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Getting on the move involves engaging the car via the D or drive button on the central tunnel before using the six-speed e-gear flappy paddles to move into second. At first the travel of the gearbox feels spring loaded, and the electro-hydraulically actuated paddles hard. But rev it up and get to the mid-range and it all evens itself out and the torque starts to call all the shots from there onwards. The 513 bhp and nearly 52 kgm of torque turn it from being a slightly recalcitrant supercar into one that smacks you right in the face with a bludgeon. Originally a 4.2-litre Audi V8, the engine has found space for two more cylinders courtesy Cosworth. It pins your head to the headrest like few others and does it like a supercar should - not make things very easy. The Lambo's bark that seems to appear around 4000 rpm takes you screaming into the next road-crossing all the way to 8000 rpm and some more. When Ferrucio Lamborghini decided to build supercars they were deemed hard to drive as his tractors. They did eventually get better and easier, but never easy enough to make them a doodle. The Gallardo maybe easy, but it's as easy to lose it around the next corner if you are not wide awake.
Challenge hard into the corners and there is steering fluidity and grip that calls for very quick reflexes, nearly twice as quick as what the Lotus demanded. It's controlable and judicious use of the throttle and using the right gear can yield rather exciting results, but find that threshold and it will lose its tail without warning. Because this car had the e-gear setup, the ESP is less ferocious and gives more leeway to the driver to explore. The suspension is slightly stiff for Indian roads and the ground clearance not really practical, though Lambo offers the suspension lift system that raise the car up by 20-30 mm to clear speedbrakers and ramps. In that aspect it's practical, as it is to drive, but like the Lotus there is still drama, there is still a distortion of vision, of motion and of sensibility.
It may be over forty years since LJK Setright first coined the term after driving the Miura, but it isn't a dying species as many thought it would become. Far from it, it's only gotten more powerful, easier to drive and more visceral. It's also gotten heavier to account for all those safety legislations and yet it doesn't feel any less scary if than its predecessors if you cooked it. The Lotus of its day and the Lambo today are designed to be more practical, smaller supercars where one can explore most of the performance more regularly. Since this Esprit rolled out of the gates at Hethel, many other supercars have come and gone that have re-written the game. The Lamborghini Diablo made it madder, Ferrari F40 a bare-to-the-bones widowmaker, the Honda NSX and Nissan GT-R extreme supercars at affordable prices, Jaguar's XJ220 a compromise, the McLaren F1 an a sign of engineering excellence and the Bugatti Veyron an excellence in engineering excess. There are some more like the Bugatti EB110 for sheer eccentricity and the F355 for finally making Ferraris useable yet gorgeous and yet there doesn't seem to me that the supercar will bow out so easily.
Twenty five years from now, the supercar maybe a hybrid, maybe electric and some may still use the internal combustion engine. It may be easier to drive and maybe unlock all its power when the wheels detect that it has entered a race track. The next supercar maybe smarter, eco-friendly and have a conscience too. But when driven at the limit it will be just as crazy, just as involving and invigorating and incendiary. That, I certainly don't doubt!
We'd like to thank Anant and Raj for the Lotus Esprit and Exclusive Motors Delhi for the Lamborghini Gallardo
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