A Gallardo Vs A Ferrari 550 in a drag along freeway....Lambo Lamborghini Gallardo Ferrari 550
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Lamborghini Gallardo Race
A Gallardo Vs A Ferrari 550 in a drag along freeway....Lambo Lamborghini Gallardo Ferrari 550
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Gallardo Superleggera
Lamborghini: The Gallardo Superleggera is the new hottie in the Lamborghini stable. The two-seat, exotic-looking coupe uses carbon fiber where it can, which helps winnow weight down to a remarkable 2,999 pounds. Consider: That's akin to the weight of a fuel-efficient Toyota Prius.
But don't expect this Lamborghini, with a boisterously loud, 530-horsepower, 5-liter V-10, to sip fuel. Official government mileage ratings aren't likely to be much better than the 11 mpg in city driving and 17 mpg on the highway that this same V-10 provides for "regular" Lamborghini Gallardo coupes.
The Superleggera's starting price is $215,000.
But don't expect this Lamborghini, with a boisterously loud, 530-horsepower, 5-liter V-10, to sip fuel. Official government mileage ratings aren't likely to be much better than the 11 mpg in city driving and 17 mpg on the highway that this same V-10 provides for "regular" Lamborghini Gallardo coupes.
The Superleggera's starting price is $215,000.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Lamborghini Gallardo
This car could so easily have been an abomination and were it built ten years ago, it would have been. Nowadays, savvy brand management has retained the extreme feel of the Lamborghini marque but has managed to rid Lamborghini of the excesses that characterised some of its earlier proprietors. The Gallardo Spyder is a very cleverly pitched car insofar as it manages to retain much of the look and feel of what many customers would expect from a ‘proper’ Lamborghini while blending in a healthy dose of German build quality.
Normally I’m dead set against lopping the roofs off cars that started out as saloons or coupes. The results are often bodies without adequate torsional stiffness, a problem exacerbated when a 520bhp engine is part of the mix. In the case of the Gallardo, the chassis was designed from the outset with an open-topped car in mind and hence has an incredible resistance to twisting. Even with the metal roof lopped off, the Gallardo is still a good deal stiffer than many supercar coupes. Only a very small amount of strengthening work was required, with some reinforcements added to the sills.
Unlike the Murcielago Roadster, which has a fiendishly complicated ragtop, the erection of which would make a fitting Krypton Factor finale, the Gallardo shows significant progress with an electrically folding hood mechanism operated by a pair of buttons on the centre of the dashboard. Twenty seconds later, you’re good to go, the roof either neatly cinched into place or secreted beneath the engine cover well out of harm’s way. The rear screen moves automatically while the hood is being raised or lowered and defaults to a raised position. Unlike its great rival, the Ferrari F430 Spider, the Lamborghini actually looks pretty smart with the roof up, the angular styling giving it a far better resolved profile than the slightly awkward-looking Ferrari.
Those who remember the 493bhp engine originally fitted to the Gallardo coupe now get even more of a good thing. Teased out to fully 520bhp to spike the guns of ‘the crew up the road’, the Gallardo Spyder has also been re-geared to further access that concussive power delivery. The six-speed gearbox is still offered as a conventional manual or the optional automated e-gear sequential shift but first gear is 27 per cent lower and second gear is 13 per cent lower. This means that the Gallardo Spyder steps off the line with real verve despite the added weight of that soft top roof mechanism. Third, fourth and fifth gears are all 6 per cent lower and top is 3.5 per cent lower. The steering has been modified to sharpen up turn-in and the suspension benefits from trick Koni dampers that feel almost rigid when the car is switched to Sport mode. For attacking a typical British B-road, it’s a little too much but for the occasional trackday blat it’s just the ticket.
Let’s not kid ourselves about the purpose of this car though. As much as Lamborghini need to build in all that capability, most owners will buy this car for the way it looks, the way it sounds and the badge on the bonnet. That’s it. It could handle like a frog in a sock and the Gallardo Spyder would still disappear out of dealer showrooms as fast as Lamborghini could bolt them together. That it doesn’t is a welcome bonus. In fact, it’s a better car than many would give it credit for.
Take the four-wheel drive system as an example. Many serious drivers groan when they encounter all-wheel drive sports cars, accusing them of pandering to those with no skills and tempting the inexperienced into an invincible feeling that usually ends in a very high speed realisation that this isn’t, in fact, the case. The Gallardo is different. Lamborghini have worked at adapting the system so that it offers the friendliness and inherent traction advantage of a four-wheel drive system with the on-limit behaviour and balance of a rear-wheel drive setup.
