Hearing the 'Italian scream' in new 202-mph Lamborghini
Yesterday, Drive On went over details from our close inspection of the Lamborghini LP 570-4 Superleggera, the $237,000 wondermachine that just made its way to a race track near us. Today, we take it for a spin.
Go is what one thinks of first with a Lambo, and Drive On leaped at the chance to give it a fast try around Auto Club Speedway at Fontana, Calif., one day recently.
The folks from Lambo made available two of the first Superleggeras in the USA. The 2-mile oval was reconfigured for road racing with chicanes, a hairpin, sweepers and some straights carved out of the infield, just a fast lefthander off the fun main straight and banked NASCAR Turn 1.
Test drivers were graciously allowed to share the track with the Ultimate Lamborghini Experience 3, an annual event put on by Beverly Hills Lamborghini and an assortment of other sponsors. The organizers rent the speedway for a day and provide coaching to give Lambo owners the opportunity to find out what their cars are capable of. Or, more accurately, what they are capable of as drivers, since these cars are packed with far more performance than most drivers will ever tap.
Wisely, Lamborghini officials provided high-performance driving instructors to give a quick schooling in the nuances of the road course. Instructors then moved to the right seat while Drive On and others took the controls. Instructors displayed remarkable calm, considering.
We can’t say we proved the car’s 202 mph top speed, but we confirmed it is plenty fast:
We accelerated from zero to 60 mph in a tick over 3 seconds. And with right foot firmly to the floor, those 10 high-compression (12.5 to 1) cylinders deliver an absolutely delightful Italian scream. Fed by direct injection, the RPMs race upward until an electronic rev limiter brings an abrupt end to the fun or a slack-jawed driver remembers to flick the paddle shifter on the six-speed box before redline. (E-gear offers automatic modes as well, but what fun is that on a race track?)
What may be more surprising, though, is the sure-footed ease with which the 4-wheel drive keeps the wide, low coupe planted on the asphalt. It never permitted the rear weight bias (43% front/57% rear) to introduce oversteer, that uneasy feeling a driver gets when the back wheels send a message that they are about to pass on the right and your windshield view is about to start rotating. Or as a NASCAR driver would say, “we got loose and spun.”
Such stability is provided through a central viscous drive coupling and a limited slip differential on the rear axle, a set-up Lamborghini has been developing for nearly two decades. Aluminum double-wishbone suspension and aluminum body shell and panels help infuse the handling with a feeling of stiff precision.
And about those brakes. With the optional ceramic disks at all four corners, it takes time for even a driver with some track experience to accept just how deep toward a corner these stoppers will let you carry speed. Astounding.
Sadly, no Formula 1 or American Le Mans contracts were awaiting this driver after his test run, and a few orange cones outlining a slow-down chicane may have given their lives for this test. But one more humbling opportunity awaited.
Valentino Balboni has been working at the Lamborghini factory since the late 1960s, when he was hired as a mechanic trainee, and a few years later he scored the job of factory test driver. Virtually every Lambo produced since the early 1970s was driven and approved by Balboni before being sold to the public. Along the way Balboni became an expert high-performance driver and such an important part of Lamborghini lore that last year the company named a model after him.
Balboni was at the speedway along with one of his Balboni Lambos. Bright orange with white racing stripe, it’s old-school model of the Gallardo — rear wheel drive, clutch and manual 6-speed transmission. Balboni offered Drive On a right-seat ride for a high-speed session, where he buried the speedometer needle on the straights and used power slides and oversteer — tamed and intentional — to wheel the car through tight corners and rocket out, carrying far more entry and exit speed than this driver could think about in the traction-aided Superleggera.
Back in pits, Balboni smiled and conceeded he was only driving at about 65% of maximum, as he had to make his tires last all day. He likes the Superleggera just fine, but he says his old-school Balboni keeps alive what sports car racing, and Lamborghini, used to feel like.
“The philosophy of this car is to remember the old Lamborghini roots,’ he said. “It’s more demanding but at the same time more rewarding.”
Most drivers with a quarter of a million bucks to spend on a Lambo, however, are going to take theirs with the surefootedness of a high-tech version. And if you want super fast, super light in your Lamborghini, that would be the Superleggera.
– William M. Welch/Drive On
Source : USA Today
