Gallardo - initial impressions and some questions for others
Discussion
So it looks like I'm going to be in and out of London a lot over the next 12months or so, and in renegotiating with the tennant in my house in London I've cut the rent and they're not going to use the garage. So, in a rather spur of the moment thing I've gone and bought a Gallardo Spyder with E-gear.
First impressions - awesome. A grin from ear to ear.
I've never had a car that people stop and point at or, today, take pictures of as I'm driving. Driving down the A4 on Friday night some guy pulled alongside in traffic, wound his window down and told me what a great car. Love it! Not a single under the breath "w
ker" yet. It also sounds f'in glorious, especially hard down the lanes with the sound bouncing off the hedges.
Drove it on the twisties near my parents and horrified myself. This thing is seriously rapid. I've driven some quick cars but this is something different again. It also handles fantastically even over typical poor surface UK B roads. Though those big tyres did track a little.
Niggles. Parking is a pain in the ass, managed to curb the near side rear already in a multi-storey car park! Sat nav seems to send me down some bizarre routes, and I can see the iPod track names on the binnacle display but not on the big screen so have to just put it on shuffle and keep skipping through. Might go for an aftermarket stereo though, as I found the stereo appalling. I reversed up my parents drive and could smell the money (aka the clutch) burning. Last time I do that!
Also, in traffic, what do people do to save the clutch? Do I need to do anything different to driving an auto? How much is a clutch change?
Anyway, one very, very, happy Lambo owner!
First impressions - awesome. A grin from ear to ear.
I've never had a car that people stop and point at or, today, take pictures of as I'm driving. Driving down the A4 on Friday night some guy pulled alongside in traffic, wound his window down and told me what a great car. Love it! Not a single under the breath "w
ker" yet. It also sounds f'in glorious, especially hard down the lanes with the sound bouncing off the hedges.Drove it on the twisties near my parents and horrified myself. This thing is seriously rapid. I've driven some quick cars but this is something different again. It also handles fantastically even over typical poor surface UK B roads. Though those big tyres did track a little.
Niggles. Parking is a pain in the ass, managed to curb the near side rear already in a multi-storey car park! Sat nav seems to send me down some bizarre routes, and I can see the iPod track names on the binnacle display but not on the big screen so have to just put it on shuffle and keep skipping through. Might go for an aftermarket stereo though, as I found the stereo appalling. I reversed up my parents drive and could smell the money (aka the clutch) burning. Last time I do that!
Also, in traffic, what do people do to save the clutch? Do I need to do anything different to driving an auto? How much is a clutch change?
Anyway, one very, very, happy Lambo owner!
Impulse purchases are the best kind, well done 
In two years/13k miles I've had one set of "coffee beans" but far far more positive comments although I did have a "well done you've got a f***in Ferrari" shouted at me the other day by a random yoof on the street....the best was probably a young lad about 9 doubling up with his hands on his hips as though to project his shouted voice further as he yelled "nice car mate". For me it feels a real privilege to have such a great car and have people appreciate the car in such a positive way too.
Sound wise, go find a nice tunnel somewhere; that's a very special experience which I never tire of. Also bear in mind even in bad weather where you have the roof up, you can still bring down the screen behind you independently which will help with the aural experience.
Kerbing wheels....I'm so, so careful about this with all my cars but have fared badly with the Callistos so don't feel bad about it. If you are intending to enjoy the car it's a little liberating as you won't worry so much if you do it again (if you leave them like they are that is). Just be careful you don't do it so badly that you knock the tracking out. Can't help on egear clutch saving as mine's a manual.
Music wise, I'd ditch the ipod and use SD cards instead. Get yourself a couple of 4Gb SD cards (very important.....make sure they are just SD, not SDHC as the latter don't work; big Tesco stores sell them) and use those instead. Just dump the music files on them and you'll get full listings etc on the main screen. There's an upper limit on the number of files you can put on them (can't recall what it is exactly) but I have mine set to max quality and haven't run into that problem. You might find you'll get good results by just upgrading the speakers on the car rather than the entire stereo.
