Test Drive - Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera

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sur la terre unique rides

PICTURES: Paul Barshon

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Managing Editor, James McCarthy, travels to the heart of Andalusia’s bull fighting country to put the new Lamborghini Superleggera through its paces and, despite the Spanish rain, finds that this new raging bull is no damp squib. >>> “Crikey!” Exclaims my passenger with a mixture of panic and respect, as I completely miss the apex of the turn I am throttling into and the back end of the Lamborghini I am piloting swings out wildly - complete with tyre squeal, spray from the wet track and the destruction of more than a few little orange cones in the process.

Recovering my composure, I plant the accelerator to the floor and, just like a scolded dog, the new LP 570-4 Gallardo Superleggera immediately begins to behave itself again, much to my relief and that of South African-based Business Day motoring editor, Mark Smyth, who had decided (rather regrettably on his part methinks) to sit in with me on my first run around the rain-soaked Circuito Monteblanco in Seville.

The southern Spanish town of Seville is famously home to the noble Andalusian Bull, renowned for its bravery and aggression in duelling dandily-clad matadors in the bullfighting arenas of the world. However, the Andalusian Bull’s other claim to fame, and perhaps more relevant to our story, is that it sits proudly on the badge of the car I am swinging, with gay abandon, around a soaking wet racetrack.

SETTING THE PACE

Within weeks of the latest iteration of Lamborghini’s Gallardo Superleggera making its debut at the Geneva Motor Show, Sur la Terre received the call inviting us to enjoy the five star hospitality of Seville and to experience the car in the metal, so to speak, under racetrack conditions.

Landing in the wonderful spring sunshine that seems to bring southern Europe to life, hopes were high for a day of petrol-headed hi-jinks with a car that was not only 70kgs lighter than the LP 560-4 that I test drove last summer, but has a larger, more powerful engine and bears all the hallmarks of old school Lamborghini lunacy. With figures that speak for themselves, like a new 5.2 litre V10 engine with 570 horsepower, a top speed of 325kp/h and 540Nm of torque at 6,500rpm, it was shaping up to be Pirelli-pummeling day.

Arrival at the track, though, coincided with the onset of a brooding grey sky.

The mood of the assembled scribes was quickly starting to match that of the heavens, but was soon offset by the brilliant colours of the automotive guard of honour that met us from the blacked-out Lamborghini VIP bus. As we alighted in the car park of the Circuito Monteblanco, we examined the wild bulls that would be our steeds for the day. The look was all too familiar after my summertime liaison with the standard Gallardo but, as I was to soon find out, the Superleggera was an entirely different bull to ride.

Lamborghini is branding the car as “The Pacemaker” and, as we sat in the press lounge waiting for our crack at the beasts lining up trackside, President and CEO Stephan Winkelmann talked us through the reasoning behind the Dirty Harry-esque moniker. He explained that gone are the days when top speed is all that matters in defining a supercar. “You are unlikely to reach 300kp/h on a racetrack,” he explained, “let alone on any road, anywhere in the world. Details such as design, power to weight ratio, acceleration, handling and CO2 emissions will be the benchmarks of future supercars.”

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That is why, claims the company, the new Superleggera is setting the pace. It accelerates from a standing start to 100km/h in 3.4 seconds, has a dry weight of 1.3 tonnes - 70kg lighter than the LP 560-4, thanks to extensive use of carbon fibre in the diffusers, underbody panelling and exterior elements such as the rear spoiler and wing mirrors.

Conversely, despite the LP-570-4 being lighter than the standard 2009 Gallardo, it is 20kg heavier than the original 2007 Superleggera, due to the increased engine capacity. However, it has a better weight-to-power ratio of 2.35kg (5.18lb) per horsepower, lowering its CO2 emissions by more than 20 percent over its predecessor.

TRACKING THE BEAST

So, finally it was time to tame the growling bulls that sat below us.

Lamborghini had organised the day very well, meaning that everyone in the 30-strong group was set to get plenty of time behind the wheel, and your faithful Managing Editor took to the track in the second group.

Climbing into the cockpit of the Superleggera, memories of my summer fling with the Gallardo came rushing back. The interior layout hasn’t changed at all; the reverse button is still in a confusing place and to set the car in motion is still a chore if you are uninitiated with the Lambo system. My first ride of the day was the sleek, black option, and I immediately felt at home in the reasonably spacious cockpit, though to keep things on the safe side, I decided to attempt my first run in Automatic.

We were asked not to mess with the ESP settings too much, so I opted for the conservative choice, putting the car in into Sport mode and, accepting the presets with the push of a button, pulled slowly into the pit lane behind the pace car. Mark, who had already taken his first tilt around Monteblanco, sat to my right. I was tense and unsure of what to expect from a car much lighter, and more powerful than the one I had become so comfortable with six months ago.

