How the Huracán Performante's ALA System Won Autocar's Innovation Award and Changed Lamborghini's Aero Playbook

Autocar's 2017 honor singled out a patented active aero subsystem, not the car as a whole.

Autocar editor Mark Tisshaw framed the 2017 Innovation Award around technology that "most impressed us during the last year," calling out the Performante's active aero for taking "dynamic handling to a new level."

ALA's deceptively simple goal

ALA varies the car's aerodynamic load in real time, generating maximum downforce when cornering and minimum drag when accelerating in a straight line, a principle that proved fiendishly difficult to execute in a lightweight, reliable production package.

Lap records across nine circuits

The Huracán Performante arrived carrying a Nürburgring Nordschleife production car lap record and, according to independent reports, set records on eight additional international circuits, suggesting ALA's benefits were not limited to one track's layout or speed profile.

Where drivers feel ALA working

Owners who track both Lamborghini and rival machinery often note that ALA's effect is most perceptible in fast direction changes and under heavy braking into corners, where aero-vectoring supplements mechanical grip in ways that feel intuitive rather than intrusive.

A historical inflection point

As the Huracán generation recedes into the secondary market and the Temerario era begins, the Performante's combination of naturally aspirated V10 power with genuinely active aerodynamics looks increasingly like a historical inflection point rather than just another special edition.

The technology behind the trophy

Aerodinamica Lamborghini Attiva, or ALA, was the specific technology Autocar singled out, and understanding why it earned independent recognition requires looking past the trophy and into the engineering that made it possible.

Aero-vectoring as a chassis tool

Lamborghini can open the left and right rear flaps independently, creating what the company calls aero-vectoring: differential downforce across the rear axle that helps rotate the car into corners, supplementing the mechanical grip of the all-wheel-drive system.

Why the Nordschleife proved ALA's dual advantage

The Nordschleife's long straights punish high-drag configurations while its fast sweepers demand maximum downforce, and ALA let the Performante run low drag on the straights and high downforce through the corners, gaining time in both sectors.

Aerodynamics integrated with drivetrain

ALA worked in concert with the mechanical differential and all-wheel-drive torque distribution to sharpen turn-in and mid-corner balance, using aerodynamics as a chassis tuning tool rather than just a speed tool.

ALA's precedent carries forward

The Revuelto carries forward Lamborghini's commitment to active aerodynamics in a hybrid-era package, a lineage that traces directly to the precedent ALA established: aerodynamics as an active, intelligent system rather than a static design constraint.