Some might call it the “poster effect”—when you finally see a Lamborghini in person after years of only seeing them on posters, the effect is childlike giddiness. The jump from wall art to reality is mesmerizing, and the crazy origami spaceship with Lamborghini badges sitting in our parking lot doesn’t disappoint. Paint one metallic white—sorry, make that Bianco Monocerus, which literally means “white single-horned beast”—and it amplifies the folded-paper look of the latest Gallardo LP560-4.
The blitz on the senses and sensibility continues inside the white beast, where soft black leather stretches over everything but the floor. The cabin has a few reminders that Audi owns and runs Lamborghini, and these are the only concessions to the ordinary—the climate-control system has been lifted from the A8, and the stereo and navigation system are from a last-gen A4. Don’t fret. If the Italians were left to engineer such banalities, the interior would probably have wires hanging out of it and smell like an electric train set—let’s be honest, it wouldn’t work as reliably as the Audi-supplied hardware.
Turn the Audi-like switchblade key in the ignition, and the starter whirs, rousing the heavily revised V-10; it barks and coughs, then settles down to a warm rumble. Some minor styling changes have been made to the Gallardo for 2009, but the big news is the engine. Direct fuel injection, a higher compression ratio of 12.5:1, and a bump in displacement from 5.0 liters to 5.2 liters now provide 552 horsepower, 40 more than last year’s standard Gallardo and 29 more than the special-edition Gallardo Superleggera.
Despite the extra power, the smallest Lamborghini remains eminently civilized when the dial is set to delicate. The chassis is firm without being abusive, the driving position is comfortable, visibility is good in all directions, and freeway traffic parts ahead of you like some sort of vehicular Red Sea.
The only chink in the armor is the carbon-ceramic brake system that commands $15,600 over the standard brakes. As far as we can tell, the first few inches of brake-pedal travel has little effect on the brakes; meanwhile, the Lambo continues to hurtle toward Internet immortality on www.wrecked exotics.com. Keep pushing, and without warning, the brakes clamp down hard, and you’ve stopped well short of the stoplight. Passengers will wonder why you seem incapable of driving your Italian toy smoothly, you’ll regret spending Honda Civic money on a set of unsatisfying brakes, and you might just get rear-ended by a Toyota Corolla whose driver was trying to snap a picture of your car. The Gallardo Superleggera we tested in November 2007 had even worse brake feel. Feel aside, the brakes achieve an excellent 158-foot stop from 70 mph, but the all-or-nothing touchiness is inexcusable.
Prospective buyers can easily avoid the prickly brakes (and save $15,600) by not ordering them; we’ve previously tested Gallardos with the standard setup and found brake feel to be progressive and satisfying. With the exception of the optional brakes, this Lambo is so good that the Ferrari F430 may have just been toppled.
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