but that's for the bean counters, not us petrol heads.