Options are a mere $52,710.
Nabbing a Lamborghini for testing involves trying to chisel into a press-car calendar thick with celebrity-studded red-carpet parties hosted by the likes of Donatella Versace. It isn’t easy getting on the schedule. Lamborghini’s silk-suited brand managers are hyping a fantasy lifestyle, and we in the grubby Fourth Estate have nothing to offer against a Donatella photo op except burned-up clutches and chunked tires.
So when our single day finally arrived to snap into the Fritos-shaped buckets of a 632-hp Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 roadster—a car with $52,710 in options—it was tempting to dismiss it as just a cartoon commentary on the excesses of the filthy famous. Tempting, that is, until we arrived at the test track.
Introduced last year as a face-lifted Murciélago, the LP640 smoked 60 mph in 3.5 seconds and went wild whooping through the quarter-mile in 11.8 seconds at 126 mph. It brought its 4100-pound girth to a halt from 70 mph in just 150 feet and pulled more than 1.00 g on the skidpad. Ferrari Enzos move only slightly quicker and sell for more than a million. The base $351,700 LP640 roadster has some engineering cred that true car people can appreciate, even if Donatella hasn't a clue.
As with the previous Murciélago, the LP640 roadster looks like an LP640 coupe that lost its roof panel to a passing tornado. Jagged edges and some unfinished lines are the result. The roadster's roof-toupee is a better description-is a flimsy canvas sheet with a few snap-in poles and fold-out ribs to hold its shape. Practiced hands take about five minutes to insert tabs A into slots B. A plaque warns against exceeding 100 mph with the roof on, something the roadster can accomplish in second gear. When not threatening to shear off, the roof stows-just barely-in the front cargo bin.
2007 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 Roadster - Engine
At 81.0 inches wide, this Italian muscle car feels like a chopped and channeled Hummer in traffic. The visibility from this carbon-fiber foxhole is limited, especially to the rear, and you'll want to keep the windows up to hold back the Katrina-like wind lash at speed. An alarm sounds if the rear-hinged engine hatch is not latched securely, lest it rip off on the freeway. Underneath the engine cover and a latticework of carbon-fiber braces that reinforce the roadster's structure lives the DOHC 48-valve 6.5-liter dry-sump V-12, the product of an extensive freshening of the previous 6.2-liter unit.
The 487 pound-feet of torque arrive more evenly, the revs are more linear, and the big Lambo is more everyday streetable than before, especially with the optional $10,000 e-gear paddle-shift six-speed transmission that blurs its shifts under light throttle. Under full throttle, the engine bellows the big roar and the shifts crack like home-run bats. The Lambo is happiest blasting in straight lines, the result of all those pounds and a wheel beset with understeer.
Only those happy to suck up the constant attention and public palaver that inevitably accrue to a Lamborghini driver should even consider one. You know who you are. You’ve got Donatella on speed dial.
2007 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 Roadster - Specs
VEHICLE TYPE: mid-engine, 4-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door roadster
PRICE AS TESTED: $404,410 (base price: $351,700)
ENGINE TYPE: DOHC 48-valve V-12, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injectionDisplacement: 396 cu in, 6496ccPower (SAE net): 632 bhp @ 8000 rpmTorque (SAE net): 487 lb-ft @ 6000 rpm
TRANSMISSION: 6-speed manual with automated shifting and clutch
DIMENSIONS:Wheelbase: 104.9 inLength: 181.5 inWidth: 81.0 inHeight: 44.7 inCurb weight: 4100 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS:Zero to 60 mph: 3.5 secZero to 100 mph: 8.1 secZero to 150 mph: 16.1 secStreet start, 5–60 mph: 4.1 secStanding ¼-mile: 11.8 sec @ 126 mphTop speed (drag ltd, mfr’s claim): 205 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 150 ftRoadholding, 200-ft-dia skidpad: 1.01 g
FUEL ECONOMY:EPA city driving: 10 mpgC/D-observed: 14 mpg
The hummer H3 is the smallest from the 3 Hummer models.The Hummer H3 was a pickup truck but the final version is a conventional SUV.It is built on a heavily modified Colorado/Canyon pickup truck frame.The Hummer H3 is build in Shreveport, Louisiana at GM’s factory.Export versions will be produced at the General Motors South Africa facility in Struandale and Port Elizabeth.In the USA the price for a Hummer H3 starts from 30.000$ and ends just over 40.000$.In the first months of 2006,about 8000 Hummers were sold.It’s about 74% of all Hummer sales.The H3 uses the 3.7 L (3464 cc) Atlas straight-5 engine,It produces 242HP(164kW) at 5600RPM.It is available with a 5 speed manual transmission of a 4 speed automatic transmission that includes GM’s Stabilitrak vehicle stability control.It includes an electronically-controlled dual-speed transfer case and electronic locking differential.The H3 Hummer can handle 0.6 m of water. The H3 is the only vehicle in its class to have a 2-speed transfer case standard.
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