Search the Community

Lamborghini recently issued a press release for another of its lightweight, higher performance variant of the Gallardo Spyder. This new Gallardo convertible model is named the Gallardo LP570-4 Spyder Performante. This basically means that this would be the fastest drop-top Gallardo you could possibly buy from Lamborghini. In line with Lamborghini's drive for ultimate 'lightness' in all of their cars, this Spyder Performante gets all of the lightweight stuff the Gallardo Superleggera has and more. The Spyder Performante now weighs inat 1,485kg. This is 65kg lighter than the standard LP560-4 Spyder. The weight reduction was achieved by replacing lots of bits and pieces with carbon fiber and aluminium. While the Spyder Performante loses a lot of unnecessary stuff and adds lightweight items like carbon backed alcantara trimmed seats and also carbon interior trim, it keeps the air conditioning and power windows. You wouldn't want to be all stuffy and smelly in an extremely expensive supercar would you? The front end looks different from the usual Spyder. It has an extremely aggressive front splitter with the 'Performante' wording on it. It juts out quite far in front. Imagine a snow plough but one used to cleave through air instead of snow and ice. The side skirts and a totally redesigned (also with 'Performante' written on it), very large rear diffuser also add to the visual drama as well as helping to differentiate it further from the more 'standard' model. The 19inch alloy wheels are lightweight and run Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires. There is also a full flat floor underneath the car, helping out the stability and aerodynamics. All in the name of performance. The 570 in LP570-4 stands for the amount of PS the engine makes, 570ps or 562bhp. The 5.2liter V10 also makes 540Nm of torque and this is sent through the Lamborghini E-Gear (6speed semi-automatic) or the 6 speed manual transmission to the all-wheel drive system (hence the '4' in LP570-4). All this power enables the Spyder Performante hit 100km/h from a standstill in 3.9seconds and a maximum speed of 324km/h. All this makes this Gallardo a fabulous piece of Italian engineering. It however makes me think that Lamborghini is on its last legs in its evolution of the Gallardo and that a new model should be brewing up pretty soon. This assumption is quite true as it has been a good seven years since the Gallardo was launched and the game may have moved further on by Ferrari with their 458 Italia (Of course, there isn't a 458 Spyder on the market as yet).