LAMBORGHINI Gallardo LP550-2 Spyder Review

We're in sixth gear, within the confinements of the speed limit, somewhere along the way the car folded the top better than our mother could've done and the Audi navigation system is telling us that we have reached our destination.

In the real world you're not always on a deserted mountain road with the sun barely entering the frame - our journey today included road works, a few small traffic jams and a climate so difficult that you could swear we're actually Valentino Balboni's minions who had been given the task to test the Gallardo replacement prototype in hot weather. So are we tired, sweaty and in need of painkillers? No.

We would've liked an even sexier voice for the satnav, but that's about the only complain we have after using the Gallardo to cover a few hundred miles on a highway that runs through the desert.

The same suspension that supported us in the morning, when we came across a free roundabout and tricked ourselves into believing that we actually are Valentino Balboni's minions, was also there for us during the long hours on the boiling tarmac. To spare us of some writing, you can simply repeat the aforementioned phrase in your mind, replacing "suspension" with "seats".

So, what else made the car comfortable? The Spyder is fitted with a power rear windscreen, so you don't necessarily have to remove the top if you want to get some extra sensations. The buttons for the two are placed next to each other, so it's like the bull is inviting you to be more moderate. And when you do fold the soft top, the rear windscreen is used as a wind deflector.

The best-designed piece of the interior, as far as this chapter is concerned, has to be that bit that becomes annoying when you want to be romantic and hold your lady friend in your arms while inside the car. In between the seats, you find a leather-covered console that somehow manages to serve as an armrest for both passengers, hold the lever for the handbrake, a storage space and a multitude of buttons. Well done.

As for the initial impression of E-gear clunkiness, this is a reality, but it's a more than acceptable trade-off for the character bonus this transmission brings.

OK, but are there any areas that need improvement as far as long journeys are concerned? Of course. When we stooped to refuel, we came up with an interesting bet - who could drink an entire bottle of water on the spot? The loser would have to keep it in his lap for the remaining length of the journey, since the car doesn't offer storage spaces for such things. The driver lost and it was funny. Once. But it's not quite as amusing if you do this everyday.

How much do the aforementioned facts matter for us right now? Make no mistake, if a king-size meal wasn't waiting for us a few stories above, we'd be making the next leg of the journey now, not tomorrow morning.

We've just slowly passed a speed bump placed on a road with a speed limit of 75 mph (120 km/h) and we happened to do this at the same time with a Mercedes G55 AMG whose driver gives us a look that clearly says "let's race 'till we hit the speed limit!". He takes off first, we obviously overtake him, but the G55 definitely sticks to the "objects in the mirror are closer than they appear" rule at the moment we hit the brake to avoid anything too dangerous.

This little... ahem... car-to-car chat got us thinking. We know the advantages of a G55 AMG on rough terrain, but while we're obviously multiple leagues faster on the road, what's behind this?

Well, behind us, in a longitudinal position, there's a 5,204 cc (317.6 cu.in.) V10 powerplant, hence the LP (Longitudinale Posteriore) in the car's designation. The unit has a 90 degree angle between the cylinder banks, which makes it wide. Why should you care about having a wider engine? It's simple: the gravity center sits lower.

What did the 2009 facelift bring for the engine?

Forget the 5.0-liter V10 unit of the 2003 Gallardo, this is a seriously reworked powerplant. The main difference between the two is not the 0.2-liter gain in displacement, but the adoption of ""Iniezione Diretta Stratificata".

Stratified direct injection, three words that make a whole lot of difference. The injectors are now mounted at the side of the combustion chamber, with the fuel being injected straight into this. In addition to this, the air intake manifold runners use a tumble flap, which distributes gasoline within the combustion chamber in a more even way. A dry sump lubrication system was also introduced in order to lower the engine's center of gravity even more and also improved lubrication during high-speed maneuvers.

Petrol engines have a nasty habit - they like knocking and the consequences range from funny sounds to total failure. Well, the direct injection used by Lambo reduced knock sensitivity, so the compression ratio of the engine was increased. Thus, the impossible became possible: 500 hp became 560 hp, while the fuel consumption dropped by 18 percent.

Wasn't this text supposed to be about the 560-2?

For the engine of the LP550-2 rear-wheel drive model we drove, Lamborghini offered us its own interpretation of "less is more". The 5.2-liter unit uses a new ECU map - The maximum torque remains the same, 540 Nm (397) at 6,500 rpm and while the maximum power sits 10 hp lower than in the four-wheel drive model, 550 hp at the same 8,000 rpm, but the drivability has been increased.

