2006 Lamborghini Gallardo Test Drive

Muscular German in an Armani Suit

You think Ferraris are extreme? Drive the Lamborghini Gallardo.

The Lamborghini Gallardo is a bulging German-Italian weightlifter cloaked in a trim and fashionably creased Armani suit.

Volkswagen owns the boutique Italian builder of super-exotic sports cars, which began development of the Gallardo Coupé in 2000. As Lamborghini's gatekeeper, Volkswagen-owned Audi had the difficult job of preserving the tempestuous spirit essential to every Lamborghini — a goal that would seem at odds with the refined stolidity of German luxury cars.

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Yet at the same time, Audi successfully infused these hot-blooded and historically temperamental machines with Teutonic — that is, more exacting — levels of quality and engineering. Until recently, Lamborghinis (like Ferraris) have been made to cottage-industry standards. “I always liked the fact that when you turned the radio on, the windshield wipers worked. It gave the car a certain character,” said an owner of a 1960s Lamborghini Miura, who was at the press launch of the Gallardo Spyder.

Lamborghinis have always been aspirational dream cars — raw and a shock to the senses. Even my Dodge Neon-driving daughter had a Diablo poster in her college dorm room. The Gallardo is, arguably, the first “attainable” Lamborghini — much like Aston Martin's recently launched V8 Vantage is that company's most affordable sports car to date.

Compared to paying nearly $300,000 for the beastly and spaceship-like Murcielago — equipped with a 572-hp V12 and Lamborghini's only other product — putting down $175,000 for a Gallardo Coupé or $195,000 for the recently introduced drop-top Gallardo Spyder almost seems reasonable.

The Gallardo's V10 engine, positioned just ahead of the rear wheels, produces 512 hp and launches the car from zero to 60 mph in 4.3 seconds. It consumes premium gasoline at an estimated rate of 10 mpg city/19 mpg highway.

Like the Gallardo coupe, Lamborghini will equip 70 percent to 80 percent of Gallardo Spyders with the company's sequential manual E-Gear transmission. The model we tested had the traditional six-speed manual.

Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann calls the Spyder the company's "most feminine model" and expects that the combination of the E-Gear transmission and convertible top should make it more appealing to women than the Coupe.