{"id":37747,"date":"2013-12-19T06:00:06","date_GTNN":"2013-12-19T11:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hautetime.com\/?p=37747"},"modified":"2016-10-23T19:30:51","modified_GTNN":"2016-10-23T23:30:51","slug":"haute-auto-week-lamborghini-gallardo-commando-lambo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hautetime.com\/haute-auto-week-lamborghini-gallardo-commando-lambo\/","title":{"rendered":"Haute Auto of the Week: Lamborghini Gallardo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"profilo<\/a><\/p>\n

What is it about Lamborghinis? They thrill the senses, what with their angular masculinity and their amazing song. They certainly don\u2019t look like anything else on the road. How do that do that, year after year, making such fresh statements?<\/p>\n

The Gallardo (the \u201centry-level Lambo\u201d) is a really interesting car. Named after a famous breed of fighting bulls (and pronounced \u201cguy-yardo\u201d), it\u2019s a daily driver \u2014 which says a lot about a supercar \u2014 one equally at home in stop-and-go traffic and at the track. It can idle in congestion then blast into the straights and whip through the esses without a stumble or a whimper. It wasn\u2019t that long ago when one had to choose \u2013 docile street sled or track tuner \u2013 but the Gallardo excels in all environments.<\/p>\n

The Gallardo comes in two basic flavors, convertible and coupe, with additional variants \u2013 two- or all-wheel drive plus a super-light and a competition version or two \u2013 for a total of six choices. \u201cMine\u201d was a black roadster (technically, an \u201cLP 550-2 Spyder\u201d, meaning it had 550HP and was a rear-wheel-drive car, not the \u201c-4\u2033 all-wheel version), sinister and dark yet shiny and sharp-cornered. Something wicked this way comes. The red diamond stitching on the black leather sets said \u201celegance\u201d yet the snarling exhaust (especially in track mode \u2013 more on that later) threatened to eat the young who were within earshot. My Monroney (window sticker) was $238,000 and a bit as it had heated seats, special badging and some other trick doodads. One also can utilize the new Lamborghini lease program, where the LP 550-2 Spyder can be leased for $2,289 per month for 36 months with $22k and change due at signing (price depends on options and is plus T&L, etc. but no security deposit required).<\/p>\n

\"interno-640x424\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some purists prefer the flingability of the rear-wheel-drive LP 550-2 \u2013 those of us who have spent a lifetime perfecting the heel-toe and double-clutch downshift, for example. More recent entrants to Earth find that quaint, asking if we also prefer the starter crank to today\u2019s push-button vroomer. I really enjoyed controlled powerslides with massive intentional oversteer, calling forth all of the experience of my youth, but then I remembered the Assumption of Risk, Waiver of Liability and Release and Indemnity Agreement \u2014 at least it wasn\u2019t governed by Italian law, as the Aventador\u2019s rights-removal document was in my February adventure \u2014 and I returned to the real world.<\/p>\n

As with some other supercars, there\u2019s an easy way to dial a ride. Choosing between standard and CORSA (as in \u201crace track\u201d), for example, adjusts everything from the engine to the suspension (more drift angle permitted by the stability control system) to the exhaust note (the aural pleasures alone are worth twice the price of admission). I\u2019d like the shake the hand of the engineer who invented the adjustable exhaust note as the sound of this car adds immeasurably to the joy of driving it.<\/p>\n

All of the current Gallardos have the same motivator, a V-10 with enough torque to remove that dead tree you\u2019ve been wanting to dispose of (technically, that\u2019s just under 400 pound-feet). Is that a lot? Well, it can move this 3,351-pound car to 62 MPH in just over four seconds, sprinting on to 124MPH in the quarter-mile in the time that it took you to read this sentence (assuming that your eyeballs can move in 13.4 seconds). Top speed is 198MPH because, well, 200MPH apparently is just too much.<\/p>\n

