Road Test: Lamborghini Murcielago

By Peter Dempsey - 17/Nov/2006

It's not often you see a Lamborghini roaring down the highway in Australia. They're as rare as hen's teeth. And usually the reserve of society's upper echelons. Having just recently spent some time driving around in one of these awesome V12 Italian monsters, I must say it's a demanding thing to drive - but the massive ego boost is undeniably persuasive.

Forget billboards, blimps, TV commercials and magazine advertising - the car's incredibly wide and low stance is the only advertising the Italian marque needs for this car, as everyone wants to have a look, from businessmen to young kids. If you want to attract attention, there are few other cars that do it as well as this one, and wait until you hear the noise from the V12 engine...

The price is hard to justify - $599,943 would pay for about 18 Commodores (which is good if you crash them a lot) or perhaps a house in a nice south eastern suburb with a big vegie garden. But after driving one of these amazing vehicles one begins to think "How can I get six hundred large by Christmas...?"

Fuel consumption isn't great; it drinks more than 20L/100km in normal driving conditions, rearward vision is ridiculous and getting in and out of the thing requires acrobatic skills, though double jointed limbs would also do the trick.

There are myriad reasons that make this car about as practical as lighting a fire in gale force winds atop a snow-dusted mountain, but at the end of it all there are few cars on the market that give the driver such a sense of purpose. Every time you get in this car it's an event, and every time you get out of the car people want to know who you are, what you do, and 'Can I have a go?'.

Capable of going from zero to "holy shit" in just 4.0 seconds, the Lamborghini Murcielago is not for the shy, retiring types

Engine: Lamborghini 6.2-litre Vee 12-cylinder Built in Italy, the longitudinally, mid-mounted, all-alloy vee 12-cylinder petrol engine has a 6.2-litre (6192cc) capacity, with quad overhead camshafts (DOHC per cylinder bank) that actuate a total of 48-valves.  The fuel injected motor has a 10.7:1 compression ratio and features a variable intake manifold and variable valve timing. It has a large 100 litre fuel tank. It will only run on high octane 98 RON petrol. Claimed Fuel Consumption: 22L/100km (combined) Max Power: 426kW @ 7500rpm Max Torque: 650Nm @ 5400rpm Max Speed: 330km/h 0-100km/h: 4.0 seconds

After driving the 6.2-litre V12-powered Lamborghini Murcielago and then sitting down to type out some words to try and explain what it's like, the only thing that initially comes to mind is 'outrageous'. 

On every level.

The power, the styling and the presence, it's all so full-on that the intensity of driving it is mind-numbing at times, and driving it sedately becomes problematic after you've experienced the massive rush of torque that builds as you crush the gas pedal. 

Oh yes, and this Murcielago was finished in bright yellow metallic paint, if you please.

With a throbbing V12 engine that fills the mid-mounted engine bay that sits behind the driver and his passenger, this 6.2-litre monster produces 426kW @ 7500rpm and 650Nm (479 lb-ft) of torque @ 5400rpm.

In the imperial scale, that's 572 horsepower, though I pondered over whether the power of almost 600 horses could be tamed. At times I had to wonder...

Like previous Lamborghini models, such as the daring Countach and bullish Diablo, the Murcielago's engine is mid-mounted, to give the 1650kg beast better cornering balance.

The redline is set at 7600 rpm, making for a scintillating (but sometimes hollow) soundtrack when conditions allow, and in our test car all that brute force was fed through a 6-speed manual gearbox. 

Unlike a V8 engine, the acoustic characteristic of a V12 is vastly different - it's more like an indistinct inline six (on steroids) than the lumpy and distinct V8 sound.

The adrenaline rush from zero to 100km/h happens in 4.0 seconds, but like many exotic machines, working the clutch and throttle is difficult to begin with, not just because you're driving around $600k worth of carbon fibre and steel, but because there's so much torque at all engine speeds and you have be precise and confident.

