jeffbrig

LP560-4 Spyder

Mine for the next 23 hours
I'll post a write up later, but WOW...

gerry100

don't forget to take time for sleep, I might forget if I were in your shoes

TofuProductions

That's definitely good stuff.

My best "rental" was actually my neighbor's UGR Gallardo for the weekend, that thing launches like no other, and still quite streetable. I'll bet the drop top in that must be fun.

vader1

Sweet. That looks like fun.

Scot

how fast does it go in Reverse?

jeffbrig

I'm terrified to find out. As the old Italian saying goes "what's behind you does not matter". Seriously, you can't even look over your shoulder, the engine is higher than your head. It has a backup camera, but you can barely see the screen with the top down.

The footwell ergonomics are awful - the dead pedal / front wheel well is inches closer to you than the gas/brake. Did they ever make this car with 3 pedals? Because I can't figure out where the heck you'd put the clutch pedal.

That said, the car is rip roaring blast to drive. The v10 makes some unholy sounds, pops, burbles, and sounds more like a sportbike or f1 car than anything I've driven. Redline is 8500 in a 5.2L v10. The auto-manual does some awesome blips on downshifts, whether you request them or the car is shifting automatically. I've been giggling like a schoolboy all afternoon. It's a good thing it's a 24 hr rental - if I owned one of these I'd probably have to go straight to jail.

white98ls

I've read that the pre-LP Gallardo actually sounds substantially better. I gotta drive one.

S2020

thanks for the review. can you elaborate on the gear box?
really wanted one similar for a while (actually, the superleggera version of the Gallardo spyder) but a few reviewers did not like the "clunky old shifters" compared to the Huracan. Maybe I should just test drive one.
Huracan spyder is a bit out of my price range right now. Maybe in 3-4 years....

jeffbrig

The gear box is good - most of the time. I found myself trying to grab the shifter a few times (there isn't one), and even caught myself trying to find the missing clutch once when coasting in a parking lot. Habits...

The Gallardo transmission is an electro-hydraulic actuated manual. That's a generation older than today's DCT style transmissions. Think of it as a full manual with a robotic clutch and shift linkage. There is no P-R-N-D selector. You want to go forward, you pull the "+" paddle to select 1st. Wanna put it in reverse? You push a button on the dash. Wanna put in in neutral? You pull the + and - paddles at the same time. To park, you put it in neutral and set the hand brake. Pretty straightfoward.

It does what it's supposed to do, but it's not a modern PDK. It suffers a bit in slow speed parking lot type situations. It's not always smooth coasting slowly to a stop (it clutches in around 5mph ). Granted these are DD type scenarios, and NOT the sort of thing you should be doing in a car like this. On the other hand, when you cane it, it has no problem dropping multiple gears at once when you floor the throttle. None of that slushbox hesitation/lag. And even though it's no longer state of the art, it can still shift faster and (in most situations) just as smooth as you can.

I drove it in Sport mode almost exclusively. Sport holds the rpms a bit higher, raises the stability thresholds, and does the cool blip on downshifts. You can use the paddles even if you have it set to Sport + Auto. Which is exactly what I dd most of the time. Corsa turns the wick up even higher. No more auto - it's all on you. Shifts are 40% faster. At full throttle, it's absolutely brutal. I tried it a few times, but it was just ridiculously violent shifting at 8k+. Not comfortable, so back to Sport. There's a launch mode, but I didn't mess with it. I'm not much of a stoplight guy, it's fast enough if you just mat the throttle. I'm the type that much prefers nailing an apex and powering out of the turn.

Which brings me to my major complaint. The paddles are column mounted. + on the right, - on the left. The wheel itself is fabulous - small diameter with thick padded grips. About perfect IMO. But the paddles don't turn with it. So say you're tossing the car around a turn in Corsa, with your hands at 9 and 3. You downshift a gear or two while braking, and get back on the gas while turning. Oops, time to shift, but your right hand is down at 5 or 6pm and nowhere near the paddle. Which is why I preferred Sport + Auto. I shift when I can/want, the car does it if I can't.

If I'm picking nits, the other thing I have to mention is the weight. Keep in mind my frame of reference is the 2800lb S2000 and a 3000lb Cayman, with the Porsche being a similar mid-engine layout. At 3500+, the Spyder is carrying a lot of mass. Especially with 400# of dudes in the seats. Yeah, 550+ hp is still PLENTY to motivate it. But the tires doth protest mightily when I approach the cornering limit. Maybe it's the budget (relatively speaking) Ventus V12s that the rental company lets you burn. I'd love to drive one on a proper set of PSS (what I run on my cars) or better yet Sport Cups or something in that ballpark. But with the ones on there, at the limit it feels a little...I dunno, greasy... in a way my Porsche doesn't. Not twitchy, not knife edge scary handling. Predictable, controllable, just like the tires aren't quite up to the task.

I'll drop some more comments tomorrow - need some sleep, lol...

S2020

Thanks for the review.
I guess the older transmission are a little clunky at stop-go traffic. the thing that makes it bearable is those cars are used only on weekends. I don't think I can live with it if it's a DD (as if).