While all this technical stuff is well and good, what does it mean? Well, it means that you will have this Italianate orchestra behind you providing symphonic combustion sounds wherever you go. Coupled with the six-speed, double-clutch e-transmission, the paddle shifters can be wielded like a conductor\u2019s baton and the go pedal can summon all of the ponies pronto, calling forth spectacular sounds on cue.<\/p>\n

A welcome surprise was the seamless operation of the fabric convertible top. At the touch of a button, the rear deck lid pops up slightly then slides back before hinging from the rear, with the top then folding neatly into its bay before the rear lid returns to seal the deal. Transformers: More than meets the eye! The whole maneuver can be accomplished at a stoplight, much to the delight of the kids in the minivan behind you (more than once accompanied by ooohs from the soccer mom at the wheel)<\/p>\n

\"3-4<\/a><\/p>\n

Lamborghinis come in a wide range of hues, some no doubt inspired by Ken Kesey and his psychedelic friends. Mine was black on black on black so it looked like the perfect ride for Darth Vadar\u2019s high-school reunion. It truly was stunning to behold, especially with the red stitching on the black leather seats and door panels and the red brakes offset against the shiny black rims.<\/p>\n

Lamborghinis have come a long way in their fifty years on the planet. They\u2019ve always been exotic but the Lambos of late are so amazingly user-friendly that I almost am tempted to say that they\u2019re practical (almost). I used the car for my daily commute (I had the fastest car stuck in traffic) and for errands (it sure turns lots of heads in the Costco lot as well as on Rodeo Drive but falls somewhat short on the \u201chow many grocery bags will it hold\u201d meter). It looks, sounds and feels like nothing else and yet it\u2019s easy and really fun to drive.<\/p>\n

Many times I am asked by readers, \u201cWould you buy this car?\u201d In the case of the Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder, the answer is \u201cassolutamente!\u201d<\/p>\n

Postscript: After the test drive and after this article was written, Lamborghini announced the end of the Gallardo run. After ten successful years, Lamborghini decided to retire this model, the \u201cmost-sold\u201d of any of their cars ever (over 14,000 units). In Lamborghini\u2019s first four decades, an average of just 250 Lamborghinis were built per year but, in the decade of the Gallardo, the company\u2019s production grew to a whole new dimension, producing a yearly average of about 2,000 cars. The Gallardo was sold in more than 45 countries around the world. While we wonder what\u2019s next, let\u2019s pause for a Requiem for a Heavyweight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is it about Lamborghinis? They thrill the senses, what with their angular masculinity and their amazing song. They certainly don\u2019t look like anything else on the road. How do that do that, year after year, making such fresh statements? The Gallardo (the \u201centry-level Lambo\u201d) is a really interesting car. Named after a famous breed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":37757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2859,1],"tags":[],"brands":[],"class_list":["post-37747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-automobile","category-news"],"acf":[],"Yoast2_head":"\nHaute Auto of the Week: Lamborghini Gallardo - Knockoff Handbags Jewelry Wholesale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is it about Lamborghinis? 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They certainly don\u2019t look like anything\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hautetime.com\/haute-auto-week-lamborghini-gallardo-commando-lambo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Knockoff Handbags Jewelry Wholesale\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facdbook.com\/Hautetime\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-19T11:00:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-23T23:30:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/hautetime.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/26093409\/profilo-light-640x327.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"327\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Seth Semilof\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@HauteTime\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@hautetime\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Seth Semilof\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"Yoast2-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hautetime.com\/haute-auto-week-lamborghini-gallardo-commando-lambo\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.hautetime.com\/haute-auto-week-lamborghini-gallardo-commando-lambo\/\",\"name\":\"Haute Auto of the Week: Lamborghini Gallardo - Knockoff Handbags Jewelry Wholesale\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hautetime.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hautetime.com\/haute-auto-week-lamborghini-gallardo-commando-lambo\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hautetime.com\/haute-auto-week-lamborghini-gallardo-commando-lambo\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/hautetime.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/26093409\/profilo-light-640x327.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-12-19T11:00:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-23T23:30:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hautetime.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e91b2da79cda786678d2d0cbae57b4fb\"},\"description\":\"What is it about Lamborghinis? 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