Introduction
Well it's been a while since I have posted here, but I decided it was wotth it to log yet another comparison test drive for future reference. I drove an
Alfa Romeo 4C back in December 2015 which I blogged about, and figured this would be a good addition.
This time... it was for a 2005 Lamborghini Gallardo with 6 speed manual gated shifter. The comparison is with my current car, a 2016 Porsche Cayman GT4. Having grown up with lots of Italian exotics that my father owned in the 80s and 90s I have always had a yearning for something of that nature. The GT4 is an amazing car... and quite visceral by modern Porsche standards... but the gated shifter, sounds and looks of something like a Lamborghini has always been of interest.
In recent times many of the cars from the 1990s and 2000s have dropped in value to the point where they are at or near the price of what a GT4 fetches. A recent online search (cars guys are always just "browsing" right?) yielded a 2005 Gallardo just a little over an hour from me in Sacramento. After a brief call to the dealer I arranged for a test drive the following morning at Luxury Motorcars.
Off I went, braving smoke and ash that was falling in that area from recent fires to check out the car.
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| The test car awaits... |
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| My Cayman GT4 enroute to the dealer... |
Initial Impressions
Having sat in a friends Gallardo once before I sort of knew what to expect. Overall this car is about 13 years old. I wasn't expecting modernity. Nor was I expecting the refinement of the German GT4. Still there is something about the Lamborghini that has more street looks.. or "presence" if you will. It's wide... it's low... and even if it is starting to look a bit dated, it's still a Lamborghini. The car looks good, but compared to the GT4 I don't know if it is "better". Perhaps more exotic...but hard to say. Looks are subjective anyhow... Still I consider my GT4 a baby exotic. With proper wheels or wrap it could hold its own I feel. On the other hand the wedge shape is still a classic. On the street especially in California where Porsches are quite common, the Lamborghini will still turn heads.
The car was generally prepped for me in the garage but they still had to move another car to get it out. So I asked them to do those honors. I got to stand outside as they did a cold start in the closed garage... Epic sound. Reminded me of Car Week quite a bit. There is no questioning when a Lamborghini starts up...you look around. Especially in any sort of closed off space.
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| Cold start "inside" was of course pretty epic |
Interior
Getting inside the car isn't too bad. You definitely sit lower than the Porsche. I'm pretty short which historically means that I fit better in exotics. Still I had some ergonomic issues with the Gallardo. Notably I wished the seat went higher upwards than it did. You sit low in this car. So low it makes it hard to judge where the front end falls off. In addition I had to move the seat to the limit forward to reach pedals and push the clutch. I actually adjusted some of the lumbar to help. Still I wasn't exactly "comfortable". So much for "short" being helpful.
In some ways this hearkened back to my fathers old Countach. I remember even then using a pillow to help push forward in the seat. The car was usable but not exactly laid out for comfort for someone with my smaller stature. Still the Gallardo seats felt reasonably good. Bolsters felt solid and I felt planted. Comparatively I have also driven a few R8 V8's. Those seats feel like large sofas that I slid around in. These definitely gripped. But the R8 felt ergonomically more comfortable to me.
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| Definitely a Lamborghini interior |
The air conditioning worked amazingly well despite reasonably old buttons. My only two real gripes would be the radio which looked and felt archaic with its display... and the fact it took both CD and ... yes ... cassette tape. Add the fact that I couldn't get any sort of digital speedometer display in the main center gauge cluster. Not knowing exactly what speed I was driving without looking at tiny numbers on the analog dial was annoying if not downright frustrating.
Radio sound quality was ok... I didn't really spend time trying to adjust it. It seemed like the same low quality you get in the Porsche. But lets face it, you're really going to be hearing engine noises most of the time anyways.
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| So dated... |
Driving
Pulling out of the dealer was an interesting procedure. By comparison to the very long throw and heavy feeling of the Cayman GT4 clutch, the Lamborghini has a very short and light feel. Very much the same as the Audi R8s I have been in. And similar to a F360 I toyed with while parked once. That said the engagement was still fairly high. I had an interesting time trying to figure out how to pull out. I definitely let the clutch spin a bit to make sure I wasn't going to stall. Mostly it's just a completely different feel. I started connecting and smoothing out by the end of my test drive but never really got "perfect" with it.
