“Keep your phone handy, I may need to reach you today” were the words left hanging in my head as I walked out the door. The clock in the bedroom I’d recently left was glowing bright with disappointing numbers that seemed to float in the dash of light provided by the misty morning that comes with the coast. I had a job to do today, and it involved waking up early. It also involved opening my garage door to rouse a bright orange bull from its slumber.
My phone was tucked into a handy place in my pocket as I opened the door to the Lamborghini Huracan. Sliding behind the wheel and into the firm suede-covered bucket seat is as close as most will get to closing the canopy on a vehicle that requires call signs. The start button beckons, and with a quick press from my thumb, ten cylinders crackle to life. It’s loud. Too loud for this time of the morning, but the car soon quiets a bit into a smoother, lower idle point that I can clearly see on the perfectly crisp screen behind the steering wheel.
It’s time to close the door, grab the paddle on the right to put the car into first gear, and head off into the hills for “work”.
I’m meeting a few folks on a sinewy ribbon of road that we playfully refer to as the Hooniverse Highway Hooning Grounds. It’s a quiet stretch of tarmac that gives us ample time, space, room, light, and background beauty that we need to try and piece together videos. The drive to this part of California takes me from the coast, along the highway, and then up into a hill section that eventually overlooks Lake Elsinore and the kingdom of the Inland Empire.
It takes an hour to get there from Huntington Beach, which is where both the car and I were fast asleep only just prior. That is all behind us now though, as both myself and the car are singing. One of us is singing better than the other, as I wake myself up by messing up the lyrics to a number of songs. The Huracan sings through a set of quadruple exhaust outlets, and it’s voice is much more lovely than mine. That’s mostly due to the fact that this Lamborghini has a heart that beats to the drum of a 5.2-liter V10 engine. My right foot cozies up to an accelerator pedal that is the gate keeper to 610 horsepower, an 8,500 rpm redline, and Interstellar-grade acceleration.
Our day of shooting the car begins.
There’s always a sense of urgency, even though we typically have plenty of time to get the shots we need. With a car like the Huracan, however, I always want to make sure I get every angle I can so that the finished product is visually appealing and allows me to fully communicate my thoughts on the car. Usually I can focus, and get the shots I need. Not today though. I know it’s going to be one of those days where the shoot doesn’t go the way I envisioned. This thought isn’t helped by the fact that I’m paying attention to my phone, because there could be an important call that requires my attention.
No matter.
We press on and the shots begin to add up and flow nicely. We start with the car parked to get the static imagery we need before moving on to the in-car footage. Here’s where the cameras are mounted both inside and out, pointed at my face, and I run around for anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes trying to remember what I want to cover. I then spew it from my brain and out my mouth in some manner of coherence, while I hope it’s clean and relevant enough for me to be able to edit it in a meaningful way.
With that out of the way, it’s on to driving shots. These are the most fun to capture as they involve driving the car without the distraction of speaking to a camera or two. There are shots where the camera is on the side of the road, and I drive past. We also rig up a second car with the camera pointed at the Lamborghini to show either the front or the rear, and then we switch to get the other angle.
The Huracan is behaving marvelously. It’s a brilliant machine that is a clear leap forward over the Gallardo that it replaces. In fact, from a drivers point of view, I prefer it to the more expensive and more powerful Aventador. That’s a hilariously fun straight-line-machine that makes tremendous noise from its 12-cylinder engine. It’s also wildly expensive and actually not that fun when you’re really giving it the boot and fists on a canyon road. There’s an unnerving bit of understeer, which isn’t ideal when you’re piloting a $500,000 car that you don’t own.
This nearly $300,000 car though, is an absolute delight. It’s far more excited to turn in on the corners, feels far lighter and tighter than the Aventador, and shows that Lamborghini took all of the good bits it learned from the larger car when it helped created the Gallardo successor. The orange paint also plays rather nicely to camera. In fact, we decide to try a shot we’d never done before.
There’s a point on our test road that overlooks a lower twisty road below it. The cameras setup to try and capture myself and the Lamborghini in the distance. It might look great, it might be terrible, either way we’re going to try it and find out. The sense of urgency starts to tingle in the back of my neck though, as I know this shot will take up a bit of extra time we hadn’t intended.
