Jethro Bovingdon is a renowned British automotive journalist and motorsport driver, known for his work as an editor and presenter in automotive media. He gained fame as a key figure on Top Gear's YouTube channel, showcasing his driving skills and car reviews. Bovingdon has a deep understanding of car dynamics, and his driving expertise has led to notable performances in motorsport events, including time attack. His honest reviews, technical knowledge, and passion for performance cars have made him a respected figure in the automotive and motorsport communities.
Welcome to our PCOTY track notes. These are the stream-of-consciousness scrawlings from our resident hot shoe, editor-at-large Jethro Bovingdon, following his hot-lap sessions in each contender:
I could talk about the finer points of the Sterrato’s dynamics, I suppose. Analyze its corner speeds and get into the weeds about the philosophy of an offroad supercar on a, um, race track. But what’s the point? This thing is absurd in the best possible sense, a massive handful with the stability control disabled and an almost unrivaled generator of laughter. It is, simply, bonkers.
As with any Huracán, the engine is mesmerizing in terms of its delivery, outright power, and noise. The Ferrari 296 GTB’s twin-turbocharged V-6 is an amazing little engine (and with the addition of electric motors feels like a 7-liter monster), but it pales next to the raw magnificence of Lamborghini’s V-10. I adore it. The gearbox is terrific, too. So fast and smooth. But what’s new with the Sterrato is the sheer abandon of the concept and its execution. Talk about embracing the ‘rally’ brief—with the electronic aids disabled and rally mode selected, I popped a set of tires in a lap and a half. A Huracán that slides as soon as you so much as look at a corner? That’s the Sterrato.
This complete change of personality takes some adjustment. Whilst the driving position, the noise, and fury of the powertrain are screaming ‘supercar’ into your subconscious, the knobbly tires are a very long way from delivering that experience. There’s decent lateral grip but much degraded stopping power and traction, plus a huge amount of weight transfer that is usually controlled in a standard and much lower, stiffer Huracán. The end result isn’t hugely fast but it’s spectacularly entertaining.
The only issue is, where would you use this thing? Driven as intended you’d be thrown off a regular track in about a lap, which is just before your tires fall to pieces.
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About PCOTY hot laps:
Our lap times are simple. They are meant to inform us about how these cars perform on track, not to chase an elusive or ‘ultimate’ time that would require multiple sessions in each car. The laps were set after just a few sighting laps and no prior experience on the circuit. Unless a car didn’t get a fair shake, we did one out lap, three hot laps, and a cool-down. Whilst all the cars could go quicker, the times are representative. The delta between the cars would be consistent even with many more laps and sets of tires to burn through.