A Car Life, by Larry Crane

LAMBO LITE

A Lamborghini with attitude–no news there! No. I mean BAD attitude–like at the edge of rage. The Superleggera shares the Gallardo’s odd V-10 warble in its everyday traffic mode, but as it is allowed past 5000 revs, it gets angry (very angry!) inside and out. As the valve timing reaches near-contact overlap and the exhaust pressure finds the now well-established route around the baffles, it makes you want to pay attention. It also tempts you to pay something painfully close to a quarter of a million U.S. dollars for the pleasure of that entertainment. Worth it? Got it?

Once the net worth is established, this is clearly the Lamborghini of fast sports cars. The driveway exit to 62 mph blasts by in a blistering 3.8 seconds and. if you live on a long block, the Superleggera will top out at 196 before the need to apply the massive carbon brakes occurs, as you nip into the market for the family breakfast doughnuts. The front-to-back Pirelli PZero Corsas of 235/35R19 and 295/30R19 have their work cut out for them in all three dimensions of g loading.

When thrown into a canyon with all its anger on display, the Superleggera gives just a hint of understeer, pushed by the enormous force of grip at the rear. Then, perceptibly, the front drive and the rear electronic talent-enhancer engage in partnership and drag the nose to the direction of the steering input. All this happens time and time again, seamlessly choreographed to maintain maximum speed at the limit. Holy cow! And the noise….

The 5.0-liter V-10 produces 107 horsepower per liter at 8000 unstressed revs. This engine winds as happily as the best Asian motorcycles. At fast, freeway-traffic speeds you can be forgiven for forgetting you came off the ramp in third gear—it is still there. At 4-, 5- or 6,000 revs it gives nary a complaint. There is no stress in the engine sound thanks to Lamborghini’s own L.I.E. management system and its static, individual ignition delivery. The sound is mean, but the mechanical delivery is silky.

That was the second most-astonishing discovery in the Superleggera. The first, of course, was the explosive acceleration and brilliant gear changes—up and down. So entertaining is the six-speed “robotized sequential E-gear system,” engaged by perfectly placed paddles, the temptation to look for—or make up—excuses to use them was overwhelming. The large-eared paddles are fixed to the steering column so no matter where the wheel is they are always in the same place.

My one complaint is with the numbering of the instruments. All the instrument graphics use a color with a black outline on a white background. In daylight, they are almost impossible to read. The black edges are wide enough to connect between the numbers and letters, and the result is a blurred presentation. At night, however, the outline disappears when the graphics are alight, making the numbers read perfectly. Lamborghini needs a new solution to augment the colored numbers when the white background is visible.

The selective damping and suspension settings are another introduction of excellence for Lamborghini. Sophistication was never a word easily found in descriptions of chassis function for the raging bull marque.

Now, with this car, the Sport setting should be worth a couple of tenths on the track, as well as keeping it stable at its upper limits of top speed. Still, the standard suspension setting is more than adequate for virtually everything else and verges on luxurious control.

All this happens while the civilized sport seats, designed for easy climbing in and out, offer excellent location during direction changes at 1-g rates, along with reasonable comfort on the long road home. The very Lamborghini-esque paint-color dot graphics look retro-mod cool, extending right down to the floor mat, then disappearing up under the dash. The upholstery stitches match, too. The ergonomic dimensions are a set of the best. There is elbowroom all around and the center console is low enough that it offers no interference when the going gets busy. The toggle set is another retro-mod entertainment of note.

Most of the rest of the interior panels are carbon fiber. Not look-alike appliques, but the superbly surfaced, genuine article. Just so you are clear on this, if it all goes wrong, you will have one heck of a bruise from the ultra-light inside door panel—and if it fails (highly unlikely as this is), it will take a while to extract the bits from your lacerations. The Superleggera is an all-day play station, but the center-stack settings need to be accomplished before getting underway to prevent unnecessary (and unwanted) distractions. In short, do try to keep your new, quarter-million dollar coupe off the hard bits alongside the road.