The noise from a 100 cylinders crests and crashes against the pit walls assaulting my eardrums. It’s an angry and urgent sound, and it tears apart the stillness of the morning with its absolutely raucous loudness. But today I’m not complaining. Obviously I won’t, not when the noise comes from ten V10 powered tifosi hunting predators circling the Circuito Monteblanco.
This purpose built racetrack is largely used as a proving ground and hasn’t held much of a race in several years. It’s largely used for trackdays, testing and corporate motoring events, such as the one today, the first drive of the very special Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera. For the last hour these cars have been pounding the track and despite the heat generated from those massive engines, exhausts and the blazing sun, not one of the journalists present has been scurrying to the air conditioned lounge. Lamborghinis do have that kind of effect on people and the LP 570-4 Superleggera even more so. That’s because this is the more powerful lightened version of the more powerful lightened version of Lamborghini’s best-selling supercar, the Gallardo.
Two years ago I drove the Gallardo Superleggera in Italy, and I came back thinking that there was no way a car could be this sensational. At the end of that drive I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that sensational cars as I know them, be they sports cars, hot hatches, hyper saloons or supercars could ever come close to replicating the melodrama of a Lamborghini. Then I drove the Murcielago LP670-4 SV and life as a motoring scribe took a new turn. Yet that experience could not overpower driving the LP570-4 on a racetrack, no holds barred.
The LP 570-4 is a premeditated response to Ferrari’s 458 Italia (and the power outputs, would you believe are identical to the last horse, or bull). Lamborghini still dislikes Ferrari like you dislike broccoli. And you still won’t ever see a scarlet Lamborghini; it just goes against the grain. The closest Lamborghini has come to the colour red is a hot flaming orange, first seen on the Superleggera. The decades old rivalry between two of the most iconic supercar brands on the planet has seen some of the most startling and evocative cars emerge from Sant’Agata, Bolognese. However the last two years have been difficult for the Italian supercar manufacturer no thanks to the economy plunging lower than the neckline on those Lamborghini show girls. Sales fell and as a result production was cut to keep matters within hand. Yet the world saw the Reventon, the Balboni and then the final encore of the glorious Murcielago, the Super Veloce (Italian for super fast – what a language!).
Today however business is looking up again, the buyers are back and to keep in tune with this new turn of events, Lamborghini has decided to reframe its priorities. It starts by focusing more on lightness (which we shall see later) and handling rather than acceleration and top speed. That does not mean you’re going to see a hot hatch or a go-faster saloon, and even though plans for the four-door, four-seat Estoque have been (temporarily) shelved, Lamborghini will continue to make cars that are absolutely mental.
So before unveiling the Jota, a hyper car that replaces the Murcielago next year Lamborghini, staying faithful to their one new car every year philosophy, gave us the Gallardo LP 570-4 Superleggera. Unlike the Gallardo the LP 570-4 is visual drama of the sort concocted on Broadway. It’s tempestuous and broody, and has an air of sublime malevolence. This is Freddy Krueger dressed in Ed Hardy, and just a moment’s glance will give you sleepless nights.
The front chin is new though it’s not carbon-fibre since it was prone to getting chipped by pebbles. And neither is it ornamental; along with the massive fixed wing at the rear it provides tremendous downforce to the LP 570-4 SL and along with the four-wheel-drive powertrain gives it astounding dynamics. The Gallardo, like every other Lamborghini and unlike the limited edition Gallardo Balboni (the only RWD Lambo right now) sends all that copious power to all four wheels. And that delivers forceful handling using lessons derived from the Gallardo Super Trofeo, Lamborghini’s one-make race car series.
In the quest for a higher plane of exotica, Lamborghini have made the LP 570-4 nearly 70 kilos lighter than the LP560-4, which by itself was a 100 kilos lighter than the bog standard Gallardo. In order to attain that lightness of being, Lamborghini found that they could use carbon-fibre and other lightweight elements even more abundantly than before. On an aluminum bodyshell, polycarbonate windows sit within carbon-fibre doors panels. The engine cover has a polycarbonate window while the engine cover itself is made from carbon-fibre. The rear spoiler is also carbon-fibre and it like on the Murcielago SV is pretty hard-to-miss large. It isn’t flappy so at varying speeds you won’t see it do the Macarena simply because there aren’t any motors to raise or lower the spoiler which would add weight. Further bits that get the carbon weave are the sills (running board) and the huge diffuser at the rear that houses twin Patriot missile silos for exhausts. The underbody tray has several more components constructed from the fibre compared to the LP560-4 and even smaller bits such as the outside mirrors are carbon-fibre. The wheels are forged aluminum alloy with titanium wheel nuts holding them in place and together they contribute a 13 kilo weight loss.
