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Road Test

Lamborghini Gallardo

Test Date 16 December 2003  Price When New £117,000

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Verdict

If Ferruccio Lamborghini’s ultimate vision for the company bearing his name was to give Ferrari something to stick in its pipe and smoke, then the Gallardo will go down in history as being the product that finally achieved his goal. It is, by any conventional notions of performance, styling, handling and sheer desirability, a quite brilliant achievement. We stop short of calling it remarkable, because with its new-found resources we rightly expect nothing less than the perfection from Lamborghini Automobili nowadays. Yes, the price looks a touch ambitious but 200 deposits says otherwise; its interactive qualities aren’t of the telepathic variety you get in, say, a Ferrari 360 CS; and luggage space is no better than pathetic. But then you balance everything out in light of the car’s amazing everyday capabilities and realise that no rival currently matches its mixture of styling and any-weather performance. Not even the mighty 911 Turbo. And yet it’s also a very serious bit of kit in its own right in a straight line, with performance blistering enough to silence all its rivals, and with a delicious soundtrack thrown in for good measure. In the end, for all its objective strengths, the Gallardo is the visual interpretation of every car nut’s dream. Whoever said Audi would ruin Lamborghini was as wrong as it is possible to be.

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