Thinking of selling my 360 for a Merci

Funny im thinking of getting one too.The only thing thats still holding me back is that i dont know to much about them.I have the car picked out and am getting a great deal.We will see very soon if i make the switch.

 

Wow 430's are only 40-50k more over here.

 

I was actually thinking of making the switch as well, but it's almost impossible to find a manual transmission Murcielago with the right options and color combo. In other words, I just kind of gave up looking. Egear ruins those cars for me. It's even worse than Ferrari's F1 system.

Plus, the Murcielago's have horrid understeer from what I hear, and I've heard more than one person say that they are boring cars to drive. That the Fcars are just more fun. And I have to agree. I want a Murcielago, but I think the 360's are just better cars. So, considering all of that, I'm staying where I am until the 599's drop into the $110-120k range.

 

Thats the first that i heard that there a boring car to drive.You should not have that much of a problem finding a stick because i think Egear didn't come out till 2004.

 

Drive a Murcie before you make comparisons of them being boring to drive lol

A 360 is nice, but doesn't come close to driving a monster V12 Lamborghini, you thought you got looks in a 360, multiply that by 10X. It's like comparing apples to passion fruit, they are that far apart.

You won't regret it trust me

 

Try the murcie first. I didn't like the feel of the car at all. Gallardo is a much better car if your going with a lambo.

 

I love both cars but the Murcie just has something more (V12, those looks, and I really love the interior and how the gear leaver sits. Just a wonderful place to be).

If you know how to drive manual like a normal person (i.e. don't ride the clutch, this car has obviously a lot more torque hence a burned clutch does happen easier than on a 1.2 Corolla ) the clutch will last very long. It's worth doing the clutch when the engine is out in any case to keep costs down, the expensive part is the labour. Clutch isn't spastically expensive.

Reliability should be fine too, look at the last 3 years specifically and how many KM's it has done...if it has averaged around 2500-3000+ per annum in that period then it should be quite good (obviously depending on the history...if it's been the shop every other week it's not).

 

Lets be frank, big V12 Lambos are for getting attention... You throw the doors up, rev the engine a couple times and drive fairly quickly in a straight line. I help put 7000 miles on a 1995 Diablo VT, not a bad car but it was not really a great drivers car. Way to heavy and would get left for dust in the corners by the comparable, Porsche, Ferrari, Corvette. It was amazing on the highway at high speeds, and the exhaust note was very deep.

To the op, it just depend how your honestly going to use the car.
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When people ask me, I warn them that they will be surrounded by lookers every time they gas up, plus on the road trying to take pics. A different experience, true harder to drive but every one should own one once!

 

My old Diablo 2001 6,0 is a much more exiting car than the first Murcielag,s absolutely loved it ,the one that got away, bought it with 19k miles sold with 32k approx 14 months later,due to family/ kid situation. Not trying to tell anybody what to do, but a much better investment and far better looking car, mine was orange,stunning color.
Then again ,if the Murci is what you want, ignore my post and buy a Murci

 

If you are worried that your V12 Lamborghini is going to understeer in the corner than you're buying the wrong car. They are unabashed outrageous poser cars. Loud, fast, sexy attention whores. If your idea of exciting is to shave .1 seconds off your personal best lap time than stick a V8 Ferrari. If you want to get excited each time you fire up the V12 and pull out of the garage get a Lamborghini. I don't ever see myself selling my Diablo 6.0.

 

I've driven Diablos (and Aventadors, but no Murcie yet) and a 360 (3 pedal with all the CS performance mods + headers, much MUCH healthier than a standard 360).

They (V12 Lambo vs. 360) are so different, not really comparable. The 360 is light and frenetic and dare I say like a 997.2 Porsche on crack.

My Diablo is a 99 converted to RWD with filters, secondary cat delete, and straight pipe exhaust. I'd say it is about 200+ lbs lighter than a standard 99 VT. It is NOT boring to drive and when I was on a NorCal exotics drive, more modern cars were not able to leave it by much on the twisty bits of CA-1 north of the bay and surrounding roads. Those guys don't mess around either, many of them are trackday guys and some of the cars in front were serious (997.2 GT3 RS, built NSX, multiple built GTRs). On top of that they knew the roads better. Obviously these are public roads so we weren't going 10/10 but at 8/10 there honestly was not much in it, the GTRs were the quickest across the ground that day but still kept within close range.

The thing with AWD V12 Lambos is, they are heavy, they understeer from AWD, they understeer from stock alignment, and they understeer from (I believe purposely) narrow front tires. All of that said the 6.2 Murcie held the top gear track record for quite some time (as in SEASONS), and that track is fairly tight too...

I suspect stock a Murcie (esp. a 6.2 liter) will feel somewhat ponderous. You need to get the weight out as much as is reasonably possible and get it to RWD along with a free flowing exhaust and a remap. The LP640 is probably a better starting place but of course harder to find 3 pedals in.

