The term ‘Baby Lamborghini’ dates all the way back to the Seventies, when Lamborghini wanted a more entry-level model added to their lineup of massive V12-powered cars like the legendary Lamborghini Miura, so in 1970 they unveiled the Lamborghini Urraco, powered by a V8, to be succeeded by the Lamborghini Silhouette and by the Eighties, the Lamborghini Jalpa as a V8 counterpart to the flagship V12 Countach, only 410 units of the Lamborghini Jalpa left the factory gates in Sant’Agata before production was halted in 1988.
It would take Automobili Lamborghini SpA about 15 years before they would venture into the Baby Lamborghini market again with the V10-powered Gallardo in 2003, a model that would become the most popular Lamborghini in history thus far, when the Lamborghini Huracán took over in 2013 a total of 14,022 units of the Gallardo were built. Still, today we’ve been seeing spy shots of the new Lamborghini that is set to replace the Huracán in the near future. While we love the V10 engine for being almost as exotic as the V12 from the flagship Revuelto, rumor has it the new Baby Lamborghini will come with a twin-turbo V8 hybrid powerplant.
But that would be a completely new engine to be developed within a year or two you might say, and no, the V8 from the Urus is probably not a good candidate to fit in the Huracán replacement being a mid-engine model, but wait, Lamborghini just developed a brand new V12 hybrid unit for the Revuelto, perhaps they were thinking ahead and could remove four cylinders from that engine to create a 4.3-Liter V8 unit, the hybrid system is already made for the V12, and by adding a pair of turbochargers, power could easily go beyond the 800 hp mark for the V10 successor.
But there is another option already available, remember the Lamborghini SC63? The new LMDH racecar Lamborghini’s in-house Squadra Corse is preparing for endurance racing in 2024, we’ll be seeing the green and black hypercar competing in the 24 hours of Le Mans next year, and get this, it is powered by a newly developed twin-turbo V8 3.8-Liter hybrid engine delivering 680 hp, which is already 40 hp more than the current Huracan STO flagship model, but it gets even more interesting if you take into account the fact that FIA regulations limit the power output for these LMDH models, so without restrictions this engine might deliver 800 hp … or more.
But this is all wishful thinking at the time of writing, we don’t know exactly what displacement the new Huracán successor will come with, the twin-turbo V8 setup with hybrid assistance is an almost certainty however, but if we’ll be seeing three electric motors similar to the setup in the Revuelto isn’t sure either, most likely the new Baby Lamborghini will still be a four-wheel drive setup with electric motors powering the front wheels while the V8 engine powers the rear wheels, and as we’ve seen a DCT gearbox specifically designed for the hybrid setup of the Revuelto, chances are that will also be used on the new entry-level supercar from Sant’Agata.
From what we’ve seen in the numerous spy shots that have been captured of the test mule over the last months, the styling for the Huracán successor will be heavily inspired by the design of the Revuelto, with a similar ‘double-bubble’ roof, a somewhat exposed engine, and a central, high-mounted exhaust system, the rear diffuser seems to be extremely aggressive, which makes us wonder how amazing a Performante version would look a few years down the line.
The front is a bit controversial, to say the least, sure the hexagonal design style is still there, but it seems to be used on some massive driving lights positioned into the front bumper, it looks odd, but might just be what is needed to create a very special signature look to the new Lamborghini model that is bound to break sales records once again, the renders we’ve been showing in this article come from a video created by carwow on Youtube, where Mat takes us through the ins and outs of what they believe the new Lamborghini model will look like, and talk about specs, but again, at this moment it’s all ‘hearsay’ as nothing official has been published yet, still, take a look at the video below to get an understanding of just how big the shoes this new model will have to fill are:
