aTOMic

Went to Cars&Coffee in Nashville with 11-and 13- Y/O son and daughter. Guy with a flawless Lambo was opening the door to get in to leave and I asked if my son could look in it. He says "Make yourself at home"! Now you should know this kid of mine picked Lamborghini as his marque; I always was a Ferrari man, with Alfa second. Also he had never seen one in the flesh. He was beyond excited. The owner and I had a couple mutual acquaintances from SCCA days and he loves Alfas, so that might've helped. He went away to answer some more questions, then the Dude comes back after a long time and I take him aside and thank him profusely, explaining all that, and how Henry would never forget this as long a he lived. He says "Well if you got time I'll take him around the block"! I said Time? What's that! Then he goes "Do you know how to drive an F1 transmission?" I said um, um pull both for N and right's upshift and left is down?" and he hands me the keys!

Full disclosure; I only got up to about 50 between speed bumps (it was at a mall parking lot before they opened) but got into the revs and some extreme acceleration/braking. Lots of onlookers taking pictures. I had seen this guy come in and there was no pampering it on his end so I wasn't hooning or anything. Could not BELIEVE the acceleration and lack of wheelspin - until I later found out it's AWD (duh). V12, 6.2L. Just made my day, week, and month... and my son's, too.
One striking feature is the throttle response is instantaneous, like a sport bike. It revs those 12 little cylinders like there's no flywheel at all! Just a masterpiece of a car.

Thanks, Michael, if you happen to read this!

PS My Brother is in Rome right now; he says they pronounce it Murcha-lago, FWIW. Spaniards have a less correct way of saying it, even though it's Spanish for "bat".
My daughter has all the good pics of me driving it in her iPod but she's far too busy to send them to me... here's one, though, from my phone.

mishar

NICE! That guy is one of the kind.

Kid has a big smile, but I bet that yours was bigger.

SamLV

Holy smokes! Good thing you knew how to drive it....

cre8value

Great story

gedis080

This summer I had opportunity in Singapore to test this one Gallardo Spyder with 5.0 V10 520 hp engine (for those who don't know it is Audi's S8 V10 5.2 engines "father" :-) )



My story is not great at all, as this test drive gave to me only big disappointment. I don't know, maybe that Gallardo needs repair or something, but responses of throttle - like on mine prehistoric Audi V8 with 4-gear automatic gearbox; shifting gears in auto mode - painful and delayed; interior - made form so cheap materials, buttons - signs from ALL of them gone, and car has only 70 kkm on odometer, comparing with mine S8 with 100 kkm they look like new, and S8 doesn't have lag on throttle and gearbox ... but still Galardo declares 100km/h in 4.3 seconds .... One thing for sure - after this drive I won't go for Gallardo basically only because of impressive exhaust sound and exterior look, but for double price of S8 ( I'm talking about cars which has millage as mentioned above).

aTOMic

Wow, Lithuania? Welcome! An S8 in LT?! Are you the king of that nation, or what?
I have a good friend of Lithuanian descent; he goes all across the USA for Lithuanian Festivals (the cliche "few and far between" really applies here)!
I've tried some of his cooking and you guys know how to eat! (shows on him, he's quite rotund, about 6'2" tall, with a big smile and curly black beard. Big friendly bear of a man).

Anyway, back to the car, I can say that (at least the V12) HATED being shifted up below 4-5000 RPM... it sounds like you're showing off, but otherwise it sounds like you shift too soon. (big difference in ratios? I don't know). Interior was perfect but the car was jut a year old... I cannot fathom why a company like VWAG has such wear-prone switches when you can get into a Honda with 250k miles on it and its molded-in color switches look like new.
Re the lack of acceleration: They probably set the car in "valet" mode! (I asked the guy who let me drive his and he made a face like he just bit a lemon, which I took to mean no).

Nice to hear from you. Your English is better than many native US citizens'!
-Tom

mishar

It is caused by camshafts. To rev an engine 8500 rpm (Gallardo) you need valves opened for very long time to overcome and use air inertia. That makes low end power quite lower than it would be with more modest timing angles (S8). Modern engines have variable valve timing which is essentially forwarding cams on lower rpm's, but effect of this is limited.

Last year Formula 1 engines (2.4 liter naturally aspirated V8) where idling at 4000 rpm but red line was 18000 rpm (they would go above 20000 if not limited)

gedis080

wear of buttons was a problem in first D3's I believe, my friend had A8 2004 and buttons were almost the same shape as in that Gallardo ... A6 the same arround that year production.... anyway, later that problem was sorted out.
P.S.: "While the interior design of Gallardo was boring" ..... Lamborghini Huracan

acceleration was impressive on Gallardo, but just after that small lag/delay, I mentioned to the rental company guy that it needs more RAM' (Random Access Memory) ))))

i don't think so, but THANKS; this might be the impact of Americans and Canadians with who I spend time at work

))) yeahhh, this lithuanian man knows how to eat as well
MHP | Featured | Zydrunas Savickas Wins the 2014 World?s Strongest Man

We had only one king in the year 1253–1263
I think that S8 is normal car of the quiet ordinary people , there are more impressive cars in our small country
https://translate.google.com/transla...tml&edit-text=
Lietuvoje pasirod? dar vienas ?Bugatti Veyron? - DELFI Auto