It was a bright orange Gallardo Superleggera (which is Italian for super lightweight) and it was only for a couple of hours from Kuala Lumpur to Bukit Tinggi in Pahang and back, but it was enough to rekindle those boyhood dreams. Yes, it was that good, but all too soon, reality kicked in again.
Then, a year ago, while on holiday in Italy, I found myself in front of the Lamborghini at Sant�Agata Bolognese and had another chance to drive another Gallardo, this time a gleaming white Spyder (that�s Italian for convertible).
A whole day spent blasting through the snowy-yet-sunny hills of Bologna convinced me that dreams do indeed come true, and life is good when that happens.
But those rare and all too short moments are invariably followed by a jolt back to reality and, of late, that reality has been grim.
The news from all over the world can be summed up in a word � bad. Economies collapsing, bankruptcies, banks failing, trade free falling, jobs drying up... it goes on and on and on. For many, dreams were fast turning into nightmares.
Who can get excited about new cars in times like these? The last time the mood was this depressing was probably Sept 11, 2001, but, then, at least people still had jobs and money to spend.
Then, I got a phone call asking if I wanted to go for a test drive of the new Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 Spyder in the Canary Islands. Amidst all this doom and gloom, should I or shouldn�t I go for something that so clearly represents extravagance?
The global economy did not recover suddenly, nor did thousands of new jobs materialise out of thin air but, what the heck, life goes on. The reality is that, for most people, owning a supercar was a dream five years ago, it remained a dream last year and it will still be as distant a dream next year. So, I reasoned, what has the state of the economy got to do with a Lamborghini? After all, the odds of any of us going out to buy one today � next to nil � is exactly the same as it was two years ago.
So, on sunny Tenerife (one of the largest in the Spanish Canary Islands), I got reacquainted with the low-slung silhouette of the supercar that had become familiar after my two earlier flings with its older siblings.
The Gallardo LP 560-4 Spyder is new (the previous model I drove in Italy was just plain Gallardo Spyder), and it is more powerful and faster, we were told during the pre-drive briefing. The LP has long been a Lamborghini prefix dating back to the Countach, 560 is the number of horses pulling it, and the -4 tells us that it is four-wheel-drive, like all versions of the previous Gallardo, only it was not spelled out explicitly in the name.
It�s supposed to have 40 horsepower more and a whole host of improvements over its predecessor. Weight, for instance, has been reduced by 20kg, improving the power-to-weight ratio to 2.77kg per horsepower, thus improving performance even further.
But, truth be told, I could not really tell the difference.
It has a claimed top speed of 324km/h (201mph) but the Canary Islands have a maximum speed limit of 120km/h on highways and 60km/h on most of the country roads, plus we were told about a law that allows the police to lock up anyone who exceeds the posted limit by more than 50%.
That leaves only the awesome acceleration � 0 to 100km/h in 4.0 seconds � to entertain us on the twisty pine tree-lined road up to the rim of an extinct volcano, Mount Teide, and down into its moonscape-like crater.
If the first sense that the Gallardo (or any Lamborghini, for that matter) excites is one�s sight, the second is certainly that of hearing and it is the one that sticks in the memory for a long time.
Like a well-rehearsed 10-piece orchestra, the Gallardo�s 5.2l V10 puts on a virtuoso performance that is so addictive that I found myself downshifting ever so often to lower � and unsuitable � gear just to hear the delightful burble as the e.gear (a US$10,000 or RM35,000 option) computer blips the engine to get the revs up before changing down a cog.
Then, a quick press of the accelerator draws a growl from the huge exhausts, rising to a howl as the revs rise rapidly to the 8,000 rpm redline, accompanied by the punch in the back as the car accelerates.
The experience is all the more memorable in the open-top Spyder because you can hear every crisp note that much better, and the reverberations while passing under overhead bridges or through a canyon are positively spine-tingling.
While I could only imagine the effect as the tacho needle nears redline in sixth gear and the speedometer passes the 300 mark, it was no less entertaining in second or third gear, with the added benefit of avoiding a stint in a Spanish jail.
It may be hard to believe but the Gallardo, as a representative of the modern breed of Italian supercars, is amazing not because of how fast it can be driven � a fast Lamborghini is kind of expected � but how well it can be driven slowly.
Forget everything you may have read about temperamental exotics of yesterday that had brutish clutches, heavy steering and engines that needed to be revved. The Gallardo is a breeze to potter around in, at any speed, in any gear (or just leave it in auto mode).
The Spyder, when the top is down, even has excellent all-round visibility, which cannot be said for the coupe version.
The winding road to the Teide national park was literally crawling with tourists in an assortment of rented Hyundais, lumbering Land Rover Defenders and huge coaches but overtaking proved to be easy, partly due to the Gallardo�s ridiculous power surplus and also because the 20 Lamborghinis travelling in clusters of threes and fours quickly became Tenerife�s latest and hottest attraction and other drivers were eager to let us pass, probably so that they could see and hear the cars better.
Also, a queue of two or three super wide and ultra low Gallardos in the rear-view mirror can be quite an intimidating sight.
The occupants of most of the vehicles we roared past as well as oncoming traffic gave the thumbs up, snapped a few quick pictures or videos, and all grinned broadly. After all, a thing of beauty, even if out of one�s reach, is still a pleasure to behold.
On the drive back to the hotel, an alarm light in the instrument panel of �my� LP 560-4 Spyder lit up, warning of a potential problem with the front right tyre. I pulled into a petrol station to check the pressure, found it just a bit low and pumped it up, then informed the Lamborghini crew when we arrived. Even though there was no sign of damage, they took no chances and immediately changed the tyre � a Pirelli P Zero 235/35 ZR 19 (the rear is a P Zero 295/30 ZR 19).
In the real world, that would be over RM2,000 apiece but owners wouldn�t blink because they paid over RM2mil for the car. And that�s just for the standard Gallardo. Those who like upgrades will be spoilt for choice, with goodies such as carbon ceramic brakes for an extra US$16,450 (RM58,000, before duties).
These numbers keep the Gallardo LP 560-4 Spyder firmly in the realm of the unrealisable dream for most of us. Even if you wake up one morning and find that your dream about winning the RM3mil sweepstakes is not a dream, owning this beauty would still be.
Of course, that does not mean we can�t dream.
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