Lamborghini Drive! (Long)

A friend of mine finally fulfilled his lifelong dream of owning a Lamborghini - he picked up his 1991 screaming yellow Diablo this past Friday. Being a good friend, I paid him a visit so he could show it off and gush to someone (his wife had heard enough!).

 

We took a couple laps around the car - the whole thing is gloriously impractical and cool:

 

 

• It's too low (he has ONE "line" up his driveway that will prevent scraping)
  
• It's too low (it feels like you have climb below the road surface to get in!). Climbing in and out underneath those vertically opening doors is work. No grab handles here, and after doing this enough, you wouldn't need that abdomizer workout machine anymore.
  
• Interior storage space consists of the passenger's lap
  
• The "trunk" in the front end is fairly deep, and good for groceries or a couple of boxes of clay pigeons. Any item over 20" in any dimension, forget about it (unless it fits on the passenger's lap).
  
• The engine bay is remarkably simple. One looooong engine, airboxes off to either side (fed by intakes on the left and right just behind the occupants heads), and a large covering over the catalysts at the rear of the bay. Both of these have some sort of aluminum silver finish - I'm guessing to repel / reflect heat.
  
• Unseen from the engine bay are the radiators in the tail end of the car which are also fed by a couple huge side intakes over the rear wheels.
  
• The interior is pretty spartan. The occupants heads must be 4 feet from the base of the windshield. The dash slopes downwrd back toward the occupants. The drivers side has a big rectangular instrument pod maybe 12" high and 16" wide. The dash on the passenger side is uninterupted, except for the "OH JESUS" handle. The center console height is about where you'd hold your beer if you're standing around shooting the sh1t with someone, in which is the gated shifter - also very spartan looking.
  

Long story short, the interior is pretty much all business, and just this side of race car creature comforts. I don't even remember if there was a radio, though one is unnecessary for two reasons - when running, the cockpit is too loud, and hell, that "loud" is MUCH more entertaining than your latest burn.

 

OK, the ride...is raw. At idle the engine is suprisingly big-bore rumbly. Right behind your head you hear lots of valve and cam sounds - a kind of cadenced whirring. Just for clarification, you don't have to TRY to hear these sounds, they're right there, conversation level. Once moving, all these mechanical sounds that almost all car drivers are insulated from start mixing with rolling sounds. Your feet and shins are right next to the front wheel wells, and you can hear every piece of grit that hits the inside of the well, and the road noise is detailed enough that you get a good sense of exactly what the road surface is like. Add to this the stiff suspension (you can HEAR almost every movement here as well), and I as the passenger was getting the kind of feedback that I'd like to have as the driver!

 

So I'm commenting on all these wonderful sounds to my buddy, and he says I haven't heard anything yet! Shortly after that he gets a chance to open the throttle, and he opened it all the way, no easing into it. So something like this before:

Rumbleumbleumbleumbleumbleumble

and conconcurrently

werzicleweziclewirziclewerziclewerzicle

 

Then, instantly:

BWRAAAAAAAAAA!!! shift BWAAAAAAAAA!!! shift BWAAAAAAAAA!!! lift AAAaerrrrrrrrrzh

and concurrently

Are you kidding? No other sound dared intrude.

 

110. maybe 5 seconds from a 15mph rolling start. But who knows. I had my gtech with me in the Legacy, hindsight would have liked to see what the accelartion rate was. From seat of the pants feel, it was surprisingly slow feeling - reason being was that the shove was a hard constant, no neck snapping peakiness. I can't comment on the sound enough - I was hearing intake, not so much exhaust. The intake plenem for the right bank of the V12 ended right behind my head. And for those who may not be aware of this, unmuffled intake noise is LOUD.

 

Then I got to drive! I got in and felt even further below sea level on the drivers side due to the intstrument pod. I buckled the separate lap and right to left shoulder strap, put it in neutral, and fired it up, then got some final instructions. "The pedals are very close together, make sure you index your feet correctly. The clutch doesn't like to be eased out (apparently very wearing on these cars), so let engage it aggressively. Don't hit anything."

 

The car is a handful. The clutch is very heavy and grabby. I had trouble getting it into gear (didn't have the gorilla clutch depressed all the way). I start worrying about the combination of expensive car, no experience, heavy clutch, aggressive engagement and 500 horsepower would lead to either stalling (embarrassing) or crazy fishtailing (embarrasing or worse). So lurching off I go fairly successfully. I tried some light weaving to get a feel for the steering. Also very heavy. Fat tires, low speed, no power assist and a very small steering wheel gurantee that ( at least at lower speeds ). I came to my first stop, and found, surprise, that the brakes are heavy as well.

 

Folks, you have no idea how spoiled we've gotten with our modern power assisted cars.

