#6 - The Raging Bull

Lamborghini Gallardo: It is well known among motorheads that Lamborghinis were the maddest, most impractical and most difficult to drive supercars in the world until Audi bought the company in 1998 and added a sprinkling of sensibility which only made the cars even more desirable. The first Lamborghini after this was the stupendous Murcielago but it was outdone by the mean-looking Gallardo which promptly became the best-selling Lambo ever in record time. So what if it didn’t have scissor doors and had “only” 490 bhp when compared to the Murcielago’s colossal 580? For an "entry-level supercar", it was still blisteringly quick on the track and it could still make heads turn, necks crane, jaws drop and eyes bleed. Furthermore, people loved the Gallardo’s better all-round visibility which made it far more manageable in city traffic than the Murcielago. People who could afford one, anyway... It was so good, in fact, that Ferrari were forced to retire their entry-level 360 series and take action because the similarly-priced Gallardo was becoming worryingly popular. But unfortunately for Lamborghini, the situation backfired horribly when Ferrari released the F430 which just made mincemeat out of the baby Bull. Anyway, back to the game now...

Power Lap [Awaiting update]: Before starting off, I feel the need to devote some attention to the Gallardo’s looks. I mean, even by Lamborghini standards, it looks absolutely staggering. While the Murcielago was curvier and sensuously feminine, the Gallardo looks positively wicked and menacing with its sharp lines and quadrangular headlamps. It resembles a predatory beast crouching low just before pouncing on its unsuspecting prey. Unlike most other cars, adding a large spoiler will only ruin this car’s breath-taking Lambo silhouette and I would agree with Ming who likes to keep his Gallardo’s stock looks intact. Anyway, back to the start line; you can effortlessly get a Perfect Launch almost every single time with the Gallardo, which is courtesy of the rear-biased four-wheel drive system. The Gallardo’s 5.0 Liter V10 puts out a nasal roar every time you change gears as if the predatory beast is breathing in and out while hurtling along at insane speeds. Oh yes, it is a mighty quick animal, the Gallardo, and long straight sections form its staple food.

But all is not well when you’re driving the baby Lambo hard. Despite the V10 being positioned ideally [between the driver and the rear axle] the car does not feel as sharp as it should. The nose feels heavy even at low speeds and the understeer only gets worse as you go faster which means the Gallardo can only handle long, sweeping turns and will fumble miserably with tight corners. Due to the car’s XL-sized width, collisions with muggle cars are going to be more likely when you’re trying to squeeze past them on narrow roads and the fact that the car doesn’t react quickly enough when you try to avoid hitting them will only make matters worse. So you collide. Annoyingly, the misery doesn’t end there. If you even hit a water barrel, the engine loses a lot of revs and asks you to shift down and when you do, the revs don’t climb with the same ease as if the engine has a solid-uranium flywheel.

Even if you ignore the collision-angle, the car’s unnecessarily daft handling is a glaring shortcoming which only gets worse as you go faster and you literally have to wrestle with the car to change direction at speeds approaching 190 mph and above. I don’t like to have a wrestling match when I’m driving, I don’t know about you. Jeremy Clarkson somehow seems to love this thing coz he sold his Ford GT and bought the convertible version of the Lamborghini Gallardo. But I have an update. In the October 2007 edition of Top Gear, he wrote that he’s scheming to somehow return the Gallardo Spyder and get his money back so he can buy the new Audi R8…