The Lamborghini Murcielago's hulking V12 beating heart diverts it's more than 400kW of power to all four wheels - 70 per cent to the rear and 30 per cent to the front - but even with the rear bias the car never really feels as though it has the oversteer feel that rear-wheel drive vehicles like the Ferrari F430 have. It exhibits a neutral and strangely 'safe' feel when cornering, but with it's 18-inch wheels with 245/35 ZR18 front and truly massive 335/30 ZR18 rear Pirelli P-Zero tyres that are wider this computer keyboard, it is capable of holding incredible speeds through corners. 

Furthermore, an electronically controlled suspension/damping system helps to keep body roll in check, while a decent traction control system and nicely sized disc brakes (355mm front and 335mm rear rotors) with ABS take care of slowing the car down from a terrifying top speed of 330km/h (205mph).

Holding the front wheels in place are independent, steel double wishbones, with electronically controlled hydraulic dampers, plus coil springs, and an anti-roll bar, and at the rear wheels independent steel double wishbones are governed by electronically controlled hydraulic dampers, dual coil springs and an anti-roll bar.

There's some very exotic automatic features that work without input when you're driving the vehicle in the manner it was designed for. The first feature is the rear wing, which rises up out of its recess when the car reaches 130km/h, to add stability and extra grip at the rear end through extra down force. At 130km/h it's angled at 50°, but when the speedometer reads more than 220km/h, the angle of the rear wing changes to an even more aggressive 70° for yet more rear end grip.

The other exotic features, which all the kids seem to love, are the side-mounted 'winglets' that open up to increase the air flow to the engine. It all happens automatically, and adds yet another level of fascination to a car that already has an abundance. There's even a (very kind) feature that Lamborghini added that raises the front end by 4.5cm so as to avoid scratching or damaging the low front end on driveways or speed bumps, and considering most of the body work is made from expensive carbon fibre, this is an exceedingly practical feature.

Parking the car can be a pain, because it's so low and wide, and with a terrible 12.5m turning circle it needs a very wide road to do a U-turn. And it's lucky this Lamborghini has a 100 litre fuel tank as well, because combined fuel consumption of about 22L/100km means that you'll go through petrol very quickly, and if it had a smaller tank it's travelling range would be abysmal.

This Italian super car has the performance levels that are matched by very few four-wheeled vehicles in the world, and can chew through corners and long straights like a silverfish chews through a dictionary. It's a stunning feat of engineering to drive, especially on open and roads and with little traffic, but driven in the suburbs and the city, it is much harder to deal with.

As well as the sometimes tricky exercise of getting in and out of the vehicle (those vertical doors are gorgeous though), rearward vision is average, and with because it's more than 2 metres wide, tight traffic conditions can be scary. It's also very stiff, so you'll feel every little cats eye and bump in the road go up your spine. And then you've got the'people magnet' issue: Last Friday I parked in Military Road, in Mosman (NSW), just long enough to run into the bank, and also long enough for a group of a dozen or so people to form around the car, and on my return everyone was smiling, except one old dear, who just said (rather loudly) "Exhibitionist!!".

An exhibitionist driving one of these Italian bulls? Perish the thought...

I had to go, because at that time I was late, late to pick my grinning son up from school in Beauty Point, although funnily enough when I got to the other side of Mosman I was no longer late... I guess a thumping V12 with variable intake manifold volume will do that.

Overall: 3.5/5

If you're the shy and retiring type, it's best not to drive this car, but instead ask for a Range Rover Sport or better still a BMW M5, as you'll blend into the crowd easier. It's not the easiest car to live with, and that price is hard to swallow, but the practicality snags and excessive cost become moot points when the sheer thrill of 12-cylinders firing behind your seat propel you to body-squashing speeds that are usually only felt during takeoff in an jet airliner, and it's easy to forget about the useless rear window when all other cars fade away into the distance.

As for the name, there's a bit of a story behind it. Murcielago is alleged to have been a famous fighting bull that fought in 1879, in Cordoba, Spain. Even though he took a grievous amount of physical damage during his bull-fight, legend has it that the beast showed great courage and never toppled. Though it seldom happened at the time, Murcielago had his life spared by one Rafael Molina "Lagartijo", a popular matador in the late 1800s. So the mighty bull was handed a reprieve, and was set out to stud and lived until a ripe old age.

The symbolism may be cliched, but when it's your turn to drive this fabulous beast, I'm quite sure you'll have a story to tell also.