German Car Zone

I like it in grey. That's the colour I would have, ultra-stealthy and almost military in its efficiency. A grey Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera - Grigio Telesto, its creators call it - with the Alcantara and carbonfibre steering wheel option but otherwise in its simplest, purest form. So steel brakes, no rear wing, manual transmission. I wish, I wish...

This one is orange, though. Arancio Borealis, it's called, with a slight golden flip when the light catches it right. You can see it a mile off, but if you buy your Superleggera to make a statement rather than to indulge your inner dynamic desires, then you'll never tire of gazing at your purchase and enjoying the way others do the same.

What's this Superleggera business, then? The cynical view is that it's a way of paying more to get less. One hundred kilograms less, to be exact, reducing the total mass to 1,330kg and most visibly achieved by the ample use of carbonfibre. See it on the engine cover surrounding a lightweight polycarbonate window, on the interior door casings, on the aerodynamic blades and spoilers, on sections of the dashboard and centre tunnel, on the casings of the door mirrors, in the lightweight racing seats.

Superleggera means 'super lightweight'. If you're steeped in classic cars you might know that Carrozzeria Touring in Italy invented the construction method known as superleggera back in the 1950s, in which a multitude of thin steel tubes were covered by aluminium skin panels. That's not how this Gallardo is made, though. It uses a bonded, riveted and welded aluminium structure, similar to that of its Ferrari F430 rival, so it achieves lightness by a different route. By reducing the weight of the components hung on this structure, (relative) super-lightness results.

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