RE: Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 Balboni

[Or888t]

Can't beleve im the 1st one to point this out, but the artical says £137,900 and on sunday top gear hamond said it was £167,000, quote "in this case less, does really mean more" Amazing car nevertheless bringing back the driver involment to the major super cars.

[FishFace]

BlackSteel said:

More street cred & pedigree than any other super car built today.

Until the new McLaren arrives this is THE car to have. A bargain that will have the collectors clambering.

Is it cooler than a Ferrari? Oh yes.

Yes. Ferrari are dogst with all their branding and whoring of their name. My old 360 was a pain in the arse, too! If I ever dare spend so much money again it'll be a Lambo.

[Los Palmas 7]

Isn't it fortunate that their test driver had a cool-sounding name?

I doubt the "Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 Clive Smith" would have the same ring to it.

[Luca Brasi]

Nice car but I'm not not much of a Lambo-fan. I'd still have a Scuderia.

[jayfish]

Can't remember which article i was watching but it claimed that Balboni has tested 80% of Lambos produced since the 60's, not 80% of models but 80% of the cars produced. If you are lucky enough to own one, he's likely to have done the shakedown

[bazking69]

I must be the only one who would take a 430 Scuderia over this anyway?

[matt frost]

RobM77 said:

leon9191 said:

Gridl0k said:

leon9191 said:

Gridl0k said:

Not seen this answered anywhere so maybe here's the place - did they actually give one to Mr Balboni or not?

No they didnt, well thats what EVO said anyway.

Poor bd.

Lambo owners club should make everyone chip in whatever it takes. This guy made their enjoyment possible, to a large extent...

Anyone here met him? I can only assume that 40 years testing Lamborghinis has made him look like Popeye.

I remember a program/video clarkson did in the 1990s and he was on there testing a Diablo, had it fully sideways rear wheels pouring out smoke.

No The Road.

Legend.

I remember the video, but remember the main sideways scenes as being on a runway and he spun the car every single time, and tried to hide his mistake by doing a few doughnuts afterwards.

I thought the general consensus was that he was a rubbish driver? Evo did a feature a few years ago on test drivers, where they wrote a piece on legends such as Walter Rohl, Dirk Schoysman, Mike Cross etc. The write up on Balboni described him as an embaressment, spinning constantly on product launches and generally showing no degree of car control at all.

Don't shoot the messenger, but that's what I'd heard.

Edited by RobM77 on Wednesday 2nd December 16:27

Thanks for saving me the trouble of writing that, I totally agree. Every clip I have seen of him driving, he has been all over the place, out of control, and tankslapping. I guess he is seen as legendary for managing to keep that job so long when you compare how his talents come across compared to Rohl and Benuzzi. Sure I guess he must be a good driver compared to average Jo, but not as good as you would expect a Lamborghini test driver to be.

[Luca Brasi]

bazking69 said:

I must be the only one who would take a 430 Scuderia over this anyway?

Nope.

[Dagnut]

BlackSteel said:

More street cred & pedigree than any other super car built today.

Until the new McLaren arrives this is THE car to have. A bargain that will have the collectors clambering.

Is it cooler than a Ferrari? Oh yes.

Great point, You see someone in one of these you know their a car fan.

[pistolp]

Guys - he has been testing lambo's for 30 years. Of course he is a good driver.

The clips you have seen are of him hammering around in mid engined large lambo's like the diablo and murci. Probably as hard a car to drift as there is out there. It's one thing to do it in an M3 or caterham, quite another in a 1.5 tonne supercar that doesn't lend itself to that kind of driving. Plus he is just larking about and he doesn't strike me as the kind of man that wants to impress anyone - he has nothing to prove

He has specced the lambo as a manual because it does add to the experience as a proper drivers car. The bulk of cars these days are specced with F1/E-gear because people want the ease of these gearboxes with the added appeal of thinking that they are driving something that has F1 technology links. There is still a slight degree of cynicism that suoercars are hard to drive and have heavy clutches etc. The new paddle shifts have opened the cars up to a wider market.

