| Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder | 
Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder
By Jeremy Clarkson of The Sunday Times
In the whole of human history it has been impossible to buy a Lamborghini unless you are Rod Stewart. They¡¯ve always been just too silly, strutting around in their leopardskin underpants asking all and sundry if we thought they were sexy.
The company began making industrial heaters but quickly the proprietor realised that this was a waste of his name. If you¡¯re called Stan Arkwright you can make industrial heaters, but if you are called Ferruccio Lamborghini you need to start making cars with guns on them, for Rod Stewart.
As cars go they were pretty hopeless. The Miura took off if you asked it to go faster than 80, and the Countach was as wieldy as a meat locker. The clutch was set in concrete, the steering wheel was nailed to the dash, and the air-conditioning had all the vim and vigour of an arthritic punkawallah.
Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder
By Jeremy Clarkson of The Sunday Times
In the whole of human history it has been impossible to buy a Lamborghini unless you are Rod Stewart. They¡¯ve always been just too silly, strutting around in their leopardskin underpants asking all and sundry if we thought they were sexy.
The company began making industrial heaters but quickly the proprietor realised that this was a waste of his name. If you¡¯re called Stan Arkwright you can make industrial heaters, but if you are called Ferruccio Lamborghini you need to start making cars with guns on them, for Rod Stewart.
As cars go they were pretty hopeless. The Miura took off if you asked it to go faster than 80, and the Countach was as wieldy as a meat locker. The clutch was set in concrete, the steering wheel was nailed to the dash, and the air-conditioning had all the vim and vigour of an arthritic punkawallah.
You just know that this was a scene dreamt up not in Hollywood but in the legal headquarters of Fiat SpA. ¡°Si. You can use our image and our likeness, and we grant permission for Meester Schumacher to have a speaking part, but if you do not feature some Maseratis as well it would break our hearts ? and your legs.¡±
Frankly, the producers should have used a Gallardo, because you get the impression no one at Lamborghini would have noticed. They¡¯d have been round the back of the bike sheds, smoking and wondering if their next car could have breasts.
Ferraris are serious cars for serious people who drive around wearing a serious expression. The Gallardo can do serious, too. It has Audi electrics and Audi engineering. But as you career towards the next bend on a wave of extraordinary sound, half blinded by your own upholstery, you¡¯ll be making the noise of a howler monkey and wishing you were naked.
Let me put it this way. I took the Gallardo backstage at a recent Who gig and it looked right, sitting there among the rock stars and the roadies. It looked as right, in fact, as a Ferrari looks on a windswept track day in Cheshire.
For the first time ever, then, you can buy a Lamborghini. And I think I might.
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