Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder first drive

What is it?

This is the new Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Spyder. This is the direct replacement for the previous Gallardo Spyder, which was based on the first-generation model rather than the current LP560-4, launched last year.

It may be true that a brand new Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder isn’t quite what the world needs right now, but on the other hand we can’t all keep wandering about wearing long faces. Some of our faces, after all, require a tan 365 days a year, and in Los Angeles there can be few more appropriate ways to take in the rays than behind the wheel of a new Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Spyder.

Watch Jamie Corstorphine drive the new Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder

What’s it like?

Although you might think that a convertible Lamborghini would be the four-wheeled equivalent of a hen party full of footballers’ wives, it’s actually a very good car.

They simply don’t make badly engineered products at Lamborghini any more, and the way the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Spyder gives so little away to its coupe cousin dynamically is testament to this fact. Even on lumpy surfaces the Spyder feels amazingly well sorted, not remotely wobbly, and basically very much like the tin-top LP560-4.

Except, of course, you can drop the roof (available in black, blue, beige or grey) at the press of a button, and just over 20sec later you’ll be driving a full convertible. One neat touch is that the rear screen stays in place and acts as a wind deflector with the hood down. You can even drive with the rear screen down and the roof up for a quasi-targa effect, which is a neat way of telling the world that the lump of hair on your head is, in fact, all yours…

But the best bit of all about the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Spyder is that you can now listen to that 5.2-litre V10 with the hood down. Somehow, being able to hear it so much more clearly actually intensifies the thrill. The raw numbers say the Spyder is fractionally slower than the coupe at 4.0sec to 62mph and 201mph flat out, and that’s purely because it weighs a wee bit more.

Should I buy one?

If you like your supercars to be open-topped then absolutely. The simple truth is that in everyday use the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Spyder feels and sounds every bit as thrilling as the coupe. And in a tunnel, well, it’s almost enough to make your heart explode.