The little hiccup (alluded at the start of the article) with the second corner aside, the tension washed away as I became more aware of what a wonderful little lunatic this new incarnation of the Superleggera was.

While definitely lighter, the handling was amazing.

Even though there was an underlying feeling that the Superleggera could be quite unforgiving if treated with disrespect, any mistake at the wheel was repelled by the superb all-wheel drive and the intuitive ESP systems.

In Auto, however, hard braking followed by firm acceleration was repaid with a jarring stutter before the throttle opened and let rip the awesome acceleration of the 5.2 litre V10. On later runs, using the six-speed manual “flappy-paddle� gearbox eliminated the judder and gave for a much smoother ride into, and out of, tight corners.

One area that was never in any doubt, though, was the grip. Whatever line you took, the car remained planted on its four Pirelli P Zero Corsa

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tyres (developed specifically for the new Superleggera and closely related to pure race rubber). Performance on the damp track was one thing, but It was after the foreboding, bruised sky finally availed itself of its liquid cargo that the Superleggera really came into its own.

THE RAIN IN SPAIN

Lunch break became an extended affair, with the assembled motoring hacks toying with the idea of asking if the car park could be converted into a drift pan, and the yellow Superleggera doing laps as the Lamborghini test drivers worked out the best way to keep us on the now waterlogged track.

During this hiatus in play, it was time to go out and get the photography.

In hindsight, I should have booked the “Seville orange” Lambo for my snaps, as it would have made for better pictures than the gunmetal grey edition, which seemed to now be blending into the sorry monochrome sky and the dull tarmac. Still, who was to know that the rain in Spain would fall mostly on Monteblanco? Obviously, not me when it came to picking my car for the photo session.

After a few laps of dodging the photographer’s tracking car, I returned to the press lounge in time for a new briefing from the professionals.

The rules of the game had changed, as had the route around the course in order to continue driving, but without the afternoon turning into an aquaplaning hell.

In the streaming rain, we assembled in the pits once again, this time for a crack at the bull in wet conditions. While it was not an ideal situation, spirits were not totally dampened when we realised that this was a unique opportunity to give the car a workout in both the semi dry and very wet.

This time I mounted a lime green Lambo and took to the track, just me and a pace car driven by none other than top tamer of the raging bull, Max Venturi. We had clear instructions to drive in manual, and to hit the corners in third gear using a progressive, rather than an aggressive braking and acceleration technique.

Basically, this meant that downforce would be transferred more to the front of the car than through the rear axle, as it is when just flooring the pedals. In normal circumstances, the power delivered by the V10 is channelled with a ratio of 30:70 to the front and rear axles, while the weight distribution is 43/57 percent front/rear.

In summary, this made for a much richer driving experience, as the increased torque of the new Superleggera became evident entering and exiting the corners. It also put the all-wheel drive system properly through its paces, and boy did it respond with flying colours. Traction on the Lambo was relentless, even in the wet, the car just stuck to the road.

But alas, there could only be two cars on the track at a time under the new rain-imposed rules, so each of the present press corps, unless they rode shotgun, only got the one run before the big black bus was back and we were being ushered aboard by our attentive hostesses.

On the journey back to the wonderful, 82-year-old Hotel Alfonso XIII, we passed by Seville’s riverside bullring, The Toros de la Maestranza, and I pondered the question: is bullfighting a cruel and inhumane blood sport? Not if it is fighting an LP 570-4 Superleggera into a tight corner.

This particular breed of bull might buck a little on the way in and kick a lot on the way out, but with engineering this precise, you get all the thrills with safety of spilling nothing. Except maybe a couple of little orange cones.

A LOAD OF BULL

The world of bullfighting, and particularly Seville, played a key part in the creation of Lamborghini’s identity. In 1962, Ferruccio Lamborghini visited the Seville ranch of Don Eduardo Miura, a renowned breeder of Spanish fighting bulls. So impressed was he by the majestic Miura animals, that he decided to adopt a raging bull as the now famous emblem of the Lamborghini marque. Car names followed, with the Miura and the Islero, which was named after the bull that killed the famed bullfighter Manolete in 1947. Espada is the Spanish word for sword. The Diablo was also named after a legendary bull, while Gallardo is the name of one of the five ancestral castes of the Spanish fighting bull breed. Reventón is the bull that defeated young Mexican torero, Félix Guzmán, in 1943.

Murciélago is the legendary bull whose life was spared by “El Lagartijo” for his brave performance in 1879 and the Estoque concept of 2008 was named after the estoc, the sword traditionally used by matadors during bullfights. Nearly all Lamborghini car names have bullfighting references with the exception of the Countach, which refers to a northwest Italian exclamation of astonishment by men upon sighting a beautiful woman.