Drove a Murcielago

What a wonderful experience. I am seriously thinking of buying this car. It's a very clean '02 with low mileage, not a scratch and perfect interior. The split rims also look like new.

The drive: I immediately notice the lightness of the clutch and how smooth the gearbox feels. Nothing to do with the old recalcitrant 'boxes of old school supercars. Much smoother than the Ferrari Maranello's manual box, which is not bad but definitely feels a lot more "old school" than this. On the move, the engine immediately shows its enormous reserves of torque. In traffic you can easily leave in fourth gear all day long, it has plenty of low-down grunt to cruise at 20 mph one moment, and snarl to 80 mph at the first brush of the throttle. And the engine sounds simply awesome - courtesy of the Tubi exhaust no doubt but the creamy smoothness of the V12 is something that comes almost unexpected from such an extreme supercar. Actually I could say that the Murcielago is not extreme at all - it is actually the most user-friendly supercar I have ever driven. The visibility is actually not that bad at all, the seats are very comfortable and the engine/gearbox/clutch combination is so tractable and smooth that urban driving is not so much of a chore as you'd expect. My wife agrees that she could easily drive it to the shops with our 2-year old in his safety seat (which fits perfectly well, even if it doesn't leave much headroom). She'd be by far the coolest mum in the neighborhood!

But back to business... flooring the throttle in a low gear unleashes a torrent of torque that propels the Murci to triple-digit speeds before you've even had a chance to look around for cops. The noise coming from the Tubi is the sexiest V12 symphony you'll ever get other than on a '60s Le Mans racer, and the traction is simply staggering. No fishtailing, no loose rear wheels - the AWD does a brilliant job of catapulting the car ahead like an F16 launched off an aircraft carrier. And the astonishing feeling is how the Murci keeps on charging towards the horizon with relentless acceleration - that seamless, never-ending avalanche of crushing power coming from behind your back makes me feel that given enough road, 180, 190, 200 mph would flash by very quickly. Mighty impressive.

Any flaws? Well, the steering feels fairly light, which is great in ordinary driving but I wonder whether it would lack the necessary accuracy on the track. Also the fuel economy, while acceptable at a steady highway cruise it can get into single figures in urban traffic. It may drive as well as any family car, but don't look at the fuel gauge...

The perfect supercar? It comes very close. And at the prices that Murcielagos are going for today in the pre-owned market, it's the steal of the century. Brilliant, simply brilliant.