Ervaringen van spotters zijn altijd leuk, helaas ontvangen we die niet zo vaak. Spotter Zhubanov, woonachtig in Tsjechië stuurde ons laatst een mailtje of hij wat mocht schrijven over zijn ervaring in een Lamborghini LP560-4. Italianen zijn altijd welkom bij op ons de site dus zodoende ontvingen wij een verhaaltje. Het is in het Engels geschreven dus voor sommigen zal het wat lastig worden, maar gelukkig hebben we de foto's nog...
It's October 23rd, 10:00 in the morning and its quite cold. I'm not far away from the capital city of the Czech Republic, in a small village called Mcely. The roads are still wet after the rainy night and sky is cloudy. I'm not excited at all, because that's not a kind of the weather for taking nice photos... And then it happened, something changed my perception in just a moment! It's enough to see four Lambos at one place and everything is suddenly better, everything is bright and glaring. Oh yeah, it was the Gallardo L560-4 Roadshow.
I will jump over the boring part like person verification, signing in etc. But I have to add, people who work with Lamborghini are very nice.
So, where to start? I've driven a Lamborghini. Mostly that's enough for expressing all. After that phrase everyone knows that it should be something special and unforgettable. Especially for a guy, who never had driven a supercar before.
I'll tell you a more detailed description of that awesome event. That new Lambo has a new engine, 5.2 liter V10, which produces 560 BHP and sounds great. After leaving the chateau, I was introduced to a young Italian pro-driver/instructor from Lamborghini. He was very kind and the whole trip was telling me all details about new LP560-4. From time to time I've asked him about some details, for example how fast is it possible to go with front bumper raised. He said top speed is 70kmh and then, due to aerodynamics, it will automatically lower down. Very clever, huh? And what's the deal about the new Corsa mode (gearbox option)? He said that Corsa button activates the fastest gearshifts and the special ESP mode. Quote from Top Gear Magazine explains his words better: In Corsa mode the LP560 becomes deliciously steerable on the throttle, helped by the limited-slip differential at the rear, but the oversteer decays before it gets out of hand. Its the worry-free mode; ESP off, by comparison, brings on a tetchy tail that could be bad news in the wet.
Well, enough theory, here is my experience. When I got the keys from an orange bull ,with e-gear, I put my bag with the camera in the boot (it became full after that) and sat in. The seat was comfortable, adjusting is very easy, just like in an Audi A5. Dashboard was well designed and buttons look just great and very extraordinary (for example lights tripper). Other parts, like wipers or direction indicators were quite standard and easy to use, if you have some experience with normal cars. Navigation was identical to navigation, which is built in new Audi's. The overall view from the driver's position is enough, but very uncommon, because you sit very low, almost near the ground. So, if you want to start the engine, you have to step on brake pedal, then shortly turn the key towards (it has 2 positions OFF and electronics) and release it, like in ordinary cars. Sound which comes from the back is just incredible! Then you can put on the first gear and softly, not push, but just touch the gas pedal for taking-off. Gearbox won't allow to change the gear to higher if you are going to slow. Whole process of driving a Lambo is very easy. On the straight road I've tried to step on the gas, at least on 30% - outcome was unbelievable! In a blink of an eye we were going over 120 km/h.. from I think 30 or 40 km/h. That feeling is very unique. I remember the acceleration of 430 Scuderia as tan passenger, it was like the roller coaster, but driving it by yourself that's something different. You can't imagine that feeling of so much power under your own feet. And that sound... over 3000 rpm it starts to roar like a beast! Totally amazing exhaust noise! At the same time it sound pretty civilized around 2000 rpm. There was just one bad thing, local roads weren't pretty good and allowed max speeds were just 40 or 80 km/h.
My test drive took around an hour (I thought it was about 5 minutes). I completely love that car, how it looks, sounds, drives... and hope one day I'll have the same opportunity again.
Raulan,
Mysupercar.cz
