"You're an accountant!" shrieked the silver-haired woman as she hung out of the passenger window of a black Chrysler 300C on the Las Vegas strip. "Even with that car, you'll never get l@!#!"

And with that, she was gone--middle finger extended with (alcohol fueled?) rage. Never mind that it was she who blatantly and purposely dropped a bag of McDonald’s garbage onto the road, prompting us to issue a disapproving look and a thumbs-down sign. That was all that it took to send one of the AARP's Vegas cougars into an angry analysis of our ride for the day, Lamborghini's new Gallardo LP560-4.

What is it about exotic cars--"super sports cars" is what Lamborghini president and CEO Stephan Winkelmann calls them--that rubs certain people oh so wrong? Envy? Genuine disgust for such hedonism? Confusion as to how to insult someone who apparently knows success more than they do and knows it well? Who cares.

Indeed, time spent behind the wheel of Lambo's new $201,000 stud stirs nearly that much worth of emotions. Only in an Italian supercar will you feel like the king of the world in one instant, a narcissistic cheeseball who feels a twinge (or more) of embarrassment the next.

Most of the time, though, the former applies, even when drunken grandmothers suggest that your motivation for riding the raging bull has nothing to do with performance and everything to do with lifestyle. Or at least the lifestyle they figure you fantasize about.

Admittedly, there is a large fantasy element at play, and Lamborghini knows it. When asked to name competitors, Winkelmann deadpans, "We have no competitors."

The implication is that Lamborghini is the best and operates in a different stratosphere where normal rules of engagement don't apply, and that's all there is to it. Indeed, the LP560-4's press launch in Vegas began with a peculiar dinner featuring dancing runway "models"--or were they the best the area's thriving adult industry had to offer?--and leaping Ninjas, all inside a tent custom-built as a temporary restaurant for media. No, not one of Vegas' kabillion five-star restaurants would be sufficient to demonstrate that the LP560-4 is far more than a simple car.

Except that once you fire the direct-injection engine of Sant’ Agata’s latest Gallardo, all the psychological nonsense becomes irrelevant. Crack the throttle that electrifies the new 5.2-liter V10 and you remember that it will--and should--always be about the car. Lamborghini says 0-62 mph happens in 3.7 seconds, a solid 0.3 second faster than the outgoing 5.0-liter edition, and 124 mph (200 kph) screams up in just 11.8 seconds, 0.5 second sooner than before. But while horsepower is up to 552 from 520, the extra 22 lb-ft of torque makes this beast noticeably different from its predecessor.

Gone are the power spikes and high-strung character. Oh, it revs and revs until the limiter kicks in at a staggering 8500 rpm. But there is snorting, kicking, bucking grunt across the range, a seemingly limitless reserve of mojo that rips the twisting desert roads and Las Vegas Motor Speedway where we drove.

Power oversteer is there when you want it, as is stability when you want that, too. The chassis, revamped suspension and tires pull huge lateral g; turn into a corner and the car sets on its suspension and then digs in to a mesmerizing degree. Though the new V10 is heavier than the old one, the car weighs 45 pounds less thanks to a reworked drivetrain. The LP560-4 is endlessly tossable through heavy steering that strangely enough feels a lot like the virtual steering sensation of Logitech’s range of video-game wheels. The same goes for the optional carbon ceramic brakes we tested, which are sensitive early on in the pedal's travel but ungodly when it comes to stopping distance. The reworked paddle-actuated gearbox shifts 40 percent faster courtesy of re-engineered internals and software; in "Corsa" mode, full-throttle shifts engage with all the subtlety of a baseball bat to the face. But in normal and sport modes it is easy to shift smoothly. Regardless, a manual gearbox is available.

The Gallardo LP560-4 arrives in U.S. Lamborghini dealerships late this summer, but if you don't have claim to one of the 550 pre-orders you will likely have to wait nine months or more to take delivery. That's plenty of time to figure out if you place a priority on performance or lifestyle, but really, that is irrelevant. In this case, you can have both. And maybe, just maybe, that's exactly what pisses people off so much.


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M

The switchgear looks more like my 2008 RS4 than my 2004 Gallardo- in fact exactly like the RS4!

The entire interior is blasphemy IMO,Audi A4 parts has no place in a Lambo

Christ sake it is gorgeus from the outside but GOD who on earth thought that RS4 interior would fit Just retarded....

Love the whole car and the interior isn't bad it just isn't great but it does look good

The interior isn't that bad it's just to much Audi in it and since I'm a Mercedes fan that would be the only thing that would stop me from buying one. Othervise this is a superb vehicle with a superb engine.

True! Lambo have themselves recognized that they cars are morphing into Lambaudi and will with the future models restrict the level of competent sharing with Audi to 20%.

Blah. You guys suck.

I love the interior.

Lol

I love that car looks sensational and aggressive the only i could talk about is the interior looking too much like an A4,Lambo just deserves a unique interior that matches the exterior

It is a wonderful interior...but very German. Honestly, Lamborghini feels less and less Italian.