Today at noon I was thankful to have the opportunity to drive the 542 hp Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 Valentino Balboni. It is a different animal than the 2008 Gallardo Spyder that I drove in the summer of '08. The LP550-2 is rear wheel drive as opposed most modern Lamborghinis which are all-wheel drive. As you can imagine, I was a little nervous to drive a $219K car that has that much power to the rear wheels. It was a blast though. It sprints to 62 in just 3.9 seconds and has a top speed of 199 mph.
Getting started at low speeds with the e-gear paddle shifters one simply depresses the brake and pulls the right shifter to put it in 1st gear and then off you go. It's really quite easy to drive at low speeds in 1st gear for parking and whatnot.
The route that I drove included a couple back roads near Lamborghini Bellevue, Hwy 520 West to I-405 North, up to 85th street in Kirkland, I-405 South, over to 520 West, up a couple exits, and then back on 520 East to the dealership. The e-gear apparently is the same that is in the Gallardo 560-4 and it is quite smooth. One can just rev the engine up to the desired RPM and then shift without lifting off the throttle. The brakes worked well and were smooth as well. With the route combination of open freeway, on-ramps, off-ramps, and backroads, one could get a glimpse of this cars capabilities.
Make no mistake though this bull is not to be taken lightly. One time I was accelerating and the back end of the car stepped out a bit. Another time I was accelerating smoothly, or so I thought, on an on-ramp and the wheels spun rapidly. So, this Lamborghini is certainly more of a driver's car. I really liked it though. The standard Gallardo with its all-wheel drive is much more forgiving. The LP550-2 was quite the rush to drive and now I face the sad reality that the car is not in my budget (yet). I want to give a big thanks to Shahin at Lamborghini Bellevue for taking me out and letting me drive the car. Cheers.
5 comments:
Are you European? I only ask because you relate the torque spec in Newton-Meters rather than the US standard of lb-ft (pound-feet)...
Congrats on getting a ride (yes, I know you drove). Hope you can get your finances in order to be an owner one day.
PS- You made a few errors, mostly grammatical, in your post. If English is your second language, you are forgiven. Otherwise- and frankly, in any case- you may benefit from Strunk and White's Elements of Style...
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I probably could find the lb-ft data and change that.
Yes, I probably could learn a few things from your book recommendation. Thanks. Cheers.
Anonymous commenter,
I am from the USA. I'm intentionally writing this blog with a casual tone. So, I'm not going for the formal English class style and grammar. There very well could be things I could still improve though. If you want to write a formal car blog go for it. :) I do mine this way because of my limited "free" time and I just want to keep it casual. Cheers.
Hey, Kristian, you've got your 520 directions backwards: You took 520 West to get to 405 North and then took 520 East to get back to 124th.
:p
Thanks, Steve. I'll fix that. Cheers.
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