For one tantalising moment it looks as though the two most influential men in the European car business are about to walk backwards into each other. Ferdinand Piech, Porsche king-pin and architect of its audacious take-over of VW, is nosing about on the Ferrari stand when Luca di Montezemolo, Italy's automotive crown prince, arrives in the same air-space. A collision between these two would trigger a sonic boom.

The Geneva motor show often throws up muscular little vignettes like this. Mrs Piech already has a Bugatti Veyron, but perhaps her other half is on the hunt for a 612 Scaglietti. Perhaps he's after the whole company. He owns pretty much everything else.

Question is: would you need Ferrari if you already had Lamborghini tucked in your back pocket, a part of the Piech empire (via Audi) since 1998? Once upon a time, yes. Lamborghini has always been the cheeky upstart, the chest-wig chariot, the company that some would say put the bull into bull****. Ferrari is better bred, the real thing, auto-aristocracy. You can see the appeal.

But in 2008 the gap is tighter than ever, the battle lines drawn with increasing intensity. Lamborghini now sells 10 times as many cars as it did when the Germans first arrived in Sant'Agata (2,406 in 2007), and it's making major money these days. The planet's rich are getting richer, of course, and rapidly increasing in number.

'It's telling that the Gallardo has reached its fifth birthday more or less unscathed'

In this climate, Lamborghini could probably make money in exchange for old rope, but the fact is it's never been smoother or more sophisticated in every aspect of its business. It was the Gallardo that really helped kick the company into the premier division and now, 7,100 cars later, there's a new version.

One of the stars of this month's Geneva show, it's fair to say that the arrival of the LP560-4 - the name refers to the car's longitudinal engine layout, power output and transmission - took everybody bar Lamborghini employees by surprise. Some cars hang around way past their sell-by date and go whiffy, while others don't seem to age at all. It's telling that the Gallardo has reached its fifth birthday more or less unscathed.

"We specialise in the unexpected," Lamborghini's brand and design director Manfred Fitzgerald tells me in an ante-room on a Geneva stand that looks like the private chamber in Al Pacino's Carlito's Way Miami nightclub. "We have so many projects up our sleeves right now, I can't even begin to tell you..."

What he will brief me on, though, is the new Gallardo. Body design, engine, suspension and transmission have all been thoroughly revised, and Lambo claims significant improvements in performance and efficiency. But let's start with the styling.

Overseen by Fitzgerald - a former marketing guy turned design boss - and implemented by a seven-strong team led by Filippo Perini, the modifications are limited to the Gallardo's front and rear, but they give the car a razor-sharp new character.

Although the LP560 appears to have been heavily influenced by the recent million euro Reventón limited edition, it was actually the Gallardo that was signed off first. There are new air intakes at the front, a revised splitter, and a completely redesigned rear end that draws the eye out - creating the impression of extra width - rather than down, which emphasises height.

"We felt we could do even more with this car," says Fitzgerald. "The Gallardo was a wonderful piece, but I wanted the new car to be more aggressive and yet more minimal. The front lights are now as slender as we could make them and still pass the homologation regulations."



These new slim line lights feature LEDs in a Y-shape, underneath the main bi-xenons, while the idea is echoed in the redesigned rear lights that were apparently inspired by the illumination on the controversial 2006 Miura concept.

Along with the quad exhaust set-up and a new diffuser, the LP560's reworked rear doesn't fully soften the Teutonic modernism of Luc Donckerwolke's tautly surfaced original, but certainly gives the car a juicier presence. Lamborghini claims a 31 per cent improvement in aerodynamic efficiency compared to the current car, whose high-speed stability and steering feel is already extremely impressive.

Like last year's Superleggera, the LP560 displays its mechanical wares beneath a clear cover in a pleasing piece of theatre. Mind you, if I'd actually bought a Superleggera I might be a bit cheesed off at the arrival of this new Gallardo.

It's 80kg heavier than its racier 'lightweight' brother, but with 556bhp it's also a useful 34bhp more powerful, enabling it to accelerate to 62mph in an identical 3.7 seconds and onto a top speed of 200mph-plus. No doubt there'll be a 600bhp Gallardo along sometime next week…

The 5.2-litre V10 now features direct injection - iniezione diretta stratificata - which promotes more efficient combustion and allows for a lofty compression ratio of 12.5:1.

There's variable valve control on all four of the engine's camshafts, and despite the additional grunt and superior performance figures the LP560's emissions and fuel consumption show an 18 per cent reduction compared to the previous model. Not enough to convert Ken Livingstone and his lackeys to the cause, but useful progress.

'Our customers want to feel special, and we'll
always be the most extreme guys out there'

"Our customers shouldn't feel bad about owning one of our cars," says Fitzgerald, "and we have to be socially acceptable. But we also need perspective when it comes to the environmental debate."

