2007 Lamborghini Murciélago LP640: More Horsepower on the Hoof

Gael O'Brien for The New York Times

The LP640's carbon-fiber body is just 44.7 inches high — a good foot lower than the average sedan.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.

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Jerry Garrett for The New York Times

Inside the Murciélago, a bachelor-pad motif.

Jerry Garrett for The New York Times

THE 2007 LamborghiniMurciélago LP640 was late arriving for my test drive — about two weekslate. Mario Andretti had spent a few days in the car before I got it.Knowing Mr. Andretti well, I doubt it was he who fried the clutch,necessitating a replacement and causing the delay.

More likely,the culprit came from the rabble of the performance-car magazines,someone who had been given a chance to rip around Laguna Seca Racewayfor a few laps while Mr. Andretti busied himself elsewhere. Regardless,the LP640 came to me fresh from a fortnight in drydock.

Themotoring press has compiled a frightful record in its testing ofLamborghinis. A colleague at Car and Driver magazine crashed one awhile back. A few years before that, at a media event on a Europeanracetrack, a writer took off at full throttle and crashed in the firstturn. He and his passenger were killed.

Already, members of thepress have totaled at least two LP640’s, which only recently went onsale. Not surprisingly, Lamborghini has become ever more reluctant toturn journalists loose with its cars for solo test drives.

So itwas with equal measures of anticipation and dread that I watched theLP640 being unloaded from a flatbed truck at my home. My usuallyreclusive neighbors suddenly appeared on the street, as if pulled bymagnets from their houses. Soon, a rather large crowd assembled. Thenotion entered my mind that I might charge for test drives.

ALamborghini isn’t just a car, it’s an event. The Murciélago, named fora famous Spanish fighting bull, has been out since 2001 with a580-horsepower V-12 engine, and more than 2,000 have been sold — a hugenumber for a supercar. The LP640 is a new variant that is more powerfuland more user-friendly.

The LP designation refers to the engine’smounting position (“longitudinale posteriore”) behind the two seats;640 is the horsepower it makes in European specification. Because ofslight changes to meet American emissions rules, the output in thiscountry is slightly less, at 632 horsepower — akin to the differencebetween getting hit by a .44-caliber bullet or a .45; the wounds arepretty much the same size.

The V-12’s displacement has grown to6.5 liters, from 6.2, by increasing the cylinder bore and lengtheningthe piston stroke; torque output is improved to a mighty 487pound-feet.

Gas mileage is on par with the thirstiest bigtrucks, just 9 miles a gallon in town and 13 on the highway, earningthe government’s biggest gas-guzzler tax, $7,700. This is part of theprice you pay for the most powerful street-legal (to use the termloosely) Lamborghini ever. It is also the fastest. This 3,670-poundprojectile has a claimed a top speed of “over 211” miles an hour. Thenumbers on the speedometer go up to 220, in case you catch a goodtailwind.

For Lamborghinis in general, and past Murciélagos inparticular, the company’s raging-bull emblem has seemed apt. The carshave had a reputation as being tough to tame.

The toughestthing about the LP640 is the searing heat it generates. Horsepower notonly makes speed, it makes heat. The engine radiates heat like theSpace Shuttle re-entering the atmosphere, and after a rigorous drivethe Murciélago can keep your garage warm all night.

As a result,the LP640 differs stylistically from a standard Murciélago in thatevery air intake and exhaust point was enlarged as much as possiblewithout ruining the car’s elegant, low-slung styling.

“You knowyou have achieved perfection in design,” Antoine de Saint Exupéry, thegreat adventurer, once wrote, “not when you have nothing more to add,but when you have nothing more to take away.” That is an aproposdescription of this minimalist missile.

The carbon-fiber body isjust 44.7 inches high — a good foot lower than the average sedan. Thetest car was painted Pearl Metallic Orange. “It glows, like a monarchbutterfly in the sun,” a neighbor rhapsodized. But opening theLamborghini’s trademark scissor doors revealed a garish orange andblack leather interior that says, “Trick or treat!” The seats arereminiscent of curved novelty chairs from a 1970’s bachelor pad. Thoughwell bolstered, they felt as if you might slide down them into thefootwell under heavy braking.

