Zero to 60mph in 4.1sec (with a slipped clutch that smelt like an emergency stop on an InterCity 125), 100mph in 9.0sec, and a top speed of 192mph; these numbers alone tell you that the Gallardo out-punches a 911 Turbo. Only a suspiciously rapid set of 360 Modena figures (8.8sec to 100mph, 184mph max) seem to trouble it.
But neither of these cars can match the Gallardo’s real-world blend of flexibility and torque mated to a near-perfect set of gear ratios. It will reach 60mph in first gear, yet will rev to within a whisker of its cut-out in top. They provide a razor-sharp V10 that will pull from idle, really tug by 3500rpm and then rip from 6000rpm to the 8200rpm limiter. And the noise is something else, louder than you’d imagine, and wondrously off-beat.
Brakes are conventional steel ventilated discs measuring 365mm at the front with 335mm rears. Stopping power is suitably reassuring: fade is non-existent, and only a slightly awkwardly placed middle pedal detracts from the overall experience.
Body control is the Gallardo’s ace card. It loves British blacktop because its chassis has reserves of two crucial commodities; wheel travel and compliance. You quickly learn to trust it, and drive it like a fast four-wheel-drive saloon.
Both traction and grip from the Pirelli P-Zero Rosso tyres are well beyond the call of the public road. A wet hairpin might unveil the potential rearward torque bias, but to get the full opposite lock number requires a huge lift and then full power; nothing else will work. It’s that well behaved.
If the Gallardo is lacking a frisson of interaction, the compensation arrives in the form of a chassis that is simply more approachable. In the wet it is in a different league from a Ferrari 360, and it will ride over anything you throw at it: suburban potholes or expansion joints are brushed effortlessly aside. You’d never call it supple, but it’s a comfortable car for UK roads and no harsher than a regular 911.