Enlarge / You can learn a lot about traction when there's very little of it around. (credit: Michael Teo Van Runkle)

From the passenger seat of my Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato, 24 Hours of Daytona winner Corey Lewis gives me a "slow down" hand gesture, urging me to avoid an Urus high-centered on a snow bank. I resist the childish impulse to blast by at full throttle and spray the recovery crew with a fresh layer of snow because I don't want to be the next driver to cause a scene. Once we pass the group, I punch it again, countersteering into a wide drift as my studded Blizzak winter tires shred through snow and ice, exhaust wide open and barking at redline, cranking through a series of left-right-left transitions until we come back around to the stuck SUV.

Lewis and I both laugh—everybody spins at least once while ice-drifting Lamborghinis on Lake Catchima north of Montreal, which played host in February to North America's Esperienza Neve winter driving academy. This year, Lamborghini invited customers out to tear up the pristine Canadian winterscape in three Sterratos, four Uruses, and two rear-wheel-drive Huracán Tecnicas—all told, about $3 million worth of cars.

Drifting in six-figure Lambos might make anyone a little nervous. In the controlled environment of a 30-inch (762 mm)-thick ice sheet, though, the consequences are minimal (there are bruised egos whenever anybody loses control and needs a tow, of course). So much power on the slip-and-slide immediately exposes driver skill—or lack thereof—despite 400 studs per tire on the Huracáns and 300 per tire on the Uruses providing grip and confidence. Even for a driver as experienced as Lewis, ice-drifting still has its value. For the mere mortals among us, all the more so.

Enlarge (credit: Lamborghini)

When we think of Lamborghini, it's hard not to think of sonorous, multi-cylinder, naturally aspirated engines. Long after Ferrari added turbochargers to its powerplants, its Italian rival from Sant'Agata Bolognese opted to stick with larger-capacity lumps that sounded symphonic throughout their rev ranges. But those aren't entirely consistent with Lamborghini's goal of reducing its fleet emissions by half in 2025, or by 80 percent in 2030. To that end, the brand will bring hybrid versions of all its models to market, Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann said.

"Last year we celebrated our sixtieth anniversary with the presentation of our first plug-in hybrid car, the Lamborghini Revuelto," explained Winkelmann. "We had the presentation in summer of our race car, the LMDh car, which is going to race in Doha the first weekend in March. And then Pebble Beach in August," he continued, where the brand showed off Lanzador, a concept of its first battery-electric car, which is due in 2028.

In October , Ars visited Lamborghini in Italy to learn more about how the supercar maker has been making its car production more sustainable—including the increased use of rail for freight shipping, more use of reusable and recycling waste materials from production, and even a biomass reactor that generates natural gas that powers much of the factory. In addition to cutting the emissions of its cars, the company wants to reduce the CO ₂ emitted during production by 40 percent by 2030.

Enlarge / A Lamborghini body undergoes inspection at the factory. (credit: Lamborghini)

Approximately 200 miles north of Rome, outside Bologna, lies the small town of Sant'Agata Bolognese, notable as the home of Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. I recently visited the town and factory, ostensibly to learn about Lamborghini's early sustainability efforts as the supercar manufacturer transitions to hybridization and electrification over the next few years. But first, Lambo put that step into context by dropping me into a V12-powered Aventador SVJ for a drive through the Italian countryside.

A jaunt through busy Bologna and the surrounding roads in such a track-focused Aventador quickly reveals the soul of Lamborghini as an automaker—raucous and enervating, all drama and sensory overload from start to finish. At first, the SVJ nags me as I upshift too soon or downshift too aggressively, but familiarity begins to inspire confidence.

Stop-start traffic in this car borders on torture. Italian traffic impinges upon any hopes of driving at speed. Instead, stuck in lines of unidentifiable hatchbacks never sold in the United States, I navigate narrow roundabouts and merging lanes pinched by barricades and balustrades at nearly every intersection.

Enlarge / The #6 Porsche Penske 963 and the #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 run on Daytona's banking during the 2023 Roar Before the 24. With so many miles of testing completed, the Porsches are probably the favorites, but 24 hours is a long time in racing, and a lot can happen. (credit: Jake Galstad/LAT Images)

This past weekend saw the successful conclusion of the International Motor Sports Association's "Roar Before the 24," the series' preseason test ahead of this coming weekend's Rolex 24, a 24-hour race held each January at Daytona International Speedway in Florida. This year, the preseason test was more important than most, as there's a new kind of race car, called the GTP, competing in the Rolex 24 in 2023.

The new hybrid prototype category has attracted more manufacturer interest than we've seen in many years, with brands like Acura and Porsche building new cars to compete and others, like Lamborghini, waiting in the wings to join next year. But the biggest question is whether these new race cars will be able to make it to the end of the race. As in the larger automotive industry, supply shortages mean that spare parts are scarce, so the consequences of a crash are calamitous.

But what makes GTP—originally called LMDh—so attractive to car makers? I asked David Salters, head of Honda Performance Development, which oversees the Japanese OEM's racing activities in North America.