 Sirish Chandran, OverDrive (Feb. ’09) test drove the Murcielago in Sant’ Agata. Here is his story…
The Lamborghini is not an easy car to play around with – especially the Murcielago. This car demands respect; just the name – Murcielago is mildly terrifying. It sounds fast, Italian and unlike Lambo you can’t abbreviate Murcielago. There’s no trivializing it, every time the name is uttered, it is uttered with reverence. This is no sensible, practical, son-of-Audi. This is the big league, the last of the old school, big muscle, erotic, wet-your-pants supercars and Lamborghini’s keen to impress that on every driver.
So naturally test driving the Murcielago is no easy task. These things are fast. Anything with over 250PS is fast and when one is caught unawares 250 feel more like 500. So it was with much trepidation and excitement that Chandran (OverDrive ’09) took his drive…his excerpts…
 “The LP640-4 is one of the finest purveyors of automotive beauty. Its scissor doors are surely the ultimate in automotive erotica and it now feels like only the Lambo can make cars that are classically beautiful. Whatever shreds of fat that were there on the original Murcielago (launched in 2001) have been shed on the LP; the nose is even more sharper, the nostrils even more flared, snorting in a larger volume of cooling air and at the rear there’s a large single-port exhaust that juts out like a jet nozzle from the centre of the rear diffuser. No other car, maybe except the Gallardo can pull off lurid orange, toxic green or matt black! The LP640-4 has classic supercar proportions – long, impossibly low and insanely wide – and one enters in traditional supercar fashion – most inelegant!”
“Once inside, the quilted leather seats look beautiful but show a surprising disregard for the shape of the human anatomy. The fat A-pillars do their best to obstruct forward vision and the view out of the back is legendary, legendary in that there’s absolutely no view! But then again a Lambo isn’t about pampering you. No, in a Lambo one wants a barking mad engine to go with the barking mad exterior and the LP’s engine is just that. Barking mad.”
“The Murcielago engine is a V12! And this is a blue blooded Lamborghini engine, an engine that can trace its roots back to the Countach of 1973…on the LP (LP stands foe longitudinal posterior which in Italian means engine mounted lengthways behind the cockpit) she’s bored and stroked to now displace a humongous 6.5 litres (up from 6.2) and that kicks out a shattering 640PS of power and 660Nm of torque. It’s a power output to shame Ferrari’s V12 and because it’s a V12 there isn’t just a shattering top end peaking at 8000rpm, but the mid range muscle is just breathtaking. Tickle the throttle and she emits a deep rumble overlaid by all kinds of induction noises and as revs climb above 3500rpm, the note progressively gets stronger, louder, harder, edgier until at 5000rm she goes ballistic, like the devil itself shrieking through those exhaust pipes, shattering ear drums of every living creature within a five-mile radius – a supercar yowl to redefine all supercar yowls; probably one of the best automotive soundtracks ever.”
This isn’t a car you’re going to be complaining about a lack of grip over – says Chandran (OverDrive, Feb. ’09). Shod with gigantic tyres 335-section 8-inchers at the rear, the grip levels are insane. But again there is so much power, the sheer breadth of the thing and surprisingly NO ESP – one would best be left driving within the (admittedly stratospheric) limits of the machine.
Launched aggressively the LP640 gets to 100kmph in 3.4 seconds and if you keep your right foot planted she will eventually top off at 338kmph. But if you overdrive her – she’ll bite you hard. Get on the throttle too early, too much throttle or less than perfect roads and whap, you’re facing the direction you’ve come from warns Chandran (OverDrive. Feb. ’09).
 “So, this then, is a proper Lambo to drive – it isn’t about how fast the Murcielago will go; it is about how fast you will dare take the Murcielago!”
“There’s nothing rational or sensible about the LP640 and that’s what makes it so beautifully addictive. This is a toy for very special occasions. After all which rational, sensible person needs the power of six Honda Citys? Who needs the devil shrieking violently behind ones ears every time one steps on the throttle? And who needs a car that runs so low that there’s a button on the dash to raise the carbon-fibre nose at even the hint of a speed-breaker?”
“But when the tacho needle swings past 3500rpm even the earth stops rotating just to see the Lambo in action – case rested…signs off Chandran (OverDrive Feb. ’09). |
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