Braking
Once on the road I didn't have far to go approaching my first stop sign. After a brief spurt I hit the brakes. Then hit them harder. Because the initial feel and amount of braking was significantly less than the same amount on the Porsche. They aren't totally horrible...well maybe. But I found I had to push fairly firmly to get any sort of real braking. The modulation didn't feel linear. A bit of throw with not much result, then suddenly braking with lots of force. Not exactly what I was hoping for. Still with a heavier car I expected some amount of braking to feel less precise. It's possible this car needed a brake flush. Or perhaps I just wasn't used to it.
I also did a fairly hard brake test on an offramp from the freeway part of my test drive. By that point I was getting used to the car and the brakes there felt decent. Still there is no question the car is bigger than the Porsche. It feels more agreessive, full on or full off as far as how it wants to be driven compared to the GT4.
Transmission and Power
As mentioned this car has the sought after 6 speed gated shifter. In general when I've tested cars like the R8 I found myself somewhat non-plussed. The shifter in the GT4 is generally considered to be one of the best ever in modern day...and it is. That said I did like the 6 speed in the Gallardo shifter wise. The click click of one gear to another was pretty cool. However not being used to it I did find myself looking down to make sure I was actually in the right gear. It's strange but I suspect it's something one would get used to and I would enjoy over time. Again the GT4 displays both speed and current gear in a digital display right in the center gauge cluster. Both are missing in the Lamborghini.
Pedal-wise, I still found the clutch a bit unnerving. It may be that I just needed more time to get used to the car and how it engages. But the lack of experience with the gated shifter, and lack of feeling on the clutch made me constantly aware of how poorly I was doing. There was a lot of apologizing to the salesman about how I wasn't used to this car.
Interestingly the first 3 gears felt pretty grabby and chunky. On the freeway the higher 4,5,6 gears felt a lot softer and smooth with a more normal "seat in" feel that was more Porsche like. I don't know if that's an indication of wear on the clutch or not. This car had a bit over 17k miles... A throwout bearing was recently replaced but the clutch I believe was still deemed to be "good". Or maybe the seller just didn't bother.
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| Yes... it's good |
So being unused to the car I felt like a new driver learning how to drive stick again. Pretty violent gear shifts but fun. Gearing actually felt a bit long similar to the GT4. I know this is an issue that was addressed in the 2006+ cars where they shortened gearing, changed suspension and also changed steering rack and exhaust. Still it wasn't bad... but I found myself staying in higher rpms... I never felt like the power was going to get away from me. I can understand why people supercharge these engines.
That said the car isn't slow. Like the GT4 you can be at "decent" freeway speeds in 3rd gear. And it does push you in your seat a bit more... but it's not a ton more than the Cayman. Full disclosure my GT4 has Street Cats and Stage 2.
Overall the car felt fast... there were several times I was like wow I feel like it's fast..oh it's THAT fast.. wow. Ok more than I thought. Interesting... it may be I just wasn't used to the car... or that it is a bit more feeling speed wise because you're lower to the ground. But not so feeling that you realize just quite how fast you are. Plus I was still distracted focusing on the gated shifter.
One last note... my Cayman GT4 with Sport mode will auto-rev match when downshifting. That said I can also do it manually. In my old Cayman S when I did it by hand (or is it by foot) all the time, the car definitely felt a bit "electric" and drive by wire. Sometimes a full throttle blip would result in less throttle etc... the Porsche computer helps you to get a more perfect rev match. The Gallardo was similar, to the point where I would blip the throttle but actually it seemed like nothing would happen. Literally nothing. I am not sure if this was because I was just so off and not used to the clutch (and gated shifter seemed like it was slowing me down), or if it was electronic nanny's interfering and not letting me rev match for some reason. Again more seat time might help, but it seemed odd.
Steering
Perhaps the biggest difference to the Cayman is the steering. The Gallardo steering felt a lot less precise. Over slow turns I felt like I hard to turn the wheel a lot farther than I do in the Porsche. In addition overall the AWD feel and weight of the car made it feel way less tossable. I managed to get a nice big sweeper on an off ramp where I pushed the car a bit more. People said the car is "not confidence inspiring" especially at slow speeds. I would agree. I am not sure what it is but there is something about the way the car turns in that makes it feel like you are fighting it a bit. Or maybe it is just less "feel".
