Spyder’s web
The road straightened out on the idyllic national park on Tenerife and I pulled out to pass the bus. Just at that second, the sun shone through the clouds, the engine hit the magic 4000 rpm watershed where everything goes nuts and the car launched at the horizon like a wailing banshee. It was a perfect moment, the emotional experience that will define each and every day for the lucky owners of the Lamborghini LP560-4 Spyder.

Just one moment made the $202,714 asking price seem like a snip, well that and the attention lavished on my matte black car every time we came close to stopping. This LP560-4 may be a subtle revision of the Gallardo that was launched all the way back in 2004, but it still has the visual impact to stop traffic. And this new car is more than just a soft-top version of the LP560-4. Lamborghini took the quiet chance to fix some of the issues and give the Spyder the bite it needs to fell a Prancing Horse.

After blasting round the roads of Tenerife and past a few of our slower companions, it was a time for a chat with R&D director Maurizio Reggiani, a man so impossibly cool and suave you think, just for a minute, that Lamborghini employs actors rather than engineers on these events.

On the launch of the LP560-4 coupe we loved everything, except for the brakes and chronic understeer in certain corners. The ceramics pulled speed off more effectively than a wall, but they were unnerving to use. Pushing the brakes approaching a red light used to result in nothing, nothing at all, before a firmer shove virtually stood the car on its nose. They were either on or off, there wasn’t much in between and I would never have ticked the optional extra – the steels were much better.

Not any more. This car comes with a soft, progressive nature and none of the jerky, embarrassing emergency stops. They work like a dream, with a squeeze, rather than a full on stamp, bringing the Spyder to a perfectly controlled stop in front of an adoring Tenerife crowd. Now they are not a $14,904 way to mess up your car, they’re worth every penny.

Then there was the handling. The Gallardo Superleggera was one of the finest handling cars I have ever driven, and the LP560-4 was a conundrum in comparison, slipping wide of the apex under heavy duress. There still isn’t a full explanation, Reggiani is far too slick for that, but I’d put it down to a difficult marriage of new tyres designed for reduced fuel consumption and a front suspension system designed around the original Pirelli PZero Corsas.
 
But this time, throwing the car into the bend revealed nothing beyond scary grip and a razor sharp nose that lives up to the near F1-look. The back end was always rock solid, now the front cuts into the bend with the same mountain goat alacrity and it’s hard to imagine unsticking the car on a public road. Cutting the roof off should technically make a car worse with the integral loss of structural rigidity, but Lambo has used the opportunity to make it better.

A Ferrari might offer a richer tapestry at the ragged edge, but then the Lambo is an easier car to drive ludicrously fast and as such is better suited to the public road. And now, with the only two spikes in the driving experience sitting smoother than the Lambo heads themselves, I’ll stick my neck on the line. For a day-to-day supercar this is as good as it gets, the best there is. Forget the LP640, forget the 430, forget all the other numbers on the list, if you really want a supercar and really want to drive it, this is as good as it gets.
– Nick Hall