Then some covetous moments when it said it will build no more than 10 and all will be sold to car collectors in China. No price given, of course. Those who can afford them won't bother to ask, and those who can't -- well, why would they need to know?
An "ordinary" Murcielago is $400,000, plus or minus $50k. The name, by the way, is pronounced (Americanized) mur-see-uh-LAH-go. Famous (in bullfighting circles) Spanish bull that took two dozen stabs of the matador's sword to defeat.
The Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera is the new top model in the Gallardo line-up. Its evocative “superlight” badge refers to a driving machine of true sporting character and describes a high-performance and lean automotive athlete. This car has a dry weight of no more than 1340 kilograms
What do you get when you trim some weight of a standard Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4, optimize the engine management and finish it with some racy bits and pieces? Right! The all new Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera. We spend two days with the second generation Gallardo Superleggera in and around the Italian city of Milan and are about to tell you all about it.
But since the original Superleggera is probably not something you see or hear about every day we will refresh your memory. In 2007 Lamborghini started production of a light-weight version of the Lamborghini Gallardo. The engineers at the Lamborghini factory in Sant’Agata Bolognese took the standard Gallardo and stripped away as much weight as possible. In total they saved 100 kg, hence the name superleggera that directly translated means superlight. The Superleggera was lighter and more powerful, resulting in faster acceleration and quicker laps on track. However this came at a price, the Superleggera was a lot more expensive and a lot less comfortable than the standard Gallardo. From it’s introduction in 2007 til the introduction of the next generation Gallardo a year later, Lamborghini produced and sold 618 pieces of the Superleggera.
ENCO offers a wide variety of carbon fiber details from a GT3 design front bumper to a carbon fiber interior finish.
Engineers also tweaked the 5.2-liter V10 engine that now pumps out 620 horsepower and 575 Nm of torque (up from 560 hp and 540 Nm of torque). No details about the cost of engine tuning, but they did release pricing for the carbon fiber body parts:
- 100% carbon fiber GT3 front bumper: 2990 euros
- Carbon fiber finish front splitter for series and GT3 bumper: 990 euros
- Carbon fiber finish rear spoiler for series and GT3 bumper: 1990 euros
- Carbon fiber finish GT3 design side skirts: 3990 euros
- Carbon fiber finish boot cover: 3990 euros
- Carbon fiber laminate for rear diffuser, mirrors and boot lid vents: 4000 euros
- Carbon fiber interior finish: 5000 euros
- Matt black foil: 3000 euros
More torture for us. We are now being forced to do nearly thirty laps all-out on a gorgeous circuit in southern Spain in Lamborghini’s latest hot performer, the 2011 Gallardo LP 570-4 Superleggera. You may recall the previous generation Gallardo limited-run Superleggera that we tried in early 2007 and that was a goodie, but it didn’t honestly get the full-on treatment and those shortfalls just slightly flawed the drive experience.
This time, Lamborghini has gone about 9.75 on a scale of ten when it comes to all-out re-engineering in all the right little ways. Nothing helps us notice all of what works so well here more than doing lots of hot laps at the 2.8-mile long circuit at Monteblanco in southern Spain. The weather was ideal for exactly this test, too, so we really ripped into it.
The eleven curves, long main straight, and several decent elevation changes, also left their mark on us as we threw the Superleggera too and fro without much mercy. Right out of the main straight, by the braking point having reached nearly 170 miles per hour, there’s a second-gear tight right that requires massive braking forces to set it up right and get off to a good start on every lap. The carbon ceramic optional brake discs aided in this excitement all day long without complaining a bit. That the discs are still optional when every single buyer of a Superleggera paying $237,600 will buy the ceramics did, however, make us complain. It’s shameless profiteering and this sort of crap marketing needs to go away once and for all.
Our favorite test-the-car’s-limits curve was Turn 2, though, a long, sweeping left that climbs and then drops down, and is even feeling a little off-camber. Through here, we had to really stay on throttle through third gear and at around 6500 rpm, but the drama was steady eddy. The finest feeling through here was noting how much the 4wd chassis and differential was working while it stayed up on its toes. This driving dynamic is the real Superleggera experience, beyond the obvious go-kart qualities that are more enhanced in turn after turn.
Throughout this terrific track day, we couldn’t help but feel sad knowing that about as high a percentage of Superleggera buyers will ever drive their car like this as SUV buyers who really head offroad for overland adventures. This car belongs on the track almost exclusively. The first practical reason for this opinion being that the suspension is perfect on the smooth and closed-circuit track, while its lack of adaptability makes the Superleggera really terrible on everyday rough roads and around town. But out here at Monteblanco we were raving about the quality of the ride and handling.
The six-speed Graziano automated manual with no torque converter has found its perfect home here in exactly this car and in these conditions. In full automatic mode for tooling around town or cruising, again, it’s no fun, as we have noted on other cars that still use this gearbox (mainly for its strength, light weight, and compactness). In Sport mode, things get better and more in keeping with the Graziano’s characteristics. But in Corsa (i.e. Race) the Lamborghini e-gear automated manual is perfect when seeking the stress limits of the powertrain and chassis on a hot track. A six-speed manual is still available as a no-cost option, but accounts for only three percent of all Lamborghini sales at this point.
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