The Gallardo rarely feels intimidating at normal speeds but start pressing closer to the edge of its handling envelope and it’ll flash you some very clear messages that it’s time to watch your step. If you feel you can handle a few well-telegraphed oversteer moments, you’ll probably get on very well with the Gallardo Spyder. Get it wrong, and the consequences will end up on every cameraphone within a ten mile radius and you’ll be poster boy of the month on wreckedexotics.com. Visibility is typical of a low slung mid-engined supercar but the Lamborghini feels compact and chunky. If it had more luggage space it would almost feel Porsche 911-style everyday useable. The e-gear system is one of the better examples of its ilk. Developed by Magneti Marelli, it’s not a million miles away from the system used by Ferrari and Aston Martin, although it can surely only be a matter of time before this system is superseded by a derivative of Audi’s twin-clutch DSG set-up.
The Gallardo Spyder is everything we’d hoped for. Gripes? A little less plastic and obviously sourced Audio parts in the interior but that’s about it. If you’re looking for a car that’s as exploitable as it is extreme, this Spyder isn’t going to bite unless badly provoked. Source: acceleratebristol.com
Normally I’m dead set against lopping the roofs off cars that started out as saloons or coupes. The results are often bodies without adequate torsional stiffness, a problem exacerbated when a 520bhp engine is part of the mix. In the case of the Gallardo, the chassis was designed from the outset with an open-topped car in mind and hence has an incredible resistance to twisting. Even with the metal roof lopped off, the Gallardo is still a good deal stiffer than many supercar coupes. Only a very small amount of strengthening work was required, with some reinforcements added to the sills.
Unlike the Murcielago Roadster, which has a fiendishly complicated ragtop, the erection of which would make a fitting Krypton Factor finale, the Gallardo shows significant progress with an electrically folding hood mechanism operated by a pair of buttons on the centre of the dashboard. Twenty seconds later, you’re good to go, the roof either neatly cinched into place or secreted beneath the engine cover well out of harm’s way. The rear screen moves automatically while the hood is being raised or lowered and defaults to a raised position. Unlike its great rival, the Ferrari F430 Spider, the Lamborghini actually looks pretty smart with the roof up, the angular styling giving it a far better resolved profile than the slightly awkward-looking Ferrari.
Those who remember the 493bhp engine originally fitted to the Gallardo coupe now get even more of a good thing. Teased out to fully 520bhp to spike the guns of ‘the crew up the road’, the Gallardo Spyder has also been re-geared to further access that concussive power delivery. The six-speed gearbox is still offered as a conventional manual or the optional automated e-gear sequential shift but first gear is 27 per cent lower and second gear is 13 per cent lower. This means that the Gallardo Spyder steps off the line with real verve despite the added weight of that soft top roof mechanism. Third, fourth and fifth gears are all 6 per cent lower and top is 3.5 per cent lower. The steering has been modified to sharpen up turn-in and the suspension benefits from trick Koni dampers that feel almost rigid when the car is switched to Sport mode. For attacking a typical British B-road, it’s a little too much but for the occasional trackday blat it’s just the ticket.
Let’s not kid ourselves about the purpose of this car though. As much as Lamborghini need to build in all that capability, most owners will buy this car for the way it looks, the way it sounds and the badge on the bonnet. That’s it. It could handle like a frog in a sock and the Gallardo Spyder would still disappear out of dealer showrooms as fast as Lamborghini could bolt them together. That it doesn’t is a welcome bonus. In fact, it’s a better car than many would give it credit for.
Take the four-wheel drive system as an example. Many serious drivers groan when they encounter all-wheel drive sports cars, accusing them of pandering to those with no skills and tempting the inexperienced into an invincible feeling that usually ends in a very high speed realisation that this isn’t, in fact, the case. The Gallardo is different. Lamborghini have worked at adapting the system so that it offers the friendliness and inherent traction advantage of a four-wheel drive system with the on-limit behaviour and balance of a rear-wheel drive setup.
The Gallardo rarely feels intimidating at normal speeds but start pressing closer to the edge of its handling envelope and it’ll flash you some very clear messages that it’s time to watch your step. If you feel you can handle a few well-telegraphed oversteer moments, you’ll probably get on very well with the Gallardo Spyder. Get it wrong, and the consequences will end up on every cameraphone within a ten mile radius and you’ll be poster boy of the month on wreckedexotics.com. Visibility is typical of a low slung mid-engined supercar but the Lamborghini feels compact and chunky. If it had more luggage space it would almost feel Porsche 911-style everyday useable. The e-gear system is one of the better examples of its ilk. Developed by Magneti Marelli, it’s not a million miles away from the system used by Ferrari and Aston Martin, although it can surely only be a matter of time before this system is superseded by a derivative of Audi’s twin-clutch DSG set-up.
The Gallardo Spyder is everything we’d hoped for. Gripes? A little less plastic and obviously sourced Audio parts in the interior but that’s about it. If you’re looking for a car that’s as exploitable as it is extreme, this Spyder isn’t going to bite unless badly provoked. Source: acceleratebristol.com
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