Someone had decided people oughtnot smoke in this car, so the cigarette lighter plug had been removed.Since the lighter outlet is right next to the ignition switch, it tookme only about two seconds to stick the key in the socket and short outthe lighter, along with the stereo system that shares the same fuse.That made for a quiet cabin, until the V-12 engine coughed angrily tolife. The engine is rather difficult to ignore, since it resides acouple of inches behind the driver’s ear. You can even see it, throughthe transparent engine cover.

What next? No gearshift selector?This car was equipped with an optional $10,000 automatic transmissioncalled e-gear, which you shift only with fluted levers on either sideof the steering wheel.

At first, e-gear seemed abrupt. But as Ilearned it, I became convinced it was based on a musical instrument.Strumming it lightly, but with a flourish, seemed to produce quick,seamless shifts. At times, it’s almost like playing air guitar. Don’tsnicker until you’ve tried it.

Your right hand takes thetransmission up through the six forward gears, and your left handdownshifts. Each downshift is accompanied by a flatulent burst ofthrottle. In traffic, the car sounds noticeably racy — even when youdon’t want it to, as when a police car pulls up alongside. Officerstend to look at the LP640 with the kind of “Go ahead, punk — make myday” glare made famous by Clint Eastwood.

The most surprisingthing about the LP640 is driveability. This has become an increasingissue in recent years, as automakers turn out machines withever-escalating horsepower ratings. Models in the 500-horse club, ofwhich there are now more than a dozen, have struggled to put theirpower politely on the pavement. The Murciélago’s throttle tip-in usedto be “brutale,” as the Italians say, with power that virtuallyexploded from the engine to the wheels. The tires spun, the vehicleconvulsed and occupants began to pray.

The LP640 benefits from anelectronic drive-by-wire engine management system that metes out punchin survivable doses. Yes, you can go from zero to 60 m.p.h. in 3.3seconds. But your eyeballs won’t roll back in your head while doing it.

Bythe time you hit third gear, you can be traveling faster than 100m.p.h. It took a long, straight stretch of road for me to finally getthe car into sixth gear.

The test car was equipped withoptional $13,000 ceramic brakes that stopped the LP640 almost asquickly as the engine could propel it.

The LP640 steers asprecisely as a Le Mans racer (the R-GT version of the car is justthat). The low center of gravity and finely articulated suspension makethe car corner like a go-kart. The four-wheel independent suspensionworks as a tightly choreographed ensemble of hydraulic shock absorbers,coil springs, dual front and rear struts and stabilizer bars; thesystem all but outlaws body lean, brake dive and acceleration squat.This is essential because the LP640’s ground clearance is barely aninch at speed; any wallowing whatsoever would grind off bodywork. (Acockpit switch raises and lowers the car’s nose slightly, so you cancoax it into a garage and over parking-lot speed bumps.)

Turningthe LP640 can be a bit of a struggle. The car has full-time all-wheeldrive, with the supply of torque continuously varied from front to backthrough a viscous coupling. That really helps on snow and ice — as ifanyone would ever drive this $379,000 (as tested) museum piece in thoseconditions.

But the all-wheel drive results in a scandalouslywide turning radius of 41.5 feet. The actual space you’ll need whileturning is far more than that, because you must allow plenty of marginfor miscalculations. The ends and sides are obscured by high windowsills and a low seating position. You pick up little visual cues as youget to know the car. But trial and error is a prohibitively expensiveway to learn. Busting the carbon fiber bodywork is a surefire way tototal the car.

A backup camera would be handy, given all theblind spots, but one is not available (though, curiously, you can getone on the smaller, less expensive Lamborghini Gallardo).

ThoughLamborghini is owned by Audi, the Murciélago exhibits none of theelectronic and technical overkill with which most German manufacturersseem infatuated these days. There is no iDrive and no plethora ofswitches, dials, buttons, stalks and redundant voice controls. Just theaccelerator, the wheel, e-gear and the road ahead.

If you blow out the radio as I did, there’s not much to do but shut up and drive.

INSIDE TRACK: Have mercy!