Sexy

With the Gallardo SE, Lamborghini has definitely brought sexy back. It’s blisteringly quick, sounds like thunder and looks absolutely gorgeous. With only 250 units produced worldwide, Adlin Yusman was determined not to make it 249.

   Bang. This time, my head gets knocked back – and hard – on the SE’s head rest. The only thing that’s keeping me awake at this moment is the insane amount of noise reverberating through the cabin. It’s so bloody loud. It makes being at a Linkin Park concert seem like a boring amphitheatre lecture. There’s noise everywhere; from the manic 520bhp V10 to the mechanical whirrs of the diffs struggling for grip and the sudden and brutal bangs of the gears locking in. Driving the Gallardo SE is much like conducting an RM1.8 million concerto; the only problem is that you haven’t the slightest idea what you’re supposed to be playing. Everything is happening all at once and that wall of noise never really goes away since the crescendo of revs only ever stops wailing at a stratospheric 8,000rpm.

    I can’t believe how fast this car goes. The only time I’ve felt this amount of surge and thrust of power was in the Ferrari Enzo, and that costs 4 times as much. I really can’t explain it to you; it’s so amazingly quick that the white disconnecting lines of the road ahead becomes a singular, connected blur. And that road had better be clear as well, because the SE will get to the end of it so quickly that any abrupt traffic interruptions could be dire and extremely catastrophic. As I graced the speedometer I saw numbers which caused my blood to freeze. My mind tells me that my foot is planted to the floor, but apparently it isn’t. My knuckles are as white as color of this Gallardo but – and this bothers me – I’ve still got another 4,000rpm and 80km/h left on the dial. The wave of noise overwhelms everything else; including your senses. There’s a sense of guilty pleasure knowing that this car is capable of doing more than 300km/h as you continuously break every speed limit known to man. I know I should be going faster. But I can’t; because there are only 250 Gallardo SEs worldwide and I – with my limited skills - wasn’t about to make it 249.

    There’s a sport button? In my haste, the sport button had slipped my mind. Lamborghini tells me that the sport button makes everything harder, louder and faster. Harder, louder and faster than what? A 747 Jumbo?  In the interest of science, I thumbed the circular onyx button and prepared for the worst. Nothing. For a moment, I had figured that the button - like every other ‘sport’ named button - carried no real significance. Suddenly, as if on cue, the Gallardo SE went into berserk mode.

   The butterfly valves which had kept the dual tailpipes at ‘relative’ bay, opened up its taps and screamed into life. I glanced at the rear view mirror and saw my photographer mouthing the words, “There are flames!” Apparently, the SE burns fuel so quickly that some of the unburnt (or raw) gases get spewed out through the pipes; hence the flames. What a devilish little car. With sport mode engaged, you can now access another party piece that this Gallardo SE has and it’s called the ‘Thrust’ mode. Engage it and the computers will then set the revs at the optimum level (5,000rpm) and launch or thrust the car forward with the least amount of wheel spin.

   In thrust mode, the Gallardo SE will accelerate from rest to a hundred kilometers per hour in four seconds dead. That’s faster than the Ferrari F-430 and almost as fast as Porsche’s new fangled Turbo. But unlike Ferrari’s precision inspired machine, the Gallardo puts the power down with little or no drama at all. Only the 911 Turbo – which coincidentally, also happens to be all wheel driven – gives the SE a hard time. But the 911 Turbo, for all its technological achievements fall quite short in the ‘noise’ department. Put the Gallardo SE, 911 Turbo and F-430 on a grid together, and the Porsche would be all but muted. Yet, I still strangely attracted to the 911 Turbo’s all round usability. You see, unlike the two Italian thoroughbreds, the German race horse is faster and crucially cheaper as well.

