Category: Exotic Sports 
Price Range: No data available
Performance from 4500rpm up, four-wheel-drive traction, accessible grip, engine sound, looks, quality, relative usability
Second gear ratio too high for Britain, some vision is hampered
Will give Ferrari's breadwinner, the 360 Modena, a real fright
Lambo has made huge strides in this direction since the Diablo. You can see out now, and clutch and gearshifts don't require Russian shot-putter muscles. Indeed, you can also opt for E-Gear, a clutchless sequential system operated by paddles behind the steering wheel. It's relatively smooth compared with rival systems, but not as involving as the cheaper real manual alternative. Visibility is pretty good once you accept you have to guess the position of the front bumper. Main blind spot is over the passenger rear three-quarter - awkward at Y-junctions. Also, you have to peer around the windscreen pillars in tight corners. There's nothing tricky about the ergonomics - the heating/air-con unit, and the stereo, come straight off an Audi A8 and are models of clarity. The Gallardo is an almost magically secure and capable handler. Its four-wheel-drive system finds astonishing traction, even in the wet or over bumpy surfaces - far better than a Ferrari 360 can muster. Cornering grip is spectacular. Response to the steering is progressive and faithful. More surprising is that there's very little sense of weight transfer: in many mid-engined cars, if you back off the accelerator mid-corner, there's a terrifying tendency for the tail to swing around, impelled by the mass of the engine. Not in the Gallardo. With such benign intrinsic behaviour, the ESP skid-control system has little to do, so its threshold is set high and it seldom intervenes. So you can leave it switched on for emergencies without it cutting back the fun. Best of all, though, is the feel of the car. Through the seat especially, but the steering too, there's wonderful progression and feedback. You sense the car's every effort on your behalf, interact with it, feel confident about going to the edge to get the best from it. And the sheer forces of acceleration, cornering and braking imprint themselves on your memory, especially to the accompaniment of that engine's acoustics. It rocks.
This is what we're here for of course, and on most counts the Gallardo delivers. Astoundingly. The bald 500bhp figure leads you to expect nothing else, nor the 4.3-second 0-62mph acceleration time or the top speed of 193mph. Revving out to 7500rpm, the V10 supplements its huge displacement with high-tech aids such as dual-length inlet manifolds and variable cam timing to make sure the torque curve stays full over as wide a rev range as possible. It's tractable at town speeds, dawdling uncomplainingly in a high gear. Accelerate and the intake note deepens, accompanied by a fizzing of valve gear and a strong extra thrust after 4500rpm. There's a deep roaring charge to 6500rpm, when suddenly a new corral of horses kicks in to hurl you on. Breathtaking animalism, pure soul. Yet (unlike big brother Murcielago) it's not so absurdly loud at a cruise to tire you, or in town to wake your neighbours. So what prevents the full five-star rating? Simple. This car can almost break the British motorway speed limit in first gear, and second is good for 100mph plus. Third to sixth are for serious speed (autobahn or test track, officer). Net result: the high second gear makes the car feel, well, if not exactly sluggish then certainly restrained when coming out of 50mph second-gear corners. Conditions when a Porsche 911 Turbo sets off with mind-warping mid-range thrust.
