Back on Track
Plan for the day? We get 1 familiarization lap as passengers, after which we get 3 laps in the 550-2 and 3 more in the 570-4 Superleggera! I was kicked. A nice choice here, since we’d get the chance to sample both ends of the Gallardo spectrum. Two of the rarer Gallardos, rather than the most “common” 560-4.
Shirish gave me a good 1-lap recap of the circuit, with a few tips thrown in. (You’ll see this in the video below).
I jumped into the white 550-2 first. I had a feeling I’d prefer this to the Superleggera. It had the perk of rear-wheel-drive despite having 20 less horsepower. The first thing I noticed was that the accelerator is right in the center of the foot-well where the brake should be. If you look at the Gallardo’s side profile you’ll notice that the front wheel intrudes into the foot-well space a fair bit. As a result, the pedals are squeezed into the remaining space on the left (notice where they are in relation to the steering column in the picture below). It’s tight in there!
I wonder how the foot-well is on the 3-pedal manual Gallardos; but that’s a dream for another day. This time it’s only the E-gear paddle-shift boxes on offer. The paddles are in fixed positions behind the steering wheel. With this single clutch box, you really wouldn't want to shift gears whilst turning the wheel anyway. Pull both paddles to shift to neutral.
The low-slung Gallardo has such high grip levels, that I was immediately driving at ridiculous speeds even on the first “warm up” lap. On the cool down lap, I was taking some corners at 140+ km/h without even touching the brakes (in order to let them cool down).
Pushing Buttons
The Gallardo has three drive settings: Auto, Sport & Corsa. They control the aggressiveness of the electronic intervention, sharpness of the throttle, as well as the shifting of the single-clutch robotized box. Think of the 3 shift settings as mildly-violent, violent and extremely-violent. The car will change gears for you in Auto and Sport, but in Corsa you have to shift using the paddles; it will not shift for you, even if you’re bouncing off the redline.
Auto mode doesn’t always keep the car on the boil. It’s more of an around-town mode as it shifts up fairly early. We were told to stay in this mode. I decided not to use the paddles too much, as I thought I’d concentrate on the line around the track -- but in hindsight, this was a mistake, as the car was always in too high in a gear in Auto mode, affecting acceleration and cornering.
Our Italian instructor had said that we could switch to Sport mode if we felt comfortable, but the fact that marker cones were placed right on the curb at the exit of every corner made me think twice. I thought twice really quick, and then switched over to Sport on the less risky segments of the track. The Gallardo immediately jumped to life, dropping a gear and pulling till the redline all the time. Nice. From now on it was only a question of balancing out “having fun” with “not having a 2.5+ crore debt on my hands”.
I tried Corsa mode down the straight. Got a punch in the back every time it up-shifted. There’s a certain no-nonsense, sledgehammer approach that Lamborghini takes with its cars. Even the latest Aventador is a single clutch, when virtually every other performance car manufacturer has switched to dual-clutch systems. Lamborghini’s 3 core values are “
Extreme, Uncompromising & Italian”. Hah! How great is that? The roar of the engine inside the cabin is so loud whilst coming down the back straight that it’s impossible to hear the instructions coming in over the walkie-talkie. I’m not complaining. They said “uncompromising”, but they didn’t say exactly
what they’re not willing to compromise on. Probably the extreme-ness!
At the Wheel
The massive grip levels on the 235 & 295 section tyres was impressive. There wasn’t too much tail-out action, as the traction control was usually on the most aggressive setting. The yellow light on the dashboard flashed away as I entered a few corners too hot. Despite what some purists feel about electronic driver aids in sports cars, there’s absolutely no doubt about the fact that they save lives daily.
The brake pedal on the 550-2 had a longer effective travel than the Superleggera, with the first half of the push being casual braking before the real stuff kicks in. Hard straight-line braking was a bit squiggly on the 550-2, almost like it was tram-lining. We were told that this was because of the tyres.
The carbon ceramics of the Superleggera on the other hand were much quicker to bite, and had a very noticeable advantage on track. So much so, that the Superleggera was always kept at the back of the convoy. The stopping power was immense. It’s amazing how hard you can hit the brakes at 240+ km/h and have this thing stop with distance to spare, as your lungs squeeze through the front of your ribcage. If you push way too hard, the ABS will kick in, but only if you’re really overstepping the line. It’s not intrusive at all.
Now, I did say I thought I’d prefer the 550-2, but I ended up having more fun in the Superleggera. I could put that down to a few reasons. Maybe I’d even change my mind the next time I take the wheel in one of these cars. But to be honest, in such a short time, hot-lapping with multiple driving modes to choose from, it is hard to tell the finer differences between the two cars. To me, the Superleggera steering felt more lively, the throttle felt a little sharper (perhaps the additional 20 horses) and of course; a more nasty noise!
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