In two years/13k miles I've had one set of "coffee beans" but far far more positive comments although I did have a "well done you've got a f***in Ferrari" shouted at me the other day by a random yoof on the street....the best was probably a young lad about 9 doubling up with his hands on his hips as though to project his shouted voice further as he yelled "nice car mate". For me it feels a real privilege to have such a great car and have people appreciate the car in such a positive way too.
Sound wise, go find a nice tunnel somewhere; that's a very special experience which I never tire of. Also bear in mind even in bad weather where you have the roof up, you can still bring down the screen behind you independently which will help with the aural experience.
Kerbing wheels....I'm so, so careful about this with all my cars but have fared badly with the Callistos so don't feel bad about it. If you are intending to enjoy the car it's a little liberating as you won't worry so much if you do it again (if you leave them like they are that is). Just be careful you don't do it so badly that you knock the tracking out. Can't help on egear clutch saving as mine's a manual.
Music wise, I'd ditch the ipod and use SD cards instead. Get yourself a couple of 4Gb SD cards (very important.....make sure they are just SD, not SDHC as the latter don't work; big Tesco stores sell them) and use those instead. Just dump the music files on them and you'll get full listings etc on the main screen. There's an upper limit on the number of files you can put on them (can't recall what it is exactly) but I have mine set to max quality and haven't run into that problem. You might find you'll get good results by just upgrading the speakers on the car rather than the entire stereo.
andrew. said:
re e-gear, anything to avoid slippage is good : crawling or continuously stop-starting in city traffic, hill starts, multi-point turns are all best avoided
Absolutely!Just remember, it's a manual box with a dry plate clutch, it's not an auto, there is no torque converter, you can feel when the clutch is fully engaged, make sure it is as much as possible. Leave a gap and then get the clutch engaged ASAP in traffic, don't slip it, you can eat them in next to no time.
Cost wise you're looking at about £3k to change, maybe a bit more, maybe less depends where you go.
Remember to drop the car into neutral at any opportunity.
As the car is always 'raring to go' it has the clutch right at bite point. As soon as you hit the throttle it measures the throttle input and slips the clutch in to suit the intended getaway.
If you're sat at lights, rolling up to junctions / roundabouts etc and you know you are going to stop for more than a second, pull the two paddles to drop into neutral.]
When manoeuvering, try to be very positive and move quickly and smoothly, rather than hesitantly. You'll get less rev 'flaring' and the associated slip that goes with it.
This, together with some mechanical sympathy (!) is probably the best advice I can give.
The clutches aren't suspect, they just need to be driven properly.
Enjoy!
PS Did you not get a proper handover???!!!!
As the car is always 'raring to go' it has the clutch right at bite point. As soon as you hit the throttle it measures the throttle input and slips the clutch in to suit the intended getaway.
If you're sat at lights, rolling up to junctions / roundabouts etc and you know you are going to stop for more than a second, pull the two paddles to drop into neutral.]
When manoeuvering, try to be very positive and move quickly and smoothly, rather than hesitantly. You'll get less rev 'flaring' and the associated slip that goes with it.
This, together with some mechanical sympathy (!) is probably the best advice I can give.
The clutches aren't suspect, they just need to be driven properly.
Enjoy!
PS Did you not get a proper handover???!!!!
Is it possible to drop into neutral and coast too? - ie, if you can see you're coming up to a stop in 100m or so, go to neutral and save the rather jerky low speed downshifting ? Or should you minimise the amount of time you are in neutral and actually moving along, as with a true autobox ?
Newc said:
Is it possible to drop into neutral and coast too? - ie, if you can see you're coming up to a stop in 100m or so, go to neutral and save the rather jerky low speed downshifting ? Or should you minimise the amount of time you are in neutral and actually moving along, as with a true autobox ?
i was told by the dealer to drop into neutral when i have enough momentum to reach the stopthe only problem occurs when then queue starts to move unexpectedly and i'm in neutral : the change back into gear clonks unless i give it a little throttle
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