I never made it to the road to even find out.
I’d been texting with my wife throughout the day when we were getting shots that didn’t involve me driving. She wasn’t feeling great so she went into the hospital. I got the call that something was wrong, so I asked if I should come back to the coast. She said no, she was now feeling better and she knew I had to finish the shoot. Ten minutes later, I didn’t receive a text but rather a phone call
“You need to come to the hospital, we’re going to have this baby now…”
The words hung in there for a second as I realized what was happening in my life. I replied I’d be there as soon as I could, then I got on the radio and told the rest of our motley crew to meet me at a turnoff we often use. I handed over the gear I had in the car, told them I’d get it later, paused to breathe, and then hit the road. If there ever was a car to be in control of on the day you need to get to the hospital as quickly as possible, the Lamborghini Huracan ranks pretty high on that list.
The car was in Corsa mode. I was in mental mode, and the hospital was an hour away.
I won’t go into the details of how I made it there in 30 minutes, but I will say that I only broke some speed limits. There was no illegal passing, running of lights, or anything insane and unnecessary. I wanted to get there quickly, but I also wanted to get there. If she was going to be early at 35 weeks, I could be make up some time as well.
I did get there… and 15 minutes later my daughter was born.
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(Now I’ll need something interesting to bring her home in. Stay tuned for that.)
[Images copyright 2015 Jeff Glucker/Hooniverse]
A Story of Urgency and the Lamborghini Huracan
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Jeff, what a great story! It did remind of the story that Jeremy Clarkson told of when he got the call at home that he needed to get to the hospital right away and he climbed into a Porsche 928 he was reviewing. Driving one-hundred and seventy miles an hour, he got there in time to say goodbye to his father. Circle of life.
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I actually thought of that story as well, to be totally honest. I didn’t hit 170… but if you ever see me in a bar, I can tell you the speeds I did hit.
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That definitely came to mind as well. Mind if I take you up on that offer Jeff?
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Free booze? I’m in
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I’ll buy you one if you buy me one. lol
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Also, an NSX could have done it in 20.
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Big deal. I have several vehicles that will do 20.
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yes, but only downhill, with a stiff tailwind…….and possibly nitrous.
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Well, first off Jeff, congratulations. Hope baby girl and mom are doing fine. And yourself for that matter.
Someday I’m sure you’ll tell her the story of how you drove an orange spaceship from Lake Elsinore as fast as you could to get to the hospital in time to greet her. Not many dads will have that one. -
Just wait until her first Saturday Morning Bagel Run.
Congrats again, man. Fatherhood is an adventure unlike no other.-
That will be great
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Congrats. Reminds me of when my middle daughter was born. My wife started having contractions, so we went to the hospital. They told us it was going to be a while, go home and rest and come back when they hit X minutes apart.
Not very long later (less than an hour at home, I think), they were still farther apart, but had gotten much stronger and my wife began to feel like the baby was about to be delivered.
We hopped in our ’92 Saturn SL2 (no Huracan, but our nice car at the time). The hospital was normally 25 minutes away and, well, I cannot make the same claim that you can about which laws may or may not have been broken. It certainly did NOT take us 25 minutes to get there.
In what was to be an indicator of her ornery life, Emily did not come into the world until several hours later, but in the moment it seemed quite urgent. -
I hope you had time to teabag the starter button. That is every Hoon’s personal responsibility when let loose unsupervised in the cabin of a Lamborghini. (For classic models, the gearshift knob is the correct item.)
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Sure is dusty in my office today…
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(claps hands together) Oh, this is wonderful!!! Another person in the Hoony Ranks!! Didja hear/see the couple who gave birth on the way to the Medical Center down Houston way this week??
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This Is Automotive Journalism.
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Great writing. And a great story to tell your daughter once she’s old enough to understand how cool it is.
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Jeff, while that car is terrific, nothing will beat the beauty and wonder of your own kid…
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Ace man, shame you didn’t get that shot though 😛 I jest! You got to the most important thing there is… with a boss story as well. So er I got to your birth in Lambo! Who’s dad gets to say that haha!
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