- Doors and Seats
2 doors, 2 seats
- Engine
5.2i, 10 cyl.
- Engine Power
412kW, 540Nm
- Fuel
Petrol (98) 14.7L/100KM
- Manufacturer
4WD
- Transmission
Manual
- Warranty
NA
- Ancap Safety
NA
Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4
So you're probably thinking: how on earth is a $600,000-plus Lamborghini relevant to anyone when the global economy is in the toilet?
I'd like to say it is only through building cars like these that engineers develop the skills to make common cars more frugal but that wouldn't be entirely truthful. After all, its design was inspired by a jet fighter.
Basically, this is a really, really fast car no one truly needs - but almost everyone who has driven it is caught by its spell.
It is called the Lamborghini Gallardo (wait for it, deep breath) LP560-4. The numbers make it sound like the name of a printer in your office but these four digits are likely to have car pervs the world over foaming at the mouth.
As with all models from the Italian supercar maker, Gallardo is named after a Spanish fighting bull. The 560 is the output of the engine in horsepower and the dash-four is to remind everyone it is all-wheel-drive (its main rivals from Ferrari and Porsche are rear-drive).
The international press are going gaga over this car and it has just won Performance Car of the Year in the Britain. At least two high-profile journalists there owned the original model and are queuing for the new one. It is quite a feat to get motoring writers to put their hands in their pockets at the best of times but to lay down this much cash - and then presumably live in a cardboard box - is possibly the highest compliment a car could receive.
If you're looking at the price of the options and comparing them with the prices of average cars then, like me, this car is probably out of your reach.
For example, you can buy a brand new Toyota Corolla - or get the Lamborghini painted in a colour that's not on the palette. You could buy a near-new Holden Barina - or tick the box next to "clear engine cover". You could buy a Subaru Forester - or get the self-shifting F1-style transmission. Shall I take a European holiday - or get the trick suspension that lifts the car at the press of a button to get up driveways?
This is my favourite: a $40,000 Holden Berlina - or race-style carbon ceramic brakes? Actually, that's not my favourite, this is: six-disc CD changer - "no charge". No charge? Are they kidding? Perhaps the company was able to afford such generosity because the Bluetooth kit costs $2404 and the iPod connector is $2295. I'm not sure what's more insane, the cost of these items or the cost of the car.
But clearly not everyone is on struggle street. Despite costing more than half-a-million dollars, six of these cars have been delivered here already - and another 15 customers will get theirs before Christmas.
When the original Gallardo - the first Lamborghini built from the ground up under the supervision of new owners Audi - went on sale in 2003, there was a 12-month wait. Get in the queue for the latest and you'll still be waiting six months.
As with all supercar makers, the company won't reveal who's buying these cars (not that they'll be hard to spot in traffic).
Interestingly, half the customers on the order books have never owned a Lamborghini. It is a significant vote of confidence that customers have deemed this vehicle worthy enough to prise themselves out of mostly Ferraris and Porsches.
So what's the fuss all about? Oh my God, where do I start?
The original Gallardo was regarded as a good thing, blending the best bits of the newly formed company: the Italians did the design and the leather while the Germans did the engineering and the filthy big V10 donk.
Previous Lamborghinis were prone to having, er, lots of character, which is car-enthusiast code for "the owners were forgiving when it broke down, which was often".
But the Gallardo put Lamborghini back on the map. Having toyed with cumbersome and expensive V12 supercars, the more affordable "baby" Gallardo was designed to take on the V8 mid-engine Ferraris.
With more grunt than its Italian foe, all-wheel-drive agility and German engineering in its genes, it was a formidable package. The Gallardo came in for a bit of a tweak two years ago with a little more power and a little less weight. These running changes helped it nicely, sharpened its reflexes and made its acceleration even more brutal.
Which is perhaps why the new car has left many motoring hacks speechless. The new model is basically the old model with a new nose, new tail and a bigger, more insanely powerful engine (up from a 5.0-litre V10 to a 5.2).
Clearly what time the engineers didn't spend on a new chassis was well spent going over every other facet to make the Gallardo perform even better, as hard as that seems.
I'm trying to think of another word for brutal but there is no other way to describe the acceleration of this car. Nought to 100 in 3.7 seconds (down from 4.0 for the original). Count it out loud. Now you're doing 100kmh.
That's because the engine has more power (up from 390kW to 412kW and yet it is 18 per cent more fuel efficient than before) and the body has less weight (it has trimmed 20kg to an even 1500kg on the scales). In the car world this is what's known as good maths.
A friend brave enough to sit in the passenger seat described it best: it's too fast for your brain. It's like the 30x fast-forward on your Foxtel IQ. All I know is that by the time I grabbed second gear I was already on the brakes.
The sound is phenomenal and there are two choices of exhaust note, which change at the press of a button: I call them "calm" and "angry". Calm is quiet enough not to wake the neighbours when getting the car out of the garage for an early Sunday morning drive. Angry is the switch you press when driving through tunnels.
Lamborghini has in effect added three more personalities to the car as well, by allowing drivers to choose just how much they want to be thrown around the cabin.
Comfort mode brings smoother gear changes and gentle throttle application, Sport mode sharpens gear-shift response and Track mode turns it into a race car.
One of the criticisms of the previous model was the abruptness of the robotised manual (F1-style) gearshift. Changes to the software have made big improvements. It's not as smooth as a Golf GTI gearbox but, considering the heavy-duty hardware, it's an amazing effort.
The only thing more amazing than the acceleration and grip is the brakes. The test car was equipped with F1-style carbon ceramic discs, which have instant bite and would put you through the windscreen if it weren't for the seatbelts. The only thing that could make this car stop quicker would be a brick wall.
The new Gallardo isn't perfect (I'd hate to deliver pizzas in it) but, for a performance car, it is engineering brilliance. The only real problem is there isn't enough space here to tell you more about it. I'm off to buy a cardboard box.