The owner argues his Lamborghini Huracan Performante is in stock condition, so he shouldn’t be fined
August 29, 2024 at 14:19
- The owner of a Lamborghini Huracan Performante received a $800 fine from a noise camera.
- The man sued New York City, claiming that his supercar is stock and so he shouldn’t be fined.
- The incident has sparked controversy over the effectiveness and fairness of noise cameras.
New York is one of the cities employing noise cameras to crack down on cars with loud exhausts, but it seems they’ve got sensitive ears. Just ask the Lamborghini Huracan Performante owner who sued the city after being slapped with an $800 fine—for driving a bone-stock vehicle.
Anthony Aquilino, an insurance broker from Staten Island, isn’t too thrilled with New York’s noise camera system—supposedly designed to target vehicles with illegally modified exhausts. Aquilino argues that his 2018 Huracan Performante is perfectly legal to drive in New York, so why the fine? After all, it’s not his fault if the city’s noise cameras can’t tell the difference between a high-performance engine and a loudmouth neighbor.
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Speaking to the New York Post, Aquilino admitted he doesn’t mind the city’s efforts to “crack down on noise,” but he does take issue with fining cars that haven’t been touched. After receiving the ticket, he took his supercar to a Lamborghini dealer in Manhattan, where they confirmed what he already knew: his Huracan Performante is as stock as they come.
According to the lawsuit, the Lamborghini owner “didn’t cause or permit the total sound from the vehicle to exceed the sound level restrictions”, and “operated the vehicle in an ordinary and reasonable manner”. The document states that the only way for Aquilino to avoid future fines is to stop driving the supercar, something that would be “undoubtedly unreasonable”.
The Lamborghini owner claims that his supercar triggered the noise camera while “slowing down and going up 41st Street”, suggesting that speed wasn’t a factor to the loud noise. While this might be true in this particular occasion, the records on the How’s My Driving NY website suggest that the supercar received two more tickets on the same day, for running a red light and for speeding in a school zone.
Lamborghini Huracan Performante
The Lamborghini owner took aim at the steep fines: “The fine amount is $800 for the first offense. The second offense is $1,700 & the third offense is $2,700. How can anybody afford that? Especially if the city wants to move these cameras all across the five boroughs.”
Interestingly, the original announcement for New York’s “Stop Loud and Excessive Exhaust Pollution Act” mentioned that the goal was to “increase enforcement against motorists and repair shops that illegally modify mufflers and exhaust systems to make them excessively noisy for motor vehicles and motorcycles”.
Nevertheless, after the story got published by the New York Post, a spokesperson of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection issued the following statement: “The New York City Noise Code, which sets the legal limit for noise within the five boroughs, applies to all motor vehicles, whether they are modified, or not”.
The Lamborghini Huracan Performante is significantly louder than most vehicles, while still being compliant with the sound regulations in the US. The special edition of the V10-powered supercar was produced between 2017 and 2019 as the performance flagship of the Huracan range, before passing the baton to the even wilder STO.
Judging by the above, many high-performance model and supercar owners might be in for a rude awakening from New York’s noise cameras, even if their rides don’t sport any sound-enhancing modifications. If that’s the case, we’d hate to see what happens when something as famously loud as a Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale hits the streets — it would probably set off every noise camera in its path.