Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera
Prices: £151,000 [est]
Insurance Group: 20
Emissions: 400g/km
Performance: 0-60mph 3.7s
Top Speed: 195.7mph
Fuel Consumption: (urban) 11 (extra urban) 17 (combined) 13mpg
Safety: twin front airbags, ESP stability control, ABS
Dimensions: length 4300mm, width 1900mm, height 1165mm

CARBON DATING

Our Rating: 7.0 / 10

When it comes to supercars, Lamborghini aims to prove that less can be more. Andy Enright reports

Taking the best junior supercar and making it better, both on road and on track, seems a surefire recipe for success and the swollen order book for the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera would appear to underpin this logic. Despite featuring the trappings of civility, the Superleggera nevertheless has a spiky personality.

As much as their manufacturers would have us believe that supercars are all about no-compromise engineering, cutting-edge capability and purity of focus, most of these attributes are mere by-products in the quest to one-up each other and nowhere is the competition fiercer than between Lamborghini and Ferrari.

Lamborghini upped the ante with the introduction of the Gallardo in 2003, comprehensively trumping the Ferrari 360 Modena. Maranello hit back with the gutsier F430 and Lamborghini once more responded with the uprated 2006 model year Gallardo. Now the Sant’Agata company has opted to land a pre-emptive strike on its rivals with the Gallardo Superleggera, a lighter and marginally more powerful Gallardo that’s aimed at well-heeled customers who will occasionally take their car onto the race track but need something that’s acceptably refined to the extent that it won’t require trailering there and back. The Superleggera follows in a tradition of lighter, more focused sports models. Porsche has the RS variants, Ferrari the Challenge Stradale line and now Lamborghini joins the fray.

The Gallardo Superleggera has the ability to lull the driver into a false sense of security. Glance down at the fascia and spot the standard air conditioning, the electronic stability control and even the optional satellite navigation unit and it all seems a long way from the snarling lightweight we were led to expect. These details contrast with the aggressive Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tyres and the optional four-point belts fitted to our test car. At first, it was tough to decide whether the Superleggera was a cynical marketing exercise or something rather different.

Driving it on road gave little away. The optional carbon ceramic brakes have a worrying dead spot at the top of the travel and the steel rotors seem a better bet for everyday use. The car was definitely louder than a standard Gallardo but the performance differences were marginal: an identical top speed and torque figure, 0.2s knocked off the sprint to 100kmh (now 3.8s) and 10bhp added to the power output. On track, a different picture emerged with the Superleggera offering superior grip and body control, largely down to the tyre choice. Snappy at the limit, it demands respect but is massively capable, on well-surfaced, dry tarmac at least. Needless to say, it delivers savage punch out of corners. Customers choose between e-gear and manual gearboxes.

Lamborghini has taken a different tack to the usual ‘just add horsepower’ approach and reducing weight rather than crudely boosting the engine seems a smarter way forward. The key change has been excising just over 100kg from the car’s dry weight which drops to 1,330kg largely through extensive use of carbon fibre. The seats are now lightweight CF items, and the same material is also used for the fixed rear spoiler, engine cover, mirrors, door inserts, front splitter and rear diffuser. There’s a polycarbonate window over the engine and the gearbox casing is now cast from magnesium.

The biggest change to the styling, aside from the CF splitter and diffuser, is the fitment of 19-inch forged alloy wheels with titanium wheel nuts to shave an additional few grammes off. There’s also a Superleggera side decal. Build quality seems very good with none of the groaning and creaking the carbon fibre panels often exhibit. Space inside is also reasonably good although taller drivers may be pinched for headroom. Legroom is excellent and all-round visibility is way better than any mid-engined supercar has any right to deliver. There’s even a decently sized trunk up front.

If you’re in the market for a Gallardo Superleggera, chances