My 360 & a Gallardo test drive.

Just came back from the dealer up the street. I had gone up there with the intention of possibly trading my 360 Spider for a sweet looking yellow over black/with yellow inserts Gallardo. I stood and stared at the Lambo for an hour while the dealer and I talked turkey and then he handed me the keys. I was very excited to be able to drive such a highly talked-about car as the Gallardo. The interior is very nice. The engine sounded great at low RPMs. ANYway, we get out on the road and take it up to speed. AHHH! What a piece of crap! I have never felt so detached from the road. The car felt VERY solid and the engine pulled like a MONSTER, but I FELT like I was inside a theme park ride with videos of the outside world being played on a video screen 5 feet away from my face. The lane changes felt like I was towing a boat behind me. Very vague turn in, and the car took way too long to correct its posture after an abrupt maneuver. Oh, by the way after only ten miles my back was killing me...the seats suck! Visibility was terrible.

When I got back to the dealer I said, "Well, it ain't a Ferrari". The dealer (a good freind of mine) smiled and nodded in agreement.

There is simply no comparison to the FEELof the 360. Oh, by the way I have owned two other Lambos; I am not a Ferrari bigot. The Gallardo just sucks.

Russ

 

i have never driven a gallardo, but i sat in one. i absolutely hated everything about just sitting in the car. i just didn't feel right.

 

russ: have you driven a murcielago? curious what your thoughts are on that lambo...

 

Russ,
I am assuming you are talking about the one at Dimmitt's. I stopped by and checked it out today. Did they sell the 360, 456, and 550 they had? I didn't see them anywhere. Still want to get together sometime?

 

Russ, thanks for the insightful and informative review!

Ernesto

 

I drove a murcie for 3 days and did about 200 miles in it. I actually really liked it. I was expecting a pig but was pleasantly surprised. It is actually more chuckable than you would think and can quite easily even evoke a controlled power slide as well. You felt like an instant celebrity in it however. People always trying to sneak a peek inside to see who's driving it. Definitely more of a head turner than a f-car if you're into that.Great sound as well. In order to park I always opened the scissor doors(which is quite easy actually) in order to see the curb so that I didn't scrape the wheels. what I hated was the visibility and the gear change(especially the second to third change-on a power change the gearlever would always bump into the stainless notch in the gate and miss your change. I would consider buying a murcie, but the thing that did it for me in the end was the reliability problems that that particular car had experienced. As I have mentioned before I belong to p1 club (website www.p1international.com) and the car it has had just blown it's engine at 7000 miles. Furthemore it had already changed clutch and when I came to give the car back after the three days the car wouldn't start again(some electrical problem). In fact the guys at P1 told me that the murielago was the most unreliable car they had in their fleet alongside the Vanquish. The guys a p1 have every car you can imagine and have no gripes or favoritisms with any manufacturer and therefore tell it like it is. In summary therefore great car, but dubious reliability.

 

The Gallardo seats got bad remarks in the latest "Car and Driver" road test write up this month. Too hard and poorly padded was the concensus.

FWIW.....I have yet to drive any AWD car that doesn't feel like you described to some degree or another......if that helps.

 

Wait until Audi really starts to make it's mark. Any of these descriptions can refer to Audi. Great on paper.....crummy to drive. JMO.

 

suprised that allanlambo dude isnt here for the rescue. guess he cant say anything since the thread starter owned 2 lambos himself!

 

Russ,
Thanks for your insight on Gallardo. I was told by a few that Gallardo is hot, and I was interested in the car. Your comment is informative to my degree.

Can you comment on your 360 Spyder, too? Not just praises, but some flow, if any. I really like the styling of 360, and for 8 cylinder, that is the only another model I am interested in right now.

Thanks

Yoshi Ace

 

We don't need Allan here to respond, I can give you a pretty accurate quote of what his response would be.