 

The transmission was heavy, but good while moving and assuming the 200 lb clutch was fully depressed. On upshifts, the engine loses revs fast when lifting between gears. Between that and the lunges if I was over-revved, my changes weren't great. My drive was fairly short. I BWAAAAAAd up to 80 or so a couple times, got a kick out of all the attention (from respectful headlight flashes to everybody in the car staring, literally, open mouthed), but felt Mr Murphy starting to pay attention, so I decided to return to home base before I could get into trouble. To be honest, I was a little overloaded - nothing is familiar to your day to day car. Wow.

 

Even though this buddy has talked about gettin one of these for years, I never thought I'd see it happen, let alone get to drive one. One more "must do" off the list!

I forgot to add - my GT felt positively squishy and thoroughly refined after this experience.

Cool. Thanks for sharing the experience. They certainly look and sound cool. I guess it's tougher than it looks to go cruising in stop-n-go with a supercar.

i didn't read the long post but can tell you: TTIWWP.

My boss once had a 1984 Ferrari 420i. Unfortunately it had the auto tranny with the v12.

 

Off the line it sucked but from a roll, and with power shifting, that car would sing with the “Ferrari sounds of splendor”.

 

now he has a maybach which i've driven once.

 

his son has a ferrari marrenello, which i haven't.

 

 

Start saving for yours.

 

i still like my 3.0r more....well ...... almost

wow man -- that is awesome. I wonder how much your freind paid for a 15 year old lambo. I've thought about putting some money into an older dodge viper or possibly acura NSX just to have as a weekend driver --- but it's just not practical for me at all and i could barely afford to keep it running plus insure it.

 

I am completely jealous that he let you drive that car. I need to find some rich freinds.

i didn't read the long post but can tell you: TTIWWP.

 

I'll see if I can rectify that tonight or tomorrow.

Excellent write up! Far more interesting than the usual cookie-cutter reviews in magazines. In spite of my rabid pragmatism and dislike of most supercars as irrelevant, I've always had a soft spot for Lamborghinis. I'd love an Espada some day.

 

Steve

Awesome, I love Lamborghinis and their wild nature you speak of, hard, heavy but rewwarding driving. I one day would love to drive one. The only true exotic I've driven was a 360 Modena which was a hoot but I'm sure nothing like the Lambo, an yes pictures would be awesome

 

 

Song of Post- Bob Marley- Ride Natty Ride

Pix or BS.

Pix or BS.

 

Slow down Jedi, I told you they were coming - had to get home from the grind first!

 

These were taken at the dealership mid last week. They were supposed to deliver it on a flatbed, but you know, it just wouldn't go on it. So they drove it instead. I figure one guy drove half way, the other guy the other half...

 

Enjoy the pics!

 

http://www.calvars.com/unilat/Auto/lamborghini/diabloFRQ.jpg

http://www.calvars.com/unilat/Auto/lamborghini/diabloengine.jpg

http://www.calvars.com/unilat/Auto/lamborghini/diabloFLQ.jpg

http://www.calvars.com/unilat/Auto/lamborghini/diablointerior.jpg

http://www.calvars.com/unilat/Auto/lamborghini/diabloLRQ.jpg

http://www.calvars.com/unilat/Auto/lamborghini/diabloLS.jpg

I just got off the phone with the owner of the car. He took it into the shop today to get a CEL checked out and finds out that it's running on only 9 of 12 cylinders! It sounded fine to me, but then all I could hear was intake - and that works whether or not you're firing.

 

Dang, if true, he was down 120+ hp, plus frictional losses. I guess it was only fastish. Dang.

Dang is right. Just bought it huh? 9 of 12 cylinders working? Pics look like a car dealer.....I hope they are covering the engine issue or are refunding 25% since only 75% of the motor is running.

moved to 'other cars'

very random...but I did a few doughnuts in a Ferrari Boxer (boxer 12 cylinder)...fun as hell...

If were posting exotics... Back when my dad could still afford - read before divorce - he had a ferrari 365 california spider - one of 14 made - 12ish survive today. Was the precurser to the daytona. It was the last great v12 front engine 2+2 convertible ferrari IMO And its an absolutely amazing car

Oh and somewhere in france we still own one of the original 200 alloy bodied xk120s - car was stolen when I was 2 but I tracked it down to a guy in france - international law suit in progress

 

I loves dem exotics

Jeff

Dang is right. Just bought it huh? 9 of 12 cylinders working? Pics look like a car dealer.....I hope they are covering the engine issue or are refunding 25% since only 75% of the motor is running.

 

Yes, that's the dealer. I didn't have my camera with me this weekend. As far as the work goes, today they came to an agreement that seems fair. He really doesn't want to give the car up, and I doubt they wanted to return the check!

My old boss used to own a '91 too. I think he spent $10k a year maintaining it. After 3 years (and $30k), he was glad to be rid of it.

My old boss used to own a '91 too. I think he spent $10k a year maintaining it. After 3 years (and $30k), he was glad to be rid of it.

 

You have to really love an object to sink money into it, I agree. I know a guy who collects, restores and runs steam engines (railroad, that is). Same sort of thing, only more so!