Off-Road Supercars! Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato vs. Porsche 911 Dakar
The Porsche 911 Dakar and the Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato are two vehicles you couldn’t in your wildest of dreams have plausibly thought would ever come to fruition. We had the chance to test both of these wild and wonderful super off-roaders recently at our 2024 Performance Vehicle of the Year
Transcript
00:00The year is 2024, and like a twisting knife into the side of the slow march towards the sterilisation of cars,
00:08Porsche and Lamborghini have given us these.
00:19The Porsche 911 Dakar and the Lamborghini Huracan Storato.
00:23Two off-road-ready super sports cars just begging you to do the unimaginable,
00:29see a dirt road and think, yeah, I can drive up there.
00:33This isn't a comparison, more a contrasting celebration.
00:38So let's dig into it, beginning with the Lamborghini.
00:45A V10-powered off-road vehicle, when was the last time you heard of one of those?
00:49Yes, Lamborghini have taken a what-do-we-need-to-do-to-get-the-Huracan-off-road approach to the Storato,
00:55and thankfully that didn't include losing the V10.
00:58On the road, the Storato is pleasant, passive, serene and sedate,
01:03until you click it down a gear or two, at which time, even at modest speeds,
01:08the acid-barbed burble of that gorgeous engine snaps you out of your rest
01:12and, like a devil on your shoulder, tells you to floor it.
01:17The resulting speed is incredible.
01:20The Storato is still, first and foremost, a Huracan,
01:23and roaring through the canyons is a job it still does admirably.
01:28It's the same story on the racetrack, where the Storato can really stretch its legs.
01:34We noted that the off-road tyres went off the boil after a certain amount of hot laps,
01:38but that's to be expected.
01:40The Storato is every bit the kerb-climbing, apex-attacking monster we've come to expect
01:46from the wrecking crew at Sant'Agata.
01:49But of course, this vehicle's raison d'etre is to get stuck in on the track.
01:55The Storato is a bit of a beast,
01:58but of course, this vehicle's raison d'etre is to get stuck in on the dirt.
02:04You get the impression that the Storato is best suited to dirt and gravel roads,
02:09where the lack of large rocks, tree stumps and such will encourage you to plant your foot and push on.
02:16Getting it sideways isn't hard with 602hp,
02:18and the vehicle's dynamic tuning has been set up to anticipate a whole lot of sideswiping fun.
02:24The Storato is bonkers, and we absolutely love it.
02:30Next up, the Porsche 911 Dakar.
02:34Unlike Lamborghini, Porsche has some history at taking their sports cars off-road.
02:39911s have made excellent rally cars going back to the earliest generations,
02:43and not least in the late 60s and 70s,
02:46when a Porsche 911 took the win at the famed Monte Carlo Rally four times in 11 years,
02:52and even won the European Rally Championship outright in 1970.
02:57The Dakar, of course, takes its name from the storied cross-continent Paris-Dakar Rally,
03:02which Porsche won for the first time with the 911 in 1984.
03:07So we've established that a rear-engine rally car from Germany is a good idea, right?
03:12But this Dakar hasn't been built to compete in rally racing,
03:15this is a production customer car.
03:18So how does it drive?
03:23In a word, spectacularly.
03:26On the road, the Dakar is basically the perfect go-anywhere sports car.
03:31The extra ride height soaks up all the speed bumps and dips,
03:34but crucially, it still feels like a 911.
03:38A point that remained consistent even when we took the Dakar on the track.
03:42In spite of those big, blocky all-terrain tyres,
03:45the Dakar attacks the circuit with the same poison precision we've all come to expect.
03:50A fact which surprised when really, it shouldn't have.
03:53This is a Porsche, after all, and Porsche don't leave anything to chance.
03:58Speaking of which, when it came to engineering the car for going off-road,
04:02it feels like Porsche over-engineered the car,
04:05pushing themselves to develop a vehicle that could exceed expectations.
04:09And boy, does it.
04:11The Dakar loves being sideways.
04:14We have never seen a car like this before.
04:17It loves being sideways.
04:19We have never driven a 911 so happy to be facing the wrong way at speed.
04:24The work done by the engineers to dial in the controls and driver modes
04:28is nothing short of exemplary.
04:30The Dakar is everything you want it to be, and so much more beyond.
04:35Is this the most fun you can have in a 911?
04:38We think our editor Christian said it best.
04:41It drives like an old 911 with skinny tyres and tons of power.
04:46But one which you can also rip off into the desert.
04:50It's incredible.
04:56Both of these vehicles are fantastically well-engineered,
04:59and we should feel genuinely lucky to have them in the world.
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