'Almost half of all 30,000 Lamborghinis built since the company was first founded in 1963, are Gallardos'. Whatever your view on the junior Lamborghini, nobody can deny it's been a hugely successful and important car for Sant'Agata. Since 2003, 14,022 Gallardos have been made by Lamborghini, the last Rosso Mars Spyder Performante rolling off the line yesterday.
But how to mark such a significant occasion? Unfortunately the news didn't come with any further details of the Gallardo's replacement, believed to be called the
Cabrera
. It's not officially due until Geneva, but expect new info to surface as March nears.
A decade of the Lamborghini Gallardo then. It says a lot about the Gallardo's age that the PH first drive of the 500hp original now doesn't have working pics and only 34 comments. But that was back in 2004, since then it's become more powerful, better looking and attracts even more attention. The Gallardo's changed a bit too...
The history of the Gallardo, as you will know, is fairly complex but we'll endeavour to cover the important cars. The first-gen Spyder arrived in 2005 along with the SE that previewed the 2006 facelift. The original Superleggera was launched in 2007, a car we described as 'jaw-slackeningly desirable' despite it not being the 'true featherweight' some expected.
2008 facelift brought more power, of course
2008 and it was time for the Gallardo's major mid-life (supposedly) refresh. The
LP560-4
introduced Reventon-esque styling tweaks, chassis revisions and a V10 upped to 5.2-litres and 560hp. Such was its fabulous ability, Steve Sutcliffe lost the ability to write: 'All in all it's a heck of car' he said.
Still with us? The Spyder was updated soon after, just before the 2WD Balboni made its debut in 2009. For those who didn't grab one of the 250 special editions, Lamborghini quietly added a 'regular' rear-wheel drive LP550-2 Coupe and Spyder to the range also.
A plethora of special editions have been spun off the current Superleggera and Performante Spyder, too many to list here. And we wouldn't want to get our Super Trofeo Stradales confused with our Singapore Limited Editions. The final Gallardos featured on PH were the MY13 model and the Squadro Corse. For every last detail on the Gallardo lineage, until last year at least, see our PH Buying Guide.
We couldn't resist a quick skim through the classifieds for a bit of Gallardo window shopping (and to see where the market is, of course). The cheapest cars are now at around £60K, and this manual 2007 car is intriguing at £72,995. There are three LP550s for sale on PH currently and they're all white. The earliest Superleggeras are now under £100K, the most recent (and very blue) 'Edizione Technica' available at £155,000.
