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The roof is safely stowed now, and that beautiful noise has a chance to caress my ears before being whipped out of the back of the car by a vortex of wind that largely leaves my hair untouched. It really is an orchestral sound, thick with bass notes and shrill harmonies over the top. And the conductor is going at a hell of a lick. 100kph comes up in just 4.1 seconds, and even on these stop-start, tight roads I’m making rapid progress.
The sun blazes down as Jon and I swap over, and I begin to regret not putting on sun cream. Clambering into the Lamborghini, I also regret not being shorter. Straight away it’s clear that I’m too tall for the car, and Jon’s smile suggests he identifies. The carbon-backed bucket seat is moveable only forwards and backwards, so I can’t lower it. Which is a bit of an issue, as my head protrudes out of the car and the steeply raked windscreen ends right in my eyeline. As we set off, I have to stoop to see anything in the distance. Or stretch upwards to look over the top, but that just feels silly. Stooping is the most natural option, as the seat design itself wasn’t made with those of a long back in mind. The headrest digs into the back of my neck and it’s not long before I start getting serious backache.
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So far, I’m wishing I was back in the Audi, but then I open the Performante up. It’s such a more feral, ferocious beast than the R8 with a high-pitched engine note that’s not clean and tuned like a Ferrari, but raw, intense and banshee-like. The surge forward is savage; the Lambo pulls and pulls and pulls to the 9000rpm redline, when a tug on the large right hand e-gear paddle results in a violent bang and a punch in the kidneys from the V10. The R8 is fast, but the more powerful, lighter and more sensitive Gallardo is a large step ahead when it comes ?to pace.
It’s got huge amounts of grip both at the front and at the back, letting me barrel into corners, turn the heavy wheel and rely on the front tyres, push through the middle of it with the faintest hint of understeer that’s modulated on the throttle, and then awesome traction on the way out as all four-wheels meld rubber into tarmac. The gear change is so jerky that mid-corner changes are a big no-no unless you want to be spat sideways. The steering isn’t the sharpest I’ve ever felt in a supercar but it has a reassuring heft to it and it’s quick too. I never worried about where the fronts were going to go on turn in, and I never worried about stopping either; the brake pedal has a fair distance of travel, but once the brakes kick in they scrub off speed with immense, neck-straining power.
The Lambo is very easy to drive very fast, and I’d really like to try it on a track. While it felt a little skittish on the admittedly very sandy roads of our test route, I still had plenty of faith in it. The limits are not to be fully explored on public roads, it’s too hardcore for that, but I’m nonetheless grateful that no police were around.
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It’s not terrifying to drive at speed, but it’s an experience you want to focus on. Turn off the radio, hush the passenger and really concentrate, whereas the R8 doesn’t have the same sense of drama to it. That’s a machine ?that will happily be driven fast while you have ?a conversation.
The Performante experience reflects its no-comprise looks. It’s dramatic, but after an hour in the seat it didn’t scare me as much as when I first opened up the throttle and felt those Latina hips shimmy.
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But I’m nevertheless exhilarated and prepared to forgive all its faults after a good hack through the twisties. At least, until I drive it more calmly again. My back aches and I’m fed up of being thrown around by the gearbox. And as the thumb rests on the wheel spokes sit at 20 past four rather than quarter past three, I feel like I’m squeezing my elbows into my ribs to hold it properly. The interior’s not a patch on the Audi either, with – ironically – far too many Audi switches and controls.
