blot

2 years ago we made the mistake (?) of nipping over to Lambo Manchester for a test drive of the gallardo spyder, to have a look and a test drive (so I could experience having driven a lambo basically), but with little thoughts of actually buying one.

2 things immediately went wrong with the plan, it was a hot sunny day (how often does that happen in stockport!) so the roof was down for the whole test drive of a beautiful yellow e-gear spyder and unfortunately their attitude to test drives was not a 5 minute pootle down the road.....

the occasion of just sitting in the passenger seat and hearing the bark of the engne when it fired up was a 'life event' in itself, never mind discovering that on standard setting the box changed up automatically if you hit the red line and on down changes blipped the throttle , the level of grip offered by my previous cars (evo's, noble, 360 etc) was put firmly in the shade and the acceleration was......endless

We drove away from a very pleasant 4 hours of driving, chatting and coffees with half an inkling that by hook or by crook, one day....... but it seemed some way off.

Last march we were in a very fortunate position to be able to think about taking the bull by the horns and putting an order in, after some consideration, we decided not to wait 6 months for the factory to build one and decided to use a recommended broker to source the car we wanted.

So giallo midas (triple layer yellow metallic paint) electric seats in black leather with yellow stitching, e-gear, callisto alloys, sat nav, bluetooth, smoked rear lenses, branding pack etc was requested. 1 week later, after heading down to the smoke for a meeting, I caught the train out of london the following morning to pick up our new purchase.

A brilliant sunny day, even in March, around 20 degrees. Perfect

Sitting in the drivers seat of my 1st ever lambo was a moment pretty much impossible to put into words, a mixture of excitement and oddly, some nerves at the thought of the 250 mile journey home.

Fired her up with the spine tingling bark the gallardo emits, followed by 20 seconds of theatre as the whole of the back end covering the engine bay lifted at the touch of a button to allow the roof to fold down. Foot on brake, flick the right hand paddle, into first and trundle off 50 yards to the junction and......stall it


Rest of journey was just a huge rush, heading up the A1, no need for the stereo, if I got bored (?)of the engine note, just blip down, even better, blip down, accelerate and then lift off at which point the exhausts would pop and bang, (found out the first evening that this was accompanied by blue flames even on the 'standard' exhaust).

The growl emitted at anything over 3500 revs was insane, as the valves in the system opened to bypass the silencers

Probably the quickest 4 hours (well the M25 was rammed!) and was slightly disappointed to get home if truth be told as I had that feeling you get with most new cars, just wanting to carry on driving forever...but eventually home
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...IMG_3915e1.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...PIC_0014-3.jpg

From then on, weekends were fully enjoyed, during the week, the 106 continued to leak water out of the heater matrix, overtaking was always a fun challenge and under steer ocassionally threatened to meet with parts of the countryside, but all the time.....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...wcamera001.jpg

was lurking, waiting for the next outing

We quickly discovered that every journey in the g was an occasion, loads of waves (all positive ones!) amazing amount of camera phones, stop at a filling station and 10 mins later you might get away. Film night premier in leeds with a group of other sportscars, driving in convoy through the tunnels was though the crowd the car drew was a little scary, but some fab pics appeared
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v512/blot/lambo.jpg

Then the guys at manchester demonstrated another spyder to us that had received aslight tweak so the exhaust valves remained permanently open.....so risking the wrath of the village, the growly beastie was unslienced

Highlights of the 12 months include a non stop, very spirited topless drive from N.Yorks to the south of france on the hottest day of the year, ending by chasing a maserati and 430 through tunnels above monaco in the dusk with the roof still down, meeting up with 80 other lambos for a convoy, a spirited blat on aston martin's test track, another lambo & supercar convoy down to Silverstone 3 abreast down the motorway early one morning,
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5.../P9168626a.jpg

and finding even more stonking roads to enjoy the cacophony of V10 howl
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v512/blot/favepic.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v512/blot/pic9.jpg

Some truly memorable days and memories packed in to 12months
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...t/DSCF8918.jpg

Not going to bore you anymore with pics or more blathering, been incredibly lucky to have had this motor and it has exceeded all my motoring expectations of it. Its also opened the door to opportunities we hadn't expected, such as traidng a drive of it for a drive of a 6R4 which just would not have happened.

