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Drive a Lamborghini Gallardo, read all about the car you want to experience.

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To experience what a Lamborghini Gallardo is like, you need to drive a Lamborghini Gallardo.

The Gallardo is assembled in 22 stations. The Murcielago and Murcielago Roadster are built in just 10. At the early stages of assembly, the differences between the two models are dramatic; the Murcielago starts life as an alloy shell interconnected with black carbon-fiber beams. The Gallardo's skeleton, by contrast, is a 600-pound aluminum space frame manufactured in Germany, and arrives in Sant'Agata preassembled and painted.

As the cars pass each assembly step, differentials, electrical systems and various mechanical entrails are pulled from bins and hand-assembled onto the structural frames. Simultaneously, interior and leatherwork pieces are hand-built for the Murcielago and eventually merged with the body, while Gallardo interiors are sourced externally. Though both engines are hand-assembled at the Sant'Agata plant, the Gallardo's V10 block is manufactured off-site and shipped to Hungary for finishing before it reaches Italy.

To experience what a Lamborghini Gallardo is like, you need to drive a Lamborghini Gallardo.

As Gallardos and Murcielagos form, glass and body panels are affixed and tolerances checked before final inspection underneath the ruthless glare of a lighting tunnel, a quality control technique borrowed from Audi. At their current rate of production, the factory builds one to two Murcielagos per day, and six to seven Gallardos.

Much to the curiosity and occasional terror of local residents, the plant's lack of private proving grounds means each newly minted Lamborghini is tested on local roads, where I am let loose with a six-speed-manual-equipped Gallardo. Although populated with trucks, scooters and erratic Italian drivers, my playground also includes tight hillside roads, scenic highways and stretches of autostrade perfect for triple-digit bursts of speed.

Entering the angular Gallardo is easy. It has traditional doors unlike the Murcielago's "scissor door" design. It may be pedestrian for a Lamborghini, but conventional doors are a small concession when purchasing an entry-level car that's £60,000 cheaper than the next model up.

 

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Fire up the 500-hp V10, however, and its guttural notes suck you back into the land that spawned Puccini faster than you can say "aural aria."

Though the free-revving 5.0-liter V10 begs to be slammed off the line, dropping the clutch from a standstill is unwise; its viscous-coupled four-wheel-drive system absorbs the shock of 376 pound-feet of peak torque, while sticky Pirelli PZero rubber eliminates any remaining possibility of wheelspin, even with traction control disabled.

Off-the-line launches require strict hand/foot discipline, but any driveline drag from the all-wheel-drive system is countered by the V10's tremendous torque. Working the aluminum shifter through the metal gates offers a satisfying clunk of metal against metal, and the manual labor produces adrenaline rushes that are modulated with a progressive clutch pedal.

The Gallardo's V10 truly screams at higher rpm thanks to continuously variable intake and exhaust valve timing. According to Lamborghini, the Gallardo's power plant pushes it to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds, and to a top speed of 192 mph, the latter of which I sadly did not experience due to omnipresent autostrade traffic.

 

 

Handling is impressively stable and crisp, combining aggressively tuned springs, stabilizer bars and Koni self-adjusting dampers with good old-fashioned four-wheel drive. The Gallardo also provides a safety net with stability management (ESP), traction control (ASR) and an automatic brake differential (ABD). Though the Gallardo further errs in the direction of safety by initially favoring understeer, reaching those handling limits on public roads would require reckless levels of bravado which few drivers will exhibit in the real world. In spite of assertive input, this baby Lambo insists on remaining firmly planted to the pavement. When adhesion limits are crossed, the Gallardo reacts by providing feedback, rather than snapping completely out of control.

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