"LOL obviously you dont know anything about lambos, the Gallardo will put a 360 to shame. Its nice that you dont like the feel of the car but everyone else in the world disagrees with you. I'm glad you didn't like it, people like you should stick with their 360's. In summary, Ferraris are lame and they suck and they can't hold a candle to a Lambo. And my dad can beat up your dad and my wife is hotter than your wife, and I'm hung better than you too. LOLOLOLOL HAHAHAH LOL"

Now don't ya just feel like Allan was just here?

 

are you related to him? That's funny!!

 

You missed a few: "Obviously you havent read XXX magazine, where they prefer the Gallardo! And my buddy at the Lambo dealer says that the 360 is the number 1 trade-in for the Gallardo! The 360 market is about to crash!! Now that Lambo has two cars, they are poised to conquer the market!"

All you have to do is add nine or ten typos to make them Allan's comments...

Ernesto

 

Couldnt have said it better myself!

 

Very good to hear that. Performance is one thing but I bet you 456M get better feel than this ugly Italian

 

I like the curves on Ferraris

 

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! ROTFLMAO!!! (oww... my side hurts)

 

Agree 100%

 

HAHA. If this was a prime example of Italian craftsmanship, the Italians would be laughed out of the Exotic auto industry.

 

Y'all can hate Allan, but you gotta admire his consistency and tenacity

 

Unfortunately for Lambo most of that comment is true. I have yet to drive a German car that feels as attached to the road as an Italian car. They call it engineering, and yes they do hold together and last better than Italians cars but they have also taken some of the soul and fun out of the car

That is why IMO Germans cannot make supercars, because supercars need to retain some rawness to get the full bang for your buck.

My mother also works for an Audi dealership, and she loved Audis originally (as many women do), but she would never, ever own one now!, heaps of unreliable crap. The lowest rung of the German auto industry by far.

One plus to this is that pre-Audi Lambos might go up in price thanks to BETTER reliability and MORE soul. Allan might be on to a gold mine

Pete

 

I just dont understand you guys. Ferrari lost its soul on the mid 90's. And thats ok. Now Lambo gets more refined, better etc, and its a bad thing. I could understand if the Gallardo where not a nice car, but ive driven one, and it was much better than the 360's ive driven. To me, the 360 is completely soulless.

 

Actually I believe Ferrari lost its soul with the TR (modern version ofcourse) because that car was made to suit the American market and thus high on the design list were:

1. Power sapping emissions.
2. Comfort, hence the softening of the suspension, etc.
3. Usability.

This was done as Ferrari wanted to get back into the US market.

BUT I feel that Ferrari have turned a corner with the 355 and tried to build more what Ferraris are all about and the 360 appears to have continued this theme, as more than ever Ferraris are appearing on tracks, actually racing again. You never, ever saw a TR, 348 or a Mondial racing down here in Australia and NZ. I also have to agree that I am confused about the 550/575 range. I do not have any problem with being front engined, but I do have a problem with a 2 seater being a barge in size ... hardly effective design.

As for the refinement thing, this is a very difficult thing because if you refine the say steering too much you can loose the feeling through the rim ... I believe that Germans do this because they cannot help themselves and is one of the reasons why I hate Mercs. Souless beyond redemption.

BTW: The one thing I have never seen written about a 360 is that it is souless ... and I am not saying the Gallardo is ... just watch out for that German influence ...

Pete

 

russ,

thanks for sharing. can't believe you were going to trade in you 360 for a gallardo, especially after all the mods you just did. but heck, now you don't have to "wonder" and know the 360 is THE car. when you guys coming back up here? missed you on a go-karting event yesterday with the club. we had a pretty decent turn out.

 

It will be interesting to see just how far Audi goes with the Gallardo. If they eliminate the 4WD and drop 250lbs in weight via some sort of SV or GT-R version of the car, then most of your negatives could possibly be elimianted.

But according to Napolis the Gallardo isn't selling (even though they moved a thousand of them in just five months), so they'll probably just cancel it outright. LOL!!!