Who knows what the future holds, but after 7.5k miles in 12 months (yes I know thats nowt, but try telling that to the majority of lambo buyers ) a life time of motoring memories have been created.

A horny beast
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v512/blot/horny3.jpg

Now where did I put the peugeot keys

dpb

Bloke next doors got a testarossa for a year - sounds like your had more fun per pound

exvaux

iTrader: (1)

whats the clutch wear like on the egear compared to the manuals?Heard the manuals are quite high wearing

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

Very nice can't say if I had the money to spend on one I would buy it, as other marques would take my fancy

exvaux

iTrader: (1)

and you need a pic of the lambo and the 106 together lol

blot

Thought I had one but haven't guess this was the biggest age gap on runs out!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...PIC_0010-3.jpg

Clutch wear wasn't bad at all, 7.5k miles and only 20% wear, I know of a couple of manuals that have done very high miles on one clutch, it tends to be the earlier gallardos that suffered from excessive wear, which you really don't want!

speedymonkey

fantastic car fella
thats what id go for if i had that sort of budget, not that i ever will tho

Ive had this pic as my desktop picture for ages

Its even the same colour of yours

If your ever passing through Didsbury, i wouldn't hold it against you if you insisted on taking me for a spin, as long as it was quick like



Pure class

Gav

Great thread

I work about 400 yards from Lamborgini Manchester on the main road so i get to see your kind of car everyday almost. I still get goose bumps when they set off from the lights, the noise is just something else

Congrats on your purchase and if your ever at Lambo Manchester again pop into Intoto Kitchens just down the hill and say hello

blot

Never say never speedmonkey

Nice place to work scoobygav, must be awful having to put up with the noise

One last pic, driving up to the casino and having it valet parked was a very enjoyable moment, as was coming out again 60 euros to the good (ok may not have broken the bank but at least we won )

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...7/DSCF0157.jpg

T'other bits and bobs, uses about 1 litre of oil every 600 miles or so, rear tyres last about 5k miles (fronts go a lot further), small service is about £1K, never really worked out economy but I don't think we ever got into properly double figures other than sensible motrway cruising ( ) , the sport button (bizarre in a lambo surely) speeds the gear changes up & cancels the auto change up so you can hold it on the red line, there is a launch control option, the slippery road button cuts power to that of a 106 (but still sounds good) you can have a conversation with the roof down at 100+ & finally, the front end just feels a tad lighter at 180 Oh and the level of customer service from lambo manchester is

mattbeef

Well sadly Lambo ownership sounds exactly like i want it to be and is as i dream about it

Have to say that its very very nice to hear that you have done that mileage in yours and its not sat in the garage all year only to come out on one weekend when its sunny.

Sadly with the doom of motoring recently unless i won the lottery last night i doubt i will ever be fortunate enough to have the same experience

Deep Singh

Fantastic looking car, glad to see you're actually using the thing and not just polishing it.

wrx-kris

That write up has left me speechless...

Nice car mate!

blot

Thanks for the kind words

I did wonder whether to post it or not, as wasn't sure how it might come across. But the odd person on here who knows me would hopefully confirm I am first and foremost a petrolhead

There was a double reason for writing this, one its surprising how many good memories can come back just by writing something down & also am going to be starting a blog on something totally unconnected elsewhere, so thought I'd try it here and see how my style of writing might work out.

Back to the car

Aside from the obvious rush of owning and driving one of my dream cars, the number of events we got to go to added to the experience. Paddock parking with pit and grid passes for the european le mans series race at silverstone was a fabulous day out as we are both motorsport fans
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5.../training7.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...sentation2.jpg

We have already been to the 1st round of the British GT series, at Oulton Park, set off in 2 inches of snow, which was an interesting experience with 325 wide rears

We went as guests of Guy Harrington, who is driving one of the Team Modena Gallardos this season (Guy Harrington ), not every day you get greeted at your reserved parking space (next to a veyron ) by a professional race driver. Watched some awesome racing, got shown round the lambo race cars and even got to meet the very lovely, friendly and chatty Mel C who was there watching her brother Paul O'Neil making his debut first full season back in racing after some health problems

Did grab one quick vid on the way there, but being a responsible and law abiding driver, I obviously haven't any vids worth posting up on you tube

YouTube - Gallardo Spyder tunnel

Someone else captured the car last year when we took it down to an RR session, ignore all the figures he's posted! The actual figures were 520.7 bhp @ 7,429 rpm & 377.6 lbft @ 4,393 rpm, but the vid does capture the colour of the car pretty well
YouTube - Lamboghini Gallardo on Rolling Road

j4ckos mate

scooby gav do you live in century buildings?