   If you happen to be fortunate enough to have one of these in your garage I would recommend driving it in the most sedate of manners, as the new shortened gear ratio gives the SE a much more usable torque spread. There’s enough torque and horsepower to play around, so we’d suggest limiting the four wheel ‘Thrust’ burnouts to weekend track meets only. Plus, the brutal shifts of the gears in thrust mode would definitely shorten the lifespan of your clutch as well. However, in the process of writing this article, a regular on our forums – who also happens to be one of the biggest Lamborghini fans out there – mentioned that most early E-gear equipped (production) Gallardos were hard shifting and was made so; but after numerous complaints by owners who experienced discomfort and embarrassment driving around town in stop-start traffic, Lamborghini promptly issued a number of software updates to give the E-gear a much ‘softer’ shift characteristic. Unfortunately, there were complaints yet again. They complained that the shifts were now too 'soft' and in some cases under certain conditions there was too much clutch slip on take off which caused a lot of premature clutch wear. That, coupled with cases of defectively machined flywheel/clutch assembly caused quite a few Gallardo owners to throw up a fit. Eventually a software update which compromised between quick shifts and smooth take-off was used. Unfortunately, this issue was generally rectified on the production Gallardos only, with no report on whether the SE received the same update.

  In sport mode, the suspension gets stiffened up as well and even the slightest change in road conditions is enough to set the car off. Thankfully, the alcantara lined steering wheel gives a firm report of what’s going on out there, enough to keep you aware of the rapidly receding road ahead. The Gallardo SE is much more communicative at the helm than the ’05 Gallardo (before they specced up all the Gallardos into SE trim) I drove earlier this year. I was told that the steering had been fiddled with by the white coats at Lamborghini, but I never knew how stark the difference was until I drove the SE. In the standard Gallardo, you never really knew how much grip you had up front – until it was too late - and the rear tended to squat a little during full bore acceleration. The Gallardo SE apparently, has rectified this issue on two fronts: the quicker and more accurate steering rack and those massive P-Zero Corsas. There’s an insurmountable amount of grip available on tap – obvious really, since it’s all wheel drive - but unlike the previous Gallardo, the rear is much more playful. It’s pretty easy to get the back to step out, even with the traction control switched on. Push it beyond the limit however, and the nannying computers will make a complete mess out of itself. You see, the traction control is never fully turned off and if it senses a slip angle that’s too wayward, it will immediately come back on to stop you from making a fool out of yourself. Great for regular drivers like me, but not so great for hardcore track enthusiasts trying to get the most out of the SE.

  Then again, the Gallardo SE was never marketed as a purely track honed tool. It’s no Stradale or Porsche GT3 and crucially, never had any pretensions of being one either. The Gallardo SE was a showcase for Lamborghini, and the template for all standard Gallardos for the model year 2006. The SE I had was painted in – what Lamborghini calls - ‘baloon white’. While I’m not a big fan of white colored cars, I must say that it did look smashing on the Gallardo SE. There’s this inexplicable primeval sensation you get when you look at it in such a pristine finish. Look around it and you’d see neat touches like the contrasting black (Nero Noctis) hood and side mirrors. The glass cover on the engine bay which was an option for the production Gallardo is standard on the SE. But the best design element has got to be the ‘Callisto’ rims. Now an option for all ‘07 Gallardos, the Callisto rims made an impression to all Lamborghini fans when it was first fitted on the SE. The sleek 5-spoke rim looks absolutely menacing on the Gallardo; especially with the optional gun-metal finish.

   While there’s no arguing that the Gallardo SE is indeed the sexiest looking Lamborghini out there, there’s only so much you can do with a pretty face. For what it’s worth, the SE’s got a lot of drawbacks. The E-gear transmission (on the Gallardo SE) is by far and away, the weakest flappy paddle transmission I have ever tried and the changes are way too brutal. Even the shortened gear ratio is still pretty long in contrast to the Ferrari or Porsche. I hate the nagging ESP which interrupts you every time you’re about to have your way with the car and I really can’t stand the noise. It really is that loud.  But the biggest problem with the SE lies, in essence, with the Gallardo itself. With all (2006) production Gallardo’s fitted with the same uprated engine, revised steering rack and shortened gear ratio, the SE was never meant to be anything more than a showpiece. At close to RM2 million, the Gallardo SE had to be more than just great, it had to be perfect; which - sad though it may be - it isn’t.