By comparison I pushed pretty hard in my GT4. I can get the back to swing a bit but and have a blast putting down the power. The Porsche chassis is just so communicative and the car so telepathic it will just do what you want and you can push it and play with it. The Lamborghini seemed like the beast you might have to wrangle and be careful with. Not so much because of the power... but because you just don't trust it quite as much.
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| V10 power plant |
Sound
With a big V10 behind your head you expect the car to sounds good...and it does. It was unclear if this car had an exhaust mod or not. But it sounded quite decent. With my Sport Headers on the GT4 I would say they were similar sounding actually. With the Lamborghini being slightly louder. In addition the tone near red-line is a lovely high pitch wail that counterparts the lower range nicely. Even with windows up on the freeway, you know when you are on the gas. Again similar to my Soul Performance Headers. Windows down, great sound, and under any sort of bridge or underpass it's as if you are in a tunnel. There's no question this car would get attention and looks driving it.
The salesman mentioned having sold a previous Gallardo with a Stasis exhaust that was epic. I can only imagine what aftermarket would do... (drool)
Visibility
I mentioned sitting low. Overall the car felt like a mix to me. The rear 3/4 view in the car is blocked by the rear pillar in the same way the R8 has the side blades you can't see through. The front of the car was hard to judge, at least for me. In addition this test car had an issue with the main rear view mirror. It was a self dimming mirror but broken so the bottom 3/4 of it was near solid dark. Only the top part was clear and functional. With what little rear view I could get (didn't seem like it would be much more even if the rear view mirror was working) rear visibility was pretty limited.
However on the freeway the reality is the side view mirrors are decently big. Maybe even wider than the Cayman. I actually felt quite confident changing lanes...and despite a fairly high belt line on the car looking out the side windows, the view isn't bad. Let's face it though this is a car you are going to be driving forward more than anything else. Probably passing others...
Thinking about using this car for any sort of "errands" like I have with the Porsche is a different story. Again it might be the sort of thing getting used to the car would ease. But I don't know that I'd love trying to figure out how to park it anywhere and everywhere. The lack of a rear view camera also made it challenging to back up with... more so than my current car perhaps. That rear view is really quite limited.
Summary
So where does that leave the Gallardo? For me I think the ergonomics alone were the main issue for me. That mixed with super dated radio and such made it a big question mark. It made me really appreciate just how good of a car the Cayman GT4 is.
But, there is no question driving the Lamborghini is an experience. You have to pay attention to what is around you due to looks, visibility, and general feel of the car more so than the Cayman. It's wide. It's low. It's loud-ish. When I jumped back into my Porsche it actually took some getting used to. I suddenly felt like I was sitting high up in a Honda or something. The clutch pedal and shifter felt too long to throw and actually a little odd all of the sudden. Overall my car felt more plain... There was something more aggressive about the Lambo.
Still enjoying the sound of the Flat 6 engine was just as good as the Lamborghini thanks to the headers. Putting down power was a bit slower and definitely a bit less torque filled but you can play with the car handling-wise a lot more. It felt safe and easy to toss around. But maybe a fair bit less "special".
It is interesting. In the "moment" when I finished my drive I was like no...no way I would trade cars. The GT4 just does so much well and in a balanced way. Comfortable yet sporty. Fast but refined. But thinking back to it, there was something about the gated shifter and exotic nature of the Gallardo that makes me second guess that opinion.
In reality I think the Lamborghini would be a great car to take out for the occasional drive and show. But the Porsche wins better driving car, and maybe even more fun on twisty roads. The Gallardo would be fun to go out in here and there, but I don't know that I'd actually want to "own" it for any sort of long term period. The Cayman GT4 fulfills a lot of what makes a car good to enjoy, without the same amount of fanfare and drama. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. It might depends on ones mood or intended usage at a specific moment in time.
I think back to the Alfa 4C test drive I did. There's something about it that was hugely engaging and memorable. It's something I think back to when I drive other cars as a point of comparison for how memorable and engaging, and yet imperfect it was. The same will probably hold true for the Gallardo.
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| I didn't get to test drive the Ferrari F40... I wonder why... :) |
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| Not a bad garage... |
Thanks for reading!