The Gallardo's excellent six-speed manual continues as before, but its slightly less excellent 'E-Gear' paddle-shift transmission has been redesigned; it's now much lighter and shift times have been improved by 40 per cent.

The suspension is the same surprisingly compliant double wishbone set-up, but features firmer kinematics. Eight cylinder Brembos grab 365mm brake discs at the front, with four-cylinder ones acting on 356mm discs at the rear. Carbon-ceramic brakes are available as an option.

Inside, things are largely as before, with the addition of aluminium hoop-surrounds on the central instrument display. Lamborghini, like every other big player in the supercar arena, has developed increasingly clever ways of charging money for bespoke exterior colour schemes (three matt black, white and brown finishes debut on the LP560) and lavish cabin fabrics.

Its individualisation programme is called Ad Personam, a far cry from the early Nineties-era Diablo which came with fuzzy felt as standard on its dash and a stereo system by Halfords.

If nothing else, the LP560-4 is proof of how far Lambo has come in 10 years. The new car is faster, lighter, more efficient, and available in a seductive choice of colours. But for all the talk of becoming more socially acceptable, of greater refinement and elegance, and even of a desire to sell more cars to women, Lamborghini isn't quite waxing its hairy chest just yet.

"Exclusivity is the key," Fitzgerald claims. "It's not how many cars you sell that's problematic; it's when you have a high concentration of your product in one place. Our customers want to feel special, and we'll always be the most extreme guys out there. We'd make a big mistake if we give that away. We're the only real bad boys left out there."

To outside observers, the whole process looks complicated and, well, a bit silly.

Clicking the right most e.gear button on the center console of the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 engages Corsa mode. A push of a silver switch on the center stack disables the stability control and lights up two amber Gallardos on the instrument panel, the smaller of the two indicating that ESP is completely off. Left-footing the brake pedal and matting the throttle revs the LP560-4's engine to over 5000 rpm and creates a cacophony of popping and banging.

Releasing the brake pedal sends up a poof of smoke as the rear tires chirp and slip through not quite one full rotation. The car then bogs, as though hunkering down, before exploding forward a millisecond later.

"It always looks like a failed launch," shrugs photographer Vance. But to the nine satellites reading our position overhead, the Gallardo LP560-4's all-new Thrust mode is a raging success -- launching Lambo's latest supercar to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds. The quarter mile comes just a few beats later -- 11.4 seconds at 126.9 mph. Both numbers are pretty far off the pace of Lamborghini's estimates of 3.7 and 11.8 seconds. Who knew Italians could be so conservative?


Inside the low-roofed cabin, the LP560-4's attempt to violate Newton's second law is a comprehensive assault on the senses. Getting kicked in the *** a split second before being shot from a cannon is probably the closest approximation. The only thing missing is the taste of cordite upon the lips.

Thrust mode is impressive not just at mere sports car speeds; unlike the previous Gallardo launch control system that required manually shifting the gears, a Thrust-moded Gallardo LP560-4 will autorocket through all six gears on the way to a terminal velocity of 202 mph.

Just what you'd expect from a $201,000 supercar, right? Wait, there's more...

Behind the cosmetically reshaped nose, between the all new Y-styled, LED head and taillights, is a vehicle truly worthy of such an affected alphanumeric name. LP stands for Longitudinale Posteriore and refers to the engine position -- that's longways and mid-mounted in plain English. The first set of digits - 560 -- is the horsepower count, though it's measured in Italian cavallinos (CV), which are a slightly smaller breed than our American horses. We'd call this Gallardo the LP552-4 -- that last digit accounting for the car's four-wheel drive system.

While LP560-4 may succinctly describe this latest and fastest Gallardo, it is the engine that defines it. Mounted behind the driver's compartment is an all-new, 5.2-liter direct injection V-10, the first of its kind in a mass production vehicle. Two rows of five cylinders set at a 90-degree angle mean this is a wide engine in a wide car. The high zoot factor comes from that high rpm horsepower rating. Lamborghini and Bosch engineers teamed up to develop the technology that ensures that the updated V-10 spins no faster than its 8500 rpm redline. The result: 552 horsepower at 8000 rpm, 398 pound-feet of torque at 6500 and exclusive membership into the sub-3.5 second club.

All 560 cavallinos are routed to the Viscous Traction (VT) four-wheel drive system through the thoroughly updated e.gear transmission. You can still shift it yourself, as Lamborghini will continue to offer a traditional six-speed manual, but with 90 percent of customers ordering e.gear, it is understandable why they spent the time and money revising the system.

In Corsa (track) mode, Lamborghini claims e.gear shift times have been reduced by 40 percent. We couldn't verify that claim, but during our test session and around a road course set up at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it certainly felt as though shifts were quicker -- and far more violent. For high-performance driving on the street or simply loafing about, e.gear also offers Sport and traditional slower shifting Automatic modes. But the hottest ticket is the aforementioned Thrust mode - Lambo's all-new and appropriately named launch control system.