I would have a manual anyday, for me rhe F1 style box is great on track but a bit un-involving on the raod. Also, you can't get a Scud on track (apart from Donington and Silverstone noisy days) due to noise restrictions. Personal preference that is all.

[stew-S160]

i'd be hard pressed to decide picking this or the Murci SV. both are amazing. fingers crossed for a lotto win.

[RobM77]

I'm not in a position to comment on the guy's driving myself, it's just what I'd heard in the press.

Even though in the Clarkson clip on You Tube he's obviously pratting about, you can tell sometimes that he's planned to catch a slide and then realises he's not going to and gets into a tankslapper. If big heavy mid engined cars are hard to drift beyond a certain angle (which I'm sure they are!), then why take the car that far if you're in full control..?

I doubt that becoming a test driver for an Italian supercar company is just about ability, otherwise the vast numbers of out of work racing drivers out there would be queuing up for the job (and don't forget, motor racing involves lots of feedback - Senna used to write an A4 page on every car he ever drove every time he stepped out). The other breed of test drivers are engineers, but I'm not sure that Italian supercar manufacturers hire engineers like Gavan Kershaw (Lotus) or Mike Cross (Jaguar) either. Valentino actually started life as a mechanic for Lambo.

As I said though, I can't really say much myself, I'm merely reporting what I've heard in the press. What I can say is whilst I've been impressed by watching other test drivers at work (especially Gavan Kershaw), Balboni's driving always looks slightly nutty

[The Wookie]

And Gav isn't? You might want to have a few laps with him, he made me look like I was driving my grandma down the pub for sunday lunch!

[RobM77]

The Wookie said:

And Gav isn't? You might want to have a few laps with him, he made me look like I was driving my grandma down the pub for sunday lunch!

Extremely talented though; I've seen his driving a lot on TV and never seen him do anything daft that he couldn't recover from.

[robman23]

id better start saving up, im only £136,900 short

[LCR270]

al1991 said:

If Balboni himself wanted a manual gearbox for his car, then why do Lambo insist on making flappy paddles?

Most buyers probably can't manage to drive one as quickly as safely, he's a real driver - most buyers are wannabe drivers - probably as simple as that?

[LuS1fer]

It is colour-dependent. The one on TG looked fantastic but some of those other colours with the white stripes look a bit naff. In truth, I'd probably want one without the stripe.

I'm also embarrassed to say that when I first heard of this car, I wondered why they were paying tribute to Rocky Balboa and couldn't stop running "Eye Of the Tiger" through my mind....

[MATT427]

LuS1fer said:

It is colour-dependent. The one on TG looked fantastic but some of those other colours with the white stripes look a bit naff. In truth, I'd probably want one without the stripe.

I'm also embarrassed to say that when I first heard of this car, I wondered why they were paying tribute to Rocky Balboa and couldn't stop running "Eye Of the Tiger" through my mind....

personally love any colour combo hahaa. The one on topgear tho wish they did a bit more on the car tho where was the lap?

[Stuart]

Balboni story (true) from my trip to Laguna Seca this summer for the historics.

Wandering around the paddock I spied a blue Balboni, hazards flashing, clearly where it ought not to be. A few minutes later the tannoy sparked into life and the announcer said "if there's a Mr Valentino Balboni in the paddock, will you please move your Lamborghini, or it will be removed"

So Lamborghini might not have given him one, but he certainly borrowed one for the Monterey Historics weekend. He didn't have the right parking pass though, uber-italian development hand or not...

[LuS1fer]

Stuart said:

Balboni story (true) from my trip to Laguna Seca this summer for the historics.

Wandering around the paddock I spied a blue Balboni, hazards flashing, clearly where it ought not to be. A few minutes later the tannoy sparked into life and the announcer said "if there's a Mr Valentino Balboni in the paddock, will you please move your Lamborghini, or it will be removed"

So Lamborghini might not have given him one, but he certainly borrowed one for the Monterey Historics weekend. He didn't have the right parking pass though, uber-italian development hand or not...

Unless it's signed somewhere and they assumed it was the owner's name....