At the end of the day it won't be a suitable trackday car even with all the mods done (one big reason is heat), but it can be a very rewarding road car to hustle around corners if it is set up right and you like feeling big mass behind your head moving about.

To me the V12 behind my head, manual gearbox, and a car that requires some skill to hustle around corners is very rewarding. It also has that something special, very hard to describe.

As falconsprint alludes to, what the hell do you replace a relatively modern mid-engined 3 pedal V12 car with and not go way over budget? I mean there is 512TR/M, McLaren F1, Ferrari F50, Diablo, Murcielago, Pagani Zonda (not U.S. street legal), maybe I am forgetting one but that is about it for 1990s+ 3 pedal midmounted V12s? These are rare driving experiences and half the cars I listed above are 7 figure cars now...

 

I'd like to add that my next car will likely be a 5 valve v8 Ferrari or a 997.2 GT3, but it will be an addition to the stable. This kind of car very much compliments a V12 Lambo in the garage, there is damn near zero overlap in experience and your moods will demand one or the other rather than really having to think hard about which one to drive on a given mission.

So may I suggest add on the V12 Lambo when possible and hang on to your 360

 

Nothing wrong with that combination !
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Well done sir, well done!

 

I concur

life is way to short to just own one Italian breed, just picked up an F430 to keep my Bull company, but there is always room for one more , now who has an Alfa 4C for sale
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+1 for having one of each in the stable
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Hello Joe, my ex Murcielago along with several others from Singapore are now residing in Australia

I drove mine as a daily for 3yrs, tracked it 6 times plus several grand tours into Malaysia. It'll also be prudent to have a spare car or bike for your other errands in the city. Anyway, which Lambo/Ferrari owner doesn't have spare cars?

The V12 Lambos are not trackday heros & so is a regular 360 but they can all do some fun in the circuit & learn your limits as both cars have abrupt oversteer if you're careless. The Murcie will always feel more cumbersome due to the size+rear tyres+AWD (non-perm) which can be easily overcome as you get familiar and I've done tight mountain passes that keeps up with V10s/V8s. Some of my friends did over 300km/h on the speedo if you're into this & V12s have that extra torque that rev-happy Ferrrari V8s don't.

I find them to be more reliable than my Ferraris & cost less to maintain. No belt job other than a major engine-out job which will equalise the bills but they always put a smile on anyone's face while the 360 is an "outdated" used Ferrari by now. The V12 Lambo's stance & looks will always grip people's mind or balls

Lastly, you can also facelift the rear tailamps to Lp640 for a modern look.

 

I agree with everything TD80 said (including mods).

Murci is a highway/long winding road car, not a track car. You will get TONS of attention everywhere you go.

If you're considering egear, there are some LP640's in the '05/'06 price range.

I've owned three (two early 6.2's and an LP), feel free to PM me with any questions.

 

Joe,

I made that same move a few years back and have NEVER regretted it. I traded a Red/Tan 2004 360 Spider, and bought a Red/Tan, 2006 Murcie Roadster...I feel the Murcie is an easier car to drive, gets WAY more thumbs up/looks/videos, etc (if that matters to you) and all in all seems like a much more substantial car. My 360 always seemed very fragile to me, the Murcie really feels like a "bull". I couldn't be happier that I made the move

 

UK magazine EVO had an early Murci as a very long-term test car. Finally retired it with over 120k miles, and thousands of laps on the track. Not sure about the reliability good or bad, as along the way it had several clutches and other maintenance. The concept of a Lambo with six-figure mileage is very appealing and rare I would think.

 

Simon posts here occasionally. The car spend a lot of its life on track...even so I found it to be quite reliable and the fact it needed a new crank after a silly amount of track miles wasn't surprising to me... He did a LOT of miles on the clutch as well.

The car had over 250K miles on it before it got crashed by someone else. The frame has since been straightened and back on the road...

 

The comments about "shaving 0.1 sec" and "lap times" and "which is the better driver's car" are excellent.

Bottom line: Lambos and Ferraris do equally well at a track. It has more to do with the driver and the two cars you are comparing while on that track. But the REAL truth is 99.999% of exotic owners will never take their car on a track but maaaaybe once. More likely never. Because that's not what they are for.

If you squeezing out the last 0.1 sec of your lap time is the priority, then you should buy a dedicated track car. Don't race your street exotic on the track regularly. That's just dumb, unless you like replacing body panels and leaving your car in for paint work often.

But that doesn't sound like the OPs point at all. Sounds like he wants a fun street car. The Murci will do great for that. I've owned two. Both manuals. Very reliable cars. Highway mile consumers of the best variety. Comfortable to be in for long journeys. And fun to drive on short twisty ones too. Beautiful inside and out. Modern, sexy design, that is mostly ageless and stays fresh looking. Heavy, but solid. If you're pushing the car enough to notice the AWD induced understeer, then convert to RWD. It's easy.

IMHO The Murci is one of the best "all around" exotics you can get. It is definitely my favorite car I've owned so far.