The Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 is by far the most beautiful of the current supercar crop, writes Nick Hall
Italians don't like being outdone, be it in sport, fashion or cars. So when Lamborghini's top brass compared the utterly gorgeous Murcielago with the Porsche Carrera GT, McLaren Mercedes SLR and Ferrari's 599 and found themselves well down the horsepower pecking order, they got the spanners out. And this, the LP640, is the near-deranged result.
Launched in 2001, the Murcielago is by far the most beautiful of the current supercar crop and its clean, crisp lines will stay fresh until long after the company has moved on to the next model.
But with "just" 570bhp driving all four wheels it was clearly in need of a boost, and so Lamborghini went to work on what is effectively a new car. It's lighter, more powerful and years ahead of its predecessor. But there is a price to pay, push this beast too far and it will fight back.
This is the fast yet perfectly controlled Murcielago force-fed steroids, horror movies and daily beatings with a stick. It's a throwback to the days of the Countach and Diablo that inspired awe, respect and fear in equal measure. Treated with respect, the LP640 will prove the most mindblowing experience of a lifetime, but disrespect her for a second and she will deposit you in the trees - much like an unstable and psychotically strong girlfriend.
Visually, the Lambo has a low-slung front spoiler adding invaluable downforce and a gaping air intake on the left-hand side only.
The V12 engine is now a monumental 6.5-litres. Almost every part of the original Murcielago engine has been revamped, from the cylinder head and crankshaft right through to the exhaust. And the end result of that is an almighty 631bhp powering all four wheels. Europeans use the PS system, and there are 640 of those, hence the name. It comes with 487lb/ft of torque, too, which is plenty.
All this means it can hit 100mph in 3.4s, a massive 0.4s faster than the Murcielago and fast enough to hold the Carrera GT and Ferrari Enzo alike.
The Lambo looks so much better in the process, as well, that it's like Kate Moss wandering into the Womens' Institute calendar shoot.
And the raw, crackling V12 sounds far sexier than the Porsche. The engine is relatively muted at idle. It's also relatively civilised at low speeds, too, despite heavy steering, a much firmer ride than the original and a whopping two-metre width that makes anything but a dual carriageway a one-way street.
So when I finally planted the gas on a standing start the rears lit up just for a second, before the car got a grip and tried to snap my neck with pure forward thrust.
I could only hang on and force the heavy clutch and reassuringly traditional six-speed box into place. It felt as if it would hit the near 340km/h top end speed without breaking its stratospheric stride.
Lamborghini remains devoted to four-wheel drive, while other supercars generally go for the rear-drive option. Under normal conditions only 28 per cent of the power goes to the front wheels, so it feels like a real sportscar.
When the rears lose the battle with physics, though, up to 85 per cent of that epic performance is sent forward to help drag the LP640 back on to the straight and narrow. This is just the start of a technical masterclass, as the LP640 comes loaded with anti-dive and anti-squat technology to prevent hairy moments when you slam on the ceramic brakes.
The initial Murcielago was amongst the kindest supercar driving experiences in the world, even when pushed. This new car has something else - the nervous edge of a spontaneous mass murderer to be precise. Go too far in the hard-edged Lambo without a serious amount of skill and it will bite.
The natural tendency is still understeer - the only way to keep most of the customers alive long enough to put their next deposit down. With just a short drive I never felt truly on top of this car, and even though the rear never slipped beyond a dramatic yet easily caught angle, it threatened to plenty of times.
The chassis feels as if it has been taken to its natural extreme and possibly infused with a few more horses than it can truly handle. That's no bad thing, though, it simply marks the LP640 out as the hardest of the hard - Lamborghini has gone back to its roots.
At £190,000 in the UK, it's a relative performance bargain compared to the rarefied company in which it lives. That's thanks to a simple spaceframe chassis, instead of the complicated and expensive carbon-fibre numbers offered by the competition that you could argue are wholly unnecessary for a road car.
With its wayward habits, latent aggression and throwback character, this machine might just beat them all on that all-important factor that has little or nothing to do with the technical make-up. This is an old-school, modern supercar with attitude and a healthy dose of automotive soul.