Supercars gone Wild

Until a few years ago, the term “off-road supercar” was a joke you would make upon seeing pictures of a Ferrari that had crashed into a field or a Lamborghini stuck in a dirt parking lot. But in hindsight, is the idea really that crazy?

As roads everywhere are getting worse and supercars are sitting just off the ground, with stiffer suspensions and ever lower profile tires, maybe a bit of additional ground clearance isn’t a bad idea. A small faction of enthusiasts began exploring this idea with the “Safari” 911 movement, G-body 911s that were fit with taller tires and increased suspension travel, intended for off-road exploration.

With history of winning the Paris – Dakar rally, Porsche’s connections to off-roading were much clearer when they debuted the 911 Dakar at the 2022 Los Angeles Auto Show. At almost exactly the same time in Miami, Lamborghini was showing its first foray into off-road sports cars – the Huracan Sterrato. Sure, Lamborghini had produced the off-road LM002 built for screaming across dunes, but to say this was a departure for the brand is an understatement.

Say what you will about these cars but when we arrived at the Lamborghini factory in Sant’Agata Bolognese and got behind the wheel of this brand-new Huracan Sterrato before we even left the parking lot, it started to make sense. Now, we don’t have access to sand dunes to test the car out on, but as it’s winter, we made do with the next best thing – snow. Pulling out of the Lamborghini factory, we pointed the car north towards the Alps – en route to Altopiano di Asiago. But we only had one piece of the puzzle – to see if the Porsche was as exciting as the Lamborghini, we invited our friend Alberto Battistolli along.

Alberto is no stranger to driving on loose surfaces, as a competitor in the 2024 Italian Gravel Rally Championship behind the wheel of a Skoda Fabia RS as well as growing up with a father who is also a rally champion. So when we heard that they added a 911 Dakar to their collection, the story practically wrote itself.

As we made our way to the mountain, we became more acquainted with the Sterrato and truly began to fall in love with it. It doesn’t matter what car you put it in, that screaming V10 will always be the centerpiece, but when you pair it with a softer suspension setup, transiting to the great roads is so much more pleasant. Then, when you get to the roads, you remember how much lower the limits are than the Huracan STO we were driving a few months prior. Fling the car into a corner and you are managing oversteer and some understeer in the lower speed turns. Although this sometimes leads to a car that feels a bit nervous at the limit, it’s much more involving than some of the track focused Huracans and allows you to explore the limits at a lower speed.

Sliding into the Dakar and by the first corner, you can tell how much more planted it is than the Sterrato. Especially riding with Alberto behind the wheel, oversteer was consistent and easily controllable, but unlike the Sterrato, which would kick sideways even sometimes when you don’t want it to, the Dakar put the driver in complete control of the situation.

Later in the day, we were joined by our friend Elia with a second Sterrato which made for quite the caravan tearing up through the snow-covered Alps. After the driving was done, we sat down and had a conversation about the two cars and tried to identify a favorite.

It should come as no surprise that the 911 Dakar is far and away the more usable car – in fact, it would make an incredible daily driver with its supple suspension, front luggage space and much more space in the cabin. If we could only have one car, this would be it.

That being said, it should come as no surprise that for all-out lunacy and excitement, the Lamborghini is unparalleled. Its tail-happy nature and wild wedge styling with plastic bolted-on over-fenders awakens the inner child in every car lover, and of course, that last-of-its-kind naturally aspirated V10 sounds like nothing else. For somebody with a few cars in their garage, looking for an experience to get your adrenaline pumping, it can only be the Sterrato.

At the end of the day, both of these cars are rather silly. But ultimately, isn’t that the point of supercars? In a world where these sorts of cars are realistically too fast to use on the road, why not make one with lower limits, crazy light pods, and knobby off-road tires?

We had lots of time to ponder this as we headed home in the Sterrato. Cruising down the Autostrada, it was hard to decide if we would take this Huracan over, say, the comparably priced STO we drove late last year. Then we sailed over a crack in the road that would have sounded like a shotgun blast in the STO. The Sterrato remained entirely unphased. We have made up our mind.