The ESP was also tweaked to work with the new traction system - Lambo threw away the central viscous-coupling and the limited slip differential up front. What you're left with is the limited slip diff for the rear axle, which can lock up to 25 percent under power and 45 percent on overrun.

LP550-2 Spyder vs LP560-4 Spyder

If you're having a single-malt with an owner of a 4WD Gallardo Spyder, you can tell him that yours is 30 kg (66 lbs) lighter. If you want to race him to 62 mph (100 km/h) the following day, there's no point in using a standing start, as he'll sit at 4 seconds flat, leaving you 0.2s behind.

LP550-2 Spyder vs LP550-2

The chassis stiffening and the roof mechanism bring the weight from the 1,380 kg (3,042 lb) of the Coupe to 1,520 kg (3,351 lb). Maybe this is where the Gallardo truly shows its age, as the weight penalty brought by chopping the roof off is greater than it should be. Don't even think about a two-car sprint to 62 mph - the metallic roof comes with a 3.9s time for the job.

Any other changes for the RWD Convertible?

The Gallardo is suspended on double wishbones at all four corners and the LP550-2 comes with new settings for the shock absorbers. Designers also flexed their pencils a bit different, with the aerodynamics being adapted to the new distribution of forces.

There are very few Gallardo customers who still opt for a classic manual and Lamborghini clearly states that the LP550-2 is not for them, only offering the car with the E-gear robotized six-speed manual. Now that's an attitude!

Ad Personam. We've been hearing voices ever since we gave Lamborghini's personalization program designation a quick look. We don't psychiatric help - it's simple: now that we know what this includes, we like how it sounds even more, so we keep pronouncing it over and over again in our heads.

Ad Personam, Ad Personam - Feel like hearing voices yourself? Go on reading the following paragraphs then. Let's say that you've got a cat named Garfield, which looks just like the famous cartoon character. You can wait for a small piece of its fur to fall off, take it with you to the Lamborghini showroom and the salesman will mail it to Sant’Agata Bolognese. Lambo's specialists will turn it into an actual color guaranteeing a perfect match and then paint it onto a sheet of metal that will subsequently be mailed to your dealer.

Don't be childish, tell the salesman the color that just arrived actually matches that of your cat and that you were joking earlier when you said it doesn't. You wouldn't want him to pass out before you finished configuring the car, would you? Good, now that they have your approval, you'll get a Garfield-colored Gallardo.

And that's not all. Many carmakers have recently decided to steal some of the tuners' show and Lamborghini is one of them. Thus, you won't just be able to choose between multiple wheel designs, but you also have plenty of brake calipers available, as well as smoked rear windows and taillights.

But wait, what about the interior? Here you won't be able to have your favorite jeans flattened on the headliner, but you can choose from a comprehensive range of packages.

We skipped one too many maths classes, so we can't tell you the exact number of combinations available, but you can choose between standard, quilted or perfortated leather or Alcantara, as well as a long list of fabrics and colors. Who knows, maybe they have your kind of denim after all, but why would you want that? Then there are the carbon fiber packages, which place the material on various parts of the cabin, as well as on the outside.

Ad Personam, Ad Personam - Breathe deeply together with us and let's move on, shall we?

As far as the tech side of the car is concerned, there are plenty of optional features. You can opt for the ceramic brakes, as well as the E-gear robotized manual (the only transmission offered on the LP550-2 Spyder).

Since the Gallardo doesn't come with adaptive suspension, you'll have to choose between standard, comfort and sport shock absorbers - not all models offer this choice.

Try explaining that to your neighbor who has a considerably less expensive R8 V10 Spyder with Audi Magnetic Ride, for example. But before he starts laughing, you can kill his smile by telling him that, unlike him, you can order a nose lift system. However, he'll reply that he tops your rear-view camera with the untouchable (for you) front and rear parking sensors. Check mate.

Anyway, back to the Gallardo now. The infotainment part of the deal includes features like navigation kit, Bluetooth, USB, iPod kit, CD Charger kit, a music interface kit, as well as a Kenwood multimedia system.

What's that? The Navigation and the climate control goodies come from Audi? Yes, we know and it's great, because it means that you can actually get the route to your destination and the desired temperature.

If we ever traveled on foot (we try to avoid doing this) and saw a Lamborghini heading towards us, the angular styling cues of the front end would scare us to death. However, it seems that Sant'Agata Bolognese has a surprise for us - the Gallardo comes with an integrated pedestrian protection system.

While most designers whine about not feeling free due to problems such as crash safety regulations, Lambo tells us that the front end geometry and materials are designed to absorb impact forces. Our conclusion? We still wouldn't use a Gallardo front fascia as a pillow, at least not while the moving car is attached to it, but we never want to hear designers of other brands complaining again.

