Lamborghini Murciélago LP640: First drive!

Wanna know how the Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 is driving? Continue to read here.

Figuring that it would represent a slightly easier baptism on Tuscany's Mugello race circuit, I opted for an LP640 with the six-speed e-gear sequential manual (paddle-shift) transmission. One of Lamborghini's senior suits reckoned only around 30 percent of customers opted for e-gear, a figure no doubt helped by the system's reputed appetite for clutch plates. Stephen Winkelmann, president and CEO of Lamborghini, sits alongside. I ponder my place in Lamborghini folklore if I wrap the car around the Armco with Lambo's head as my co-pilot.

The Murciélago's trucklike amble at low revs gives little clue as to the apocalyptic power delivery that awaits. Snick 3rd with a small lift of the long-travel accelerator and reacquaint it with the bulkhead, however, and there's a properly quick surge at 3,000 rpm, which gathers at 4,500 as the exhaust clears its throat followed by the all-wheel-drive system shuttling torque to the rear and the most magnificent feral yowl up to redline that's now pegged at 8,000 rpm. Grab for the next gear and you can feel the accelerative Gs weighting your very fingertips, the scenery exploding through the widescreen windshield. No lift this time. Winkelmann grins.

The first corner of Mugello approaches, and with a glorious brap-brap we drop two gears while giving the ceramic brakes something to consider. With substantial 15-inch-diameter discs at the front, it takes awhile to tune your braking efforts in; the first few corners seeing the Murciélago pull up with yards in hand. Getting back on the gate after trail braking brings the massive slug of V12 aluminum behind your right shoulder back to life. With no stability control system, it's down to you to keep it tidy. After two laps, I'm utterly wrung out, my eyeballs gritty, prickly heat rising up my back, and a massive surge of adrenaline leaving me a little juiced and shaky. This thing is Colonel Kurtz-made metal.

Fifteen laps in and the groove is forming. Mugello is no longer a staccato lunge toward the next forbidding crest and an embarrassed tiptoe over. Each corner now offers flow and possibilities to explore the 2006 Lamborghini Murciélago LP640's playful side. Get a handle on the sheer physics of this thing and the LP640 is, on occasion, fairly benign, the almost pornographic girth getting lost when the leviathan Pirelli P Zero Rossos are bested by 487 pound-feet of torque and skim into those fleeting moments of neutrality. I return to pit lane wearing a grin wide enough to swallow a wok.

Related news: GermanCarBlog, P4MR, Lamborghini Murciélago LP640

Source: Inside Line

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