Lamborghini Superleggera LP570-4 2010 Review

Lamborghini Superleggera LP570-4

Not so much
>> Spine-busting suspension stiffness
>> Spoiler cuts rear vision
>> Seats lack lumbar support

Overall rating: 4.0/5.0
Engine/Drivetrain/Chassis: 4.5/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 2.5/5.0
Safety: 3.5/5.0
Behind the wheel: 4.5/5.0
X-factor: 5.0/5.0

About our ratings

Few cars have a clarity of purpose like Lamborghini's latest Gallardo Superleggera: so light; so angry even sitting still; so unashamedly bullish...

And then the snow starts to fall... Not ideal in a normal LP560-4 -- even though you can order them with proper winter tyres -- and even less so in the LP570-4 Superleggera.

The LP570-4's 19-inch boots aren't just large, they are large, they prefer the track, they have fewer cuts than a jelly razor and they're designed to maximize grip in every direction... As long as the conditions are right.

In the dry, the fat Pirelli PZero Corsas have the whole braking, accelerating and turning thing covered to such extremes that even half a day at the limit leaves your internal organs feeling like they've been pulled out of you, juggled roughly and stuffed back in. But a white sheet falling over northern Italy makes life very different.

Besides anything else, the snow covers the finest mountain passes in Italy, and in the almost-successful effort to replicate the original Superleggera's 100kg weight saving, the LP570-4's been stripped of its radio and, more importantly, its satellite navigation. Instead, there's a lacquered panel of carbonfibre covering the hole. No surprise, or, as it turns out, help... We turn back to maps of the folding paper variety.

The radio and satnav have joined the inner door skins, the seat shells, the centre console and anything else not utterly dedicated to the generation of extra speed or grip piled up in a heap on Lamborghini's factory floor. Except for the air-conditioner -- so many people paid extra to put the aircon back in the old Superleggera that Lambo left it there this time.

It's not just lighter by 75kg, though. At 1340kg, it feels lighter from the instant you open the door. Indeed that's demonstrably lighter to fling open, and you have to close it with a dinky little strap because the original interior door handle is ounces too heavy.

There's a different exhaust, too (as you find after you've squeezed into the tiny, carbon-shelled seat with its four-point harness). And it rips out a revvy blip when you twist the key before dropping down into its cranky gruffness, as if angry at being awoken.

The Superleggera's louder, even in the carpark, than the stock car. Sound deadening can also be found at the bottom of the junk pile, right next to the LP570-4's springs -- or so it would appear.

These items, carefully made of steel or some sort of alloy, are traditionally coiled and tensioned and have been found useful in the absorption of bumps and lumps for decades. Even though Lambo insists the Superleggera is sprung, it feels like the factory has fixed the wheels directly to the chassis, relying instead on the sliver-thin Pirellis to manage all bump absorption.

It does get better with speed -- a bit. Ferrari's 430 Scuderia might not be as well built or as strong in the engine, but its damping system is far more sophisticated and better suited to anything except a racetrack. And even then, it'll depend on the weather that day.

But the way the Superleggera explodes away from any situation in any gear almost lets you forgive it. Almost. There's more power here, but the 570 horsepower number is really brought to life by the lighter mass, which makes the tacho swing to 8500rpm faster than before. More importantly, though, it's more agile in the way it drops off revs or squeezes them on. This is an engine that knows the difference between the driver asking for 7815 and 7819rpm and the induction-dominated howl signals the precise change, too.

About the only thing that replicates the way the LP570-4 hurls you from apex to apex is a full racing kart, which is appropriate, given it feels like it has about the same suspension travel.

The way The Superleggera picks up speed out of corners is just utterly ferocious. There's no other way to describe it. Even in third gear, a rolling full throttle burst in a straight line can leave rubber marks down a dry road from all four wheels (with the stability control strobing and the chassis chattering with wheelspin on its almost-suspension).

In first gear, the new launch control lets you dial up exactly the right revs for maximum attack. Step off the brake pedal and it smashes out a 3.5sec burst to 100km/h. With no clutch pedal to get in the way, the electronic sequential six-speeder just asks that you keep flicking up the right paddle at 8500rpm to hit 200km/h in 10.2 seconds.

At low speed, the Superleggera relies on the chassis balance and the big boots, while at speed, the big front splitter now produces enough downforce to dial out the standard car's third and fourth-gear understeer, leaving you with just more and more grip the faster you go.

And its brakes match its performance perfectly. Carbon-ceramic rotors and six-piston front calipers just bite and bite and bite. Initially, the pedal's friction point is high and after seven hours at the wheel, it didn't move.

Most supercars are brutal, but few have brutal agility like this one. The suspension changes mean the Gallardo Superleggera a very, very difficult car to live with on roads less than perfect. But when they are perfect, the tables are turned -- and everything else suddenly finds the LP570-4 very, very difficult to live with.

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