Structural stiffness is just as important for this chapter as it is for the "Open road" one and When engineers tell you that the flat undebody panel has been integrated into the overall design of the car to improve this, you know that this Gallardo means business.

Like all Gallardos, the LP550-2 Spyder we drove, use an aluminum spaceframe - the frame uses cast aluminum nodes and extruded profiles, while the bodyshell relies on integrated friction-locked and form-fitted aluminum panels. "Aluminum is lighter than steel" a press release issued by Sant'Agata Bolognese tell us - smiley time.

We hate talking about this part, so we'll go over it real quick: the Gallado comes with 2 frontal dual-stage airbags, as well as side head & thorax airbags.

But let's relax, shall we? Chances are that all the words written above will be irrelevant to you, the LP550-2 Spyder owner, and that's because the car is set up in a way that makes it a little bit more leaned towards understeer compared to the four-wheel drive models. Thus, you won't find youself in a dangerous sideways situation, unless you want to, of course.

Forget the story about Lamborghini naming its models after famous bulls and let us tell you what really goes on in Sant'Agata Bolognese - we'll use the Gallardo as an example.

You'll have to meet some people first: Almudena Gallardo is a Spanish Olympic archer, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo is a Mexican drug lord and Matias de Galvez y Gallardo was a Spanish general, governor of Guatemala, viceroy of New Spain.

Lamborghini must've named its V10 supercar after them - aside from the common name, there are too many coincidences that support this theory.  We can tell you that the Gallardo is precise enough to match a perfect arrow, can act like a drug lord after feeding on his own merchandise and is complete enough to be able to lead an army of customers towards the Lamborghini showroom and win the battle. Still not convinced? Doesn't matter, we're here to talk about the car behind the name anyway.

The Gallardo LP550-2 is pleasingly civilized now, in 2012, which is an amazing feat for a car launched in 2003, albeit one that was supervised by Audi and received a very complex facelift a few years ago. It's like Madonna would end up as an actual, normal, sane nun in a decade from now.

If you're a pizza delivery boy and you win a Gallardo at the lottery, you can use it as your company car from the following day on. You might have a few scratches on your front bumper, but that would only bring it in line with your scooter. We can't tell you how many pizzas you'd have to deliver to buy one, but we can confirm that the LP550-2 can be found at the entry point of the Spyder range. Thus, you'll have to pay at least $209,000 for it, or €177,905 (taxes not included) if you live in Europe.

However, take if out of the city and it will almost keep up with a Ferrari 458 Italia, a car that was launched yesterday. Sweet Heaven, keep it in second gear at 7,000 rpm for a few moments and then floor it throughout the red line - you'll have the impression you're on a speeding motorcycle, not inside a car and the "Bang!" generated by the Corsa mode upshift that follows will show you that you're nothing short of a masochist. Thank you dear V10, thank you dear E-gear.

Now about this robotized manual... if all robots were this good, we'd be divorced by the end of the paragraph. Call room service, order a cup of coffee and have it brought in front of the computer so you can allow us to zoom in on the E-gear for few moments.

Lamborghini hasn't switched to dual-clutch transmissions, not even for its all-new Aventador, but why? The automaker claims the twin-clutch boxes fail to match the sporty feeling offered by the single-clutch automated manuals it uses. Well, this is no bull (no pun intended), as the jerky gearshifts, coming in the setup offered by the Raging Bull, constantly remind you of the car's potential. We may be wrong, but that would mean that so are the 90 percent of Gallardo buyers who agree to pay extra for the E-gear.

Lamborghini also recently said that the naturally-aspirated V10 engine is some sort of a religion for it, because it can provide the grunt, responsiveness and soundtrack it wants for its cars. This means that Sant'Agata Bolognese won't drop the V10 in favor of a downsized/hybrid nonsense too soon. This, in turn, means that if you're in the market for a supercar, you certainly have to buy a Gallardo, but it's not quite the perfect time to do that. You can start looking for one in about two to three years' time, when Lamborghini should launch the Gallardo's successor.

The current range of Gallardos is a mixture of outstanding vehicles, and we also recommend them, but there are areas, such as the suspension and the interior, which need to be revolutionized, not just upgraded, in order for us to call it a perfect supercar, one that can be used everyday.

Hmm... let's see... two or three years is a good first ownership cycle, so, if you please, you can also get one now and test Lambo's buy-back possibilities when the new car comes out.

We were supposed to also zoom in on the LP550-2 Spyder we drove this time, but since one of our guest editors, Lou Cheeka, found that this has a strange connection to Lamborghini tractors, he wants to cover this topic all by himself.