Lamborghini. Today though should be a low stress day because we are here to drivewhat is being billed as the most useable and most user friendly Lamboyet, the Gallardo. Or to use its affectionate soubriquet, the 'babyLambo'.Baby Lambo. This one looks just as big and bad and brutal asanything that's gone before it. The original design was based on anItaldesign-Giugiaro style proposal. This was subsequently reworked bythe Lamborghini Centro Stile team. It certainly isn't difficult to spotsimilarities between the Gallardo and Lamborghini Centro Stile's otherrecent work, the Murcielago. Look at the car from the side and especially after examining the rear,it comes almost as a shock to notice how exquisitely beautiful it is.But still, there's something verging on the unsettling, something alienthat whispers, 'Sure. Step in. We'
ll have a blast. But no guaranteeswhich time zone or galaxy we'll end up in OK?'Insert the key into the ignition, turn it once and there's anelectronic whirring buzz behind your ears as the fuel pump takes agood, long draught. There's no starter button to bother with, allyou've got to do is turn the key the rest of the way. Anyone driving a standard Ferrari 360 Modena has a hale and hearty400
bhp at their disposal, thanks to that marvellous V8, but yourdiscerning Porsche 911 Turbo customer can trump that with 414bhp fromthat unburstable boxer unit. Lamborghini, however, has gone one
better.Actually make that two better if we are counting the number of extracylinders over the Ferrari, and 78 better if we are counting the extrabhp over the Porsche. Lamborghini has given the Gallardo a 492bhp V10.This V10
engine is awesome. There's a world of torque on offer.Lamborghini says that 80 per cent of the total 376lb ft is availablefrom as low as 1,500rpm and it
feels believable. Then there is a worldof horsepower to revel in at high revs, with the engine not musteringits full 492bhp until 7,800rpm. The combination of big power andmassive torque is a fantastic one and the screaming of the engine addsanother almost live, almost animal dimension.You get the same feeling under hard deceleration, thanks to the massiveventilated discs - 365 x 34mm at the front and 335 x 32mm at the rear -stuffed inside the alloy wheels and combined with the ABS and EBDsystems. After the size of the thing, the next confidence booster is thesteering. It is superbly weighted and ultra direct. Think Lotus Elisebut bigger and you are on the right track. Choose a line and theGallardo sticks to it. If you buy a Gallardo, there's probably a lot more technology under theskin now than there might have been had Lamborghini still beenoperating under its own steam and not Audi's. A lot of that technologyis clearly in place to help keep the car on the road. But do notconfuse safe with boring, for that is so not the case with this car.OK, so it does give you a lot of help, but it never, ever feels like itis doing everything for you. Behind the wheel you don't, for onemoment, feel left out of the action. Instead, when you drive it hard,you sit at the epicentre of a storm of raw excitement. The Lamborghiniline these days is that even with all the German technology andengineering, the Latin spirit still rules the car, especially onsmaller, twistier roads where it feels trully amazing. Could you live with one every day though once you have handed over theestimated £120,000 price and taken delivery early next year? I'ddefinitely have it over a Porsche 911 Turbo or a Ferrari 360. Of coursethe proof will be when we line up all three cars together, and eventhen, if I'm proved wrong on a technicality, I don't think I'll carevery much. But that's for another day. Here we are back at the factory.With the Diablo you used to utter a little sigh of relief on returning,but all I feel now is despair, for this is one car you never want tohand back. Not ever.
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