Well after much drooling and review reading I finally got behind the wheel of a LP640 today.
Having seen many, and having previously driven a 6.2 car I thought I know what to expect, I was very wrong.
The car was in the same colour the media shots were done in. At time of release I was disappointed that Lamborghini had released such an amazing car in a boring flat grey. This is not the case, the colour is metallic and depending on the light has a slight greenish tinge to it. Interior was black with white stitching and the Carbon Fibre trim kit. Had the options I would choose; Carbon-Ceramic brakes, manual gearbox, black wheels (brilliant with this body colour), glass engine cover, suede wheel. The installed Sat Nav didn't suit the rest of the dash trim 100%, and the parking sensors could have been useful if installed, although I'm not sure how often reverse parking will be done by the owner and there always seems to be plenty of onlookers who would be willing to lend a hand.
First impressions when getting seated were that if possible the position is slightly straighter than the 6.2 car, although still not perfect it is very easy to drive in and also has a much larger range of steering wheel adjustment to allow for ease of driving. Pedal box is still somewhat limited in size and my fairly large shoes catch the brake pedal as I apply the throttle, so the drive was done in socks, but that is not unusual for me - the 6.2 was the same, as are most other super/sports cars. The external mirrors are somewhat limited in hight, but their huge width more than makes up for that, the interior mirror has a rather limited view but the glass engine cover is far better here than the black one is.
With a couple of quick laps around a quiet block to get used to the controls let me know that the steering feel is still wonderfully communicative despite the ride possibly being improved over the old car. I returned to the previous conclusion that the much famed Ferrari open gear gate isn't quite as user friendly as the counterpart from St Agata. Ferrari's gates have rounded fingers at the end of the slots defining the gate, the Lamborghini fingers are chamfered on the side that the gear changes to, which allows a easier flick of the wrist and none of the occasional embarrassment of hitting the finger and ending up in neutral. The clutch is reasonably light, as is the shift and steering allowing it to possibly be used for daily driving if you so desired. As will almost all super/sports cars the turning circle is nothing that anyone would think as something other than bad, but as with all the others thats a trade off in our (the customer's) constant demand for more grip and a better lap time on the 'ring or TG's power lap board.
The thing that really stirs the emotion and puts the smile on the face though is the 12 cylinders just behind your left shoulder (RHD car).
With a displacement of 6.5 litres this gives immense tractability from low revs in pretty much any gear. Whilst this is great it is helped by the amazing sound track that accompanies it. Whit the windows down you pick what ever speed you are doing, find a gap in the traffic (or at a track) and upon depressing the right foot the 1st 1/4 second is taken up by a woosh as the intakes fill and then the wail as the revs rapidly build and the speed piles on in an amazing fashion as you are jammed back against the seat. Thankfully at this point the Carbon-Ceramic brakes were fitted as they allow equally rapid deceleration with low foot effort and have great feel right up to eyeball popping power if you stomp on the pedal hard enough, and even then the grip is so fantastic that it doesn't feel like they car will fire the ABS due to lack of traction. The engine is also much more docile under about 3500rpm and once over this the fireworks really start, the noise increases rapidly as does the power and the shove back in the seat, on an acceleration run merging onto a freeway in 2nd the speed at which the (what I thought was HUGE) gap disappeared so fast it was shocking.
This acceleration is so addictive that on the freeway I unfortunately managed to annoy a Merc driver by letting the gap to the car in front slowly increase to several hundred meters before the right foot got a touch heavy and with the beautiful sound I would be pressed hard back against the seat and rapidly propelled down the road. Every time this happened an immense grin would spread across my face (similar to this one during the recollection) and a desire to keep repeating this.
With all the driving being done on public roads there was no chance to test the handling limits, nor do I think at this stage I'd be able to extract the most out of this car even at a track without much more training than I have yet received, but despite this it felt so docile at low speeds it could be confused for a car that is just designed for boring routine driving.
In conclusion the only negatives are the turning circle and limited foot room, but the rest of the cars strengths make these such minor issues that I would be very happy to work around them on the rare occasions they ever become issues. I would love to have one of these in my garage and once returned from my travels I'll have to ensure that one does end up there.
Last edited by Cyco; 03-12-2007 at 06:29 AM.
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Originally Posted by Ferrer
