Luxury Insider - The Online Luxury Magazine

It’s not the most comfortable car on the road, and this special edition has sacrificed the Gallardo’s everyday usability, just. A keen driver could cope with its foibles though, and considering its capabilities on the right road, the Superleggera is still a schizophrenic creature that can turn from track-day beast into a relatively civilized daily rider.

You can even lift the front end a few centimeters to cope with a troublesome driveway; it’s that considerate when it wants to be. If Hannibal Lecter were allowed to drive, he could easily turn up for Chianti and liver in one of these.

Plush seats are out, replaced with one-piece carbon-fiber units, and the same material has been used on the inside of the doors and they now shut with a firm pull on a roughly stitched leather strap that looks remarkably DIY for a car that costs €157,000 plus local taxes – approximately 20 per cent more than the standard Gallardo.

Even the wheelnuts are forged from titanium to save a few grams each, and Lamborghini has produced special edition Scorpius wheels to shave off a few more kilos. Under the skin there are new prop shafts and front drive shafts, and Lamborghini could have gone further by throwing the creature comforts in the bin, as well as the four-wheel drive system that would have saved 50kg on its own.

But it’s still a rocket, as they were happy to prove with the run of the track and as many tires as we could burn. After the briefest, typically Italian safety lecture that basically entailed telling us not to crash, we were off to the pit-lane to mount up for a full-on assault on the circuit – sans helmet, of course.

With the five-liter engine singing soulfully, and one of Lamborghini’s crack test drivers leading the way, we ventured onto the tight and winding infield circuit at PIR. And with just a lap or two to learn the lines, helpfully marked with cones that were sprayed around the circuit like confetti at a wedding by the day’s end, it was time to unleash the beast that lies within the essence of automotive beauty. And here, pushing the very realms of sanity, the car was simply fantastic.

Stiffer suspension and the harder sidewalls of the Corsas, compared to the standard P Zero tires fitted to the Gallardo, means the early and gradual breakaway of the original car is now a thing of the past and the Superleggera feels an edgier beast at its outer limits. But they are so much higher, that the Lamborghini will never come close to losing its footing on the road – even at speeds that would make the local news.

Only the most determined track driver would have to correct that sudden spurt of oversteer with a stab of throttle and extravagant armful of opposite lock. With each and every bend, the speeds increased in line with the belief that the car would faithfully follow the fingertip inputs as assorted hacks became heroes, if just for one day.

When the rears lose grip, it transfers power to the front and pulls the car out of the slide before you even know it’s happened. Combined with a beefy ESP system that is nearly idiot-proof, anybody can throw it into bends with no fear of looking stupid, or simply falling off the road. The worst that happens is a little gentle understeer until the car regains grip and takes off with vulpine speed.

We pounded that track all morning long, with not a single spin, or even a memorable slide. Yet when the cars came in for their well-earned lunch break, the tires were destroyed. We had driven the rubber to the brink of destruction and the car was still diving through bends with alacrity that would shame a slalom skier.