Lamborghini Gallardo, Smaller, Lighter And Very Fast

Lamborghini has gone against the trend with the Gallardo: it's smaller, and less powerful than the Murcielago, but is lighter and very fast. Top speed is 190 mph, and the car leaps forward from rest to 60 mph in about 4.0 seconds. 100 mph comes up in just 10 seconds! The power for this performance comes from a new all-aluminum V-10 engine coupled to a six-speed gearbox.

Gallardo is a real traffic stopper, specially in the bright yellow used for the cars at the launch. Yes, it does have twin air intakes at the front, but these are cunningly shaped to break up the bluff front which slopes up smoothly to the windscreen. This is a beautifully proportioned car, with a wedge line for the wings that merge with the long, sloping roof. There are deep air intakes just forward of the rear wheels, and two smaller ones on the rear deck.

Classic mid-engine shape

To see it in its true glory you need to stand up and look down at the car which is probably what you'd do anyway. From this angle you can see they way the wings slope inwards to produce angular highlights which enhance the classic shape.

Unusually, the rear lamps extend up into the almost horizontal rear wings, and as you'd expect on such a powerful car, big air outlets beneath give some definition to the tail. As is usual these days, the rear spoiler lies flat at low speeds, and comes up at high speeds. Visually, the Gallardo is a true masterpiece, although rear visibility doesn't look that brilliant. The rear window is shallow, and is flanked by flying buttresses that give the tail its fastback shape.

Aluminum space frame to save weight

New for Lamborghini is the aluminum space frame technology pioneered by Audi not surprising, really, as Lamborghini is now part of Audi. This construction is also used in other leading supercars such as:

the Aston Martin DB9 and Vanquish; Ferrari's 360 Modena, 360 Challenge Stradale and new 612 Scaglietti. And also in the tiny but potent Lotus Elise.

The space frame consists of aluminum extrusions tubular shapes with complex sections which are connected by precision cast joints. The joints are called nodes. The extrusions are welded to the nodes. Some of the panels also give some stiffness, and the result is a very stiff and lightweight structure. The aluminum panels are bolted and bonded into position, and just the front and rear bumpers are plastic.

Strictly a two-seater

As is usual for Lamborghini, the Gallardo is strictly a two-seater, but it has been designed as compactly as possible to reduce weight and improve performance. At the same time, the company insists the Gallardo is just as at home at low speeds as it is at being hustled round fast or twisty roads. One reason is that the springs are softer than on most supercars, giving a fairly supple ride, but still giving plenty of control during cornering.

Double wishbone suspension is used at front and rear to give good handling, and these are made from aluminum, with the coil springs acting directly on the wishbones. Because the car is so powerful, the suspension has been designed to resists dive on braking and squat on acceleration. The dampers are adjusted automatically according to conditions, another fairly recent innovation.

In line with the practice at Lamborghini nowadays, the Gallardo has permanent four-wheel drive.

In many ways, the Gallardo has moved away from the classic Italian supercar in that it has plenty of electronics. The rear spoiler is controlled electronically a good application and it has a full electronic stability program you can turn it off with ABS and so on. There are also four air bags, and those automatically adjusted dampers.

New 500 bhp V-10 engine

The new V-10 engine has a displacement of 4,961 cc, and produces 500 bhp at no less than 7,800 rpm a truly sporty engine, veering toward the sports-racing side. Maximum torque of 376 lb ft is delivered at 4,500 rpm, but as a further indication of the effort being made to ensure the car can be docile, 300 lb ft of torque is available from 1,500 rpm. Indeed, this is an engine that can behave itself while trundling through the city at 30 mph, although you might not feel too comfortable doing that; it isn't what the Gallardo's for.

As expected these days, a six-speed manual gearbox is standard and a sequential six-speed gearbox is an option. The sequential box, operated by paddles on the steering wheel, has various options to suit different drivers, but is reportedly not brilliant in operation.

Four-wheel drive that's different

Four-wheel drive, with a viscous coupling in the central differential to limit slip, is standard on Lamborghini. Again, with 500 bhp on tap, you want to be able to get all the power to the roads, and four-wheel drive is the best solution. The viscous coupling is an excellent automatic slip limiting device no electronics needed and ensures that when there is a bit of front or rear slip, it is brought under control quickly and smoothly.

Four-wheel drive gives super traction and plenty of cornering power, but many sporty drivers prefer rear-wheel drive. Why? It depends on the way the system is designed, but many four-wheel drive systems send the same amount of torque to the front and rear wheels, so when they break away, there's not much the driver can do about it, except hope.

Compared with that scenario, rear-drive gives more control when a slide develops. However, the Gallardo has been designed differently; it has four-wheel drive but is very much a driver's car, with plenty of control available.

Most of the power goes to the rear wheels

Four-wheel drive can be designed with different amounts of power going to the front and rear, and instead of the 50:50 torque split which is common Lamborghini sends 30% of the torque to the front wheels, and 70% to the rear. This is the amount going to the wheels in the normal situation; if wheel spin develops, the ratio alters.

However, most of the time, a good deal more torque goes to the rear than the front tires. With weight distribution of 42% front and 58% rear, this means that if you floor the throttle while cornering, the rear tires will unstick and not the front ones. That's as it should be on a supercar.

In practice, the Gallardo will handle more like a rear-drive car than most other four-wheel drive cars. The driver can induce power slides, but in theory at any rate these should be fairly gentle mind you at the speed this sort of thing will happen with such a low center of gravity and such big tires, it may not seem gentle!

Highly desirable lightweight

There's no doubt that the Gallardo is a highly desirable car, and no heavyweight either. Curb weight is 3,149 lb (1,430 kg) compared with 3,640 lb (1,650 kg) for the V-12 Murcielago. Sounds good, and of course, the four-wheel drive adds 130-155 lb (60-70 kg) compared with a rear-drive car. In fact, the Gallardo weighs the same as the Carrera 4 which also has four-wheel drive. Of course, the Carrera 4 has a smaller, less powerful engine, so it should be lighter.

The Gallardo isn't just about going flat out. With a big engine in a light car, you don't need to use maximum revs to get good performance, and it has plenty of low speed torque for driving in traffic. It has everything you need to make a supercar fast and safe, with large discs, and big tires fatter at the rear, of course. It has the usual modern safety features. Oh and by the way, should you have a shunt, you'll be pleased to find that the aluminum space frame absorbs impact very well better than steel!