DB07P1

fantastic write up.im not jelous......much!

Underworld

i love that car!!!!!!! waiting for the lottry tho loll.... one day one day!!!!

paulwrxboro

Good write up and awsome car, im a big lambo fan and i hope to own one one day
im only on normal money but one year i will probably skint myself totaly, just to own a car like that ,and sell within a year take a decent hit, but im sure it will be worth it you only live once

Eddie1980

No no your absolutely right to post, fantastic write up, many thanks for a good read!

wilffive

Out of interest what were your total running costs over the whole 12 months?

I currently run an M3 as a daily driver over about 15k a year which is costing me about £10k including depreciation. Be interested to hear what the Gallardo costs by comparison.

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

With the events etc are these just things you've been invited to through meets or is it a case of rocking up in the lambo and trying your luck?

5t.

blot

Running costs for 12 months, 2 min back of *** packet calc and probably missed something so all very approx figures.

Fuel for 7.5k miles £3000
Oil £ 125
2 x rear tyres £ 850
7.5k service £1100
Insurance £2000
road Tax £ 400

Total £ 7475
Depreciation £15000-£20000
Total 12 month cost £22475- 27475 ish

Also a gearbox gasket failed, there was a suspicion it may have been a rod out of line within the e-gear system, so new box was fitted as a precaution, no quibble, under warranty. e-gear system is a £6,500+vat option, so wey hey for warranties


fivetide, they were mainly events we received invites to, either through the dealer or through lambo club uk. Got a few invites to stuff when turning up in it at shops/restaurants etc and through connections we made through other owners

thesyn

Good for you, great car, enioyed the thread.

wilffive

Am sure if you rock up in a bright yellow Lambo spyder its not just doors that open.

It may have cost a fair bit on paper but am sure you'll not look back in years to come and regret having done it. Well done fella for living our dream

blot

I would imagine that if you were single, a lot of interesting opportunities would open up

Another pleasant trip that occured through ownership was a day over at the Geneva Motor Show. Was quicker & cost less to fly there and back in a day than it costs for a day return to london from here on the train

A letter of introduction from Lambo gave us access to their stand and their hospitality suite, which included a brand new LP560 to muck about in,
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...lambocafe2.jpg

a nice coffee bar and dining area. Plus the chance to look out on the masses below
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5.../lambocafe.jpg

But perhaps the highlight was using the intro letter to get access to other stands, AM, Bentley, Pagani etc, all beautiful cars and friendly folk, am not a great fan of older cars but being able to get up close and personal with this on the ferrari stand was possibly the best part of the day
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...neva/fezza.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...a/fezzabum.jpg

:fast show mode on: .....which was nice

All the events we went to were memorable, but nothing tops opening the garage doors on a sunny evening or on a weekend, getting in the car, starting the engine and just heading off for a blat......

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

blot, if you put the [ img ]text[ /img ] (without spaces ) around your photo links the pics will show as pics and not just links as they are doing at the moment (probably showing as pics on your PC).

But never mind all that, an excellent write up there, I'm not jealous in any way And when are you popping in for a coffee? I'll swap you a ride in the ST

Edit to say DON'T bring the Pug

blot

Oh no they don't, still only appear links

I'll give the scenic a wash then Sal

Simon C

Cracking write up.

My dream is an AML DB, once a month I have to drive past my local dealership, its pure drool. I just wish I could afford 1.

Problem is, I'd end up using it as a daily driver, and thats going to hurt the wallet.

bugeyeandy

Beautiful car and a great write up, my 2 dream cars are the Ferrari F40 and Porsche 959.
I guess they'll long remain just a dream though as I have no idea how to raise the funds needed to run/own either of them.
Thanks for sharing it with us

austinwrx

don't worry about posting the thread, its been lovely to read and share in yr last 12 mths.

good on you, life is for living after all.