The carbon fetish gets more pronounced inside the car which is a bit minimalist since there isn’t a stereo though it has air-conditioning and power windows. The entire transmission tunnel, the door pads (which incidentally don’t have a door handle but use a leather strap to yank the doors shut), the steering wheel covered in Alcantara, the handbrake, the dial housing and the seat shells are all lightweight bits woven in carbon. Even the seats use Alcantara instead of leather which adds… oops, sheds a few more grams of weight. It may not sound like much but didn’t you feel on top of the world not to mention more active and agile when you slipped easily into a pair of trousers two inches narrower than the last one.
This purpose built racetrack is largely used as a proving ground and hasn’t held much of a race in several years. It’s largely used for trackdays, testing and corporate motoring events, such as the one today, the first drive of the very special Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera. For the last hour these cars have been pounding the track and despite the heat generated from those massive engines, exhausts and the blazing sun, not one of the journalists present has been scurrying to the air conditioned lounge. Lamborghinis do have that kind of effect on people and the LP 570-4 Superleggera even more so. That’s because this is the more powerful lightened version of the more powerful lightened version of Lamborghini’s best-selling supercar, the Gallardo.
Two years ago I drove the Gallardo Superleggera in Italy, and I came back thinking that there was no way a car could be this sensational. At the end of that drive I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that sensational cars as I know them, be they sports cars, hot hatches, hyper saloons or supercars could ever come close to replicating the melodrama of a Lamborghini. Then I drove the Murcielago LP670-4 SV and life as a motoring scribe took a new turn. Yet that experience could not overpower driving the LP570-4 on a racetrack, no holds barred.
The LP 570-4 is a premeditated response to Ferrari’s 458 Italia (and the power outputs, would you believe are identical to the last horse, or bull). Lamborghini still dislikes Ferrari like you dislike broccoli. And you still won’t ever see a scarlet Lamborghini; it just goes against the grain. The closest Lamborghini has come to the colour red is a hot flaming orange, first seen on the Superleggera. The decades old rivalry between two of the most iconic supercar brands on the planet has seen some of the most startling and evocative cars emerge from Sant’Agata, Bolognese. However the last two years have been difficult for the Italian supercar manufacturer no thanks to the economy plunging lower than the neckline on those Lamborghini show girls. Sales fell and as a result production was cut to keep matters within hand. Yet the world saw the Reventon, the Balboni and then the final encore of the glorious Murcielago, the Super Veloce (Italian for super fast – what a language!).
Today however business is looking up again, the buyers are back and to keep in tune with this new turn of events, Lamborghini has decided to reframe its priorities. It starts by focusing more on lightness (which we shall see later) and handling rather than acceleration and top speed. That does not mean you’re going to see a hot hatch or a go-faster saloon, and even though plans for the four-door, four-seat Estoque have been (temporarily) shelved, Lamborghini will continue to make cars that are absolutely mental.
So before unveiling the Jota, a hyper car that replaces the Murcielago next year Lamborghini, staying faithful to their one new car every year philosophy, gave us the Gallardo LP 570-4 Superleggera. Unlike the Gallardo the LP 570-4 is visual drama of the sort concocted on Broadway. It’s tempestuous and broody, and has an air of sublime malevolence. This is Freddy Krueger dressed in Ed Hardy, and just a moment’s glance will give you sleepless nights.
The front chin is new though it’s not carbon-fibre since it was prone to getting chipped by pebbles. And neither is it ornamental; along with the massive fixed wing at the rear it provides tremendous downforce to the LP 570-4 SL and along with the four-wheel-drive powertrain gives it astounding dynamics. The Gallardo, like every other Lamborghini and unlike the limited edition Gallardo Balboni (the only RWD Lambo right now) sends all that copious power to all four wheels. And that delivers forceful handling using lessons derived from the Gallardo Super Trofeo, Lamborghini’s one-make race car series.
In the quest for a higher plane of exotica, Lamborghini have made the LP 570-4 nearly 70 kilos lighter than the LP560-4, which by itself was a 100 kilos lighter than the bog standard Gallardo. In order to attain that lightness of being, Lamborghini found that they could use carbon-fibre and other lightweight elements even more abundantly than before. On an aluminum bodyshell, polycarbonate windows sit within carbon-fibre doors panels. The engine cover has a polycarbonate window while the engine cover itself is made from carbon-fibre. The rear spoiler is also carbon-fibre and it like on the Murcielago SV is pretty hard-to-miss large. It isn’t flappy so at varying speeds you won’t see it do the Macarena simply because there aren’t any motors to raise or lower the spoiler which would add weight. Further bits that get the carbon weave are the sills (running board) and the huge diffuser at the rear that houses twin Patriot missile silos for exhausts. The underbody tray has several more components constructed from the fibre compared to the LP560-4 and even smaller bits such as the outside mirrors are carbon-fibre. The wheels are forged aluminum alloy with titanium wheel nuts holding them in place and together they contribute a 13 kilo weight loss.
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