Not only is the LP560-4 much faster and more powerful, it's also greener. By virtue of a strict diet, heavy ECU tuning, and the miracles of direct injection and advanced lubricants, Lamborghini claims the Gallardo's fuel consumption and CO2 emissions have been reduced by some 18 percent. By the company's own calculations, the Gallardo returns a respectable (for a supercar, anyway) 11 mpg in the city, and a jaw-dropping 23 mpg on the highway.

So to reiterate, the $201,000, 2009 Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 will go from 0-60 in under 3.5 seconds, hit a top speed of 202 mph hour, and get over 20 miles per gallon on the highway.

Guess that's why they call it a supercar.

"You're an accountant!" shrieked the silver-haired woman as she hung out of the passenger window of a black Chrysler 300C on the Las Vegas strip. "Even with that car, you'll never get laid!"

And with that, she was gone--middle finger extended with (alcohol fueled?) rage. Never mind that it was she who blatantly and purposely dropped a bag of McDonald’s garbage onto the road, prompting us to issue a disapproving look and a thumbs-down sign. That was all that it took to send one of the AARP's Vegas cougars into an angry analysis of our ride for the day, Lamborghini's new Gallardo LP560-4.

What is it about exotic cars--"super sports cars" is what Lamborghini president and CEO Stephan Winkelmann calls them--that rubs certain people oh so wrong? Envy? Genuine disgust for such hedonism? Confusion as to how to insult someone who apparently knows success more than they do and knows it well? Who cares.

Indeed, time spent behind the wheel of Lambo's new $201,000 stud stirs nearly that much worth of emotions. Only in an Italian supercar will you feel like the king of the world in one instant, a narcissistic cheeseball who feels a twinge (or more) of embarrassment the next.

Most of the time, though, the former applies, even when drunken grandmothers suggest that your motivation for riding the raging bull has nothing to do with performance and everything to do with lifestyle. Or at least the lifestyle they figure you fantasize about.

Admittedly, there is a large fantasy element at play, and Lamborghini knows it. When asked to name competitors, Winkelmann deadpans, "We have no competitors."

The implication is that Lamborghini is the best and operates in a different stratosphere where normal rules of engagement don't apply, and that's all there is to it. Indeed, the LP560-4's press launch in Vegas began with a peculiar dinner featuring dancing runway "models"--or were they the best the area's thriving adult industry had to offer?--and leaping Ninjas, all inside a tent custom-built as a temporary restaurant for media. No, not one of Vegas' kabillion five-star restaurants would be sufficient to demonstrate that the LP560-4 is far more than a simple car.

Except that once you fire the direct-injection engine of Sant’ Agata’s latest Gallardo, all the psychological nonsense becomes irrelevant. Crack the throttle that electrifies the new 5.2-liter V10 and you remember that it will--and should--always be about the car. Lamborghini says 0-62 mph happens in 3.7 seconds, a solid 0.3 second faster than the outgoing 5.0-liter edition, and 124 mph (200 kph) screams up in just 11.8 seconds, 0.5 second sooner than before. But while horsepower is up to 552 from 520, the extra 22 lb-ft of torque makes this beast noticeably different from its predecessor.

Gone are the power spikes and high-strung character. Oh, it revs and revs until the limiter kicks in at a staggering 8500 rpm. But there is snorting, kicking, bucking grunt across the range, a seemingly limitless reserve of mojo that rips the twisting desert roads and Las Vegas Motor Speedway where we drove.

Power oversteer is there when you want it, as is stability when you want that, too. The chassis, revamped suspension and tires pull huge lateral g; turn into a corner and the car sets on its suspension and then digs in to a mesmerizing degree. Though the new V10 is heavier than the old one, the car weighs 45 pounds less thanks to a reworked drivetrain. The LP560-4 is endlessly tossable through heavy steering that strangely enough feels a lot like the virtual steering sensation of Logitech’s range of video-game wheels. The same goes for the optional carbon ceramic brakes we tested, which are sensitive early on in the pedal's travel but ungodly when it comes to stopping distance. The reworked paddle-actuated gearbox shifts 40 percent faster courtesy of reword internals and software; in "Corsa" mode, full-throttle shifts engage with all the subtlety of a baseball bat to the face. But in normal and sport modes it is easy to shift smoothly. Regardless, a manual gearbox is available.

The Gallardo LP560-4 arrives in U.S. Lamborghini dealerships late this summer, but if you don't have claim to one of the 550 pre-orders you will likely have to wait nine months or more to take delivery. That's plenty of time to figure out if you place a priority on performance or lifestyle, but really, that is irrelevant. In this case, you can have both. And maybe, just maybe, that's exactly what pisses people off so much.