Dan Trent: Hunting the purist's 'baby' Lambo'

I like the Huracan a lot. I know it's an R8 in Italian designer clobber but, darn it, I know which I'd rather be associated with. Where the R8 is impressive and technically polished, the few rough edges contrived into the Huracan are just enough to give it a bit of character. A sense of occasion and rawness appropriate to the traditions of the brand if you will. 

I've never actually driven a Gallardo but, as I understand it, it's the same but more so. I had a ride in a Superleggera once at the factory and it felt properly savage and brutal from the passenger seat. And if I'm going to have a Lamborghini I want it to feel a bit naughty. Gallardos start from £60K or so, my initial thought being it would be nice to track down a manual. Sadly nearly all the ads that state this option turn out to be the e-gear automated version, whose brutal shifts suit the car more than the slick dual-clutch in the Huracan but can't match a ball-topped manual shifter click-clacking round an open gate.  

The Huracan I drove is the rear-wheel drive version of course, which just validates the red-blooded Lamborghini image in my eyes. Like the Huracan, the rear-wheel drive Gallardo loses a bit of power to the regular version - 550hp to 570hp in this case - but gains a more heroic image, at least to my eyes. And no more so than in the case of the 250 'Balboni' editions that launched the concept, named after Lamborghini's legendary test driver. 

For any fan of the brand this connection is hugely appealing, to me also the colour scheme with its odd-but-it-works white and gold stripe. Enticingly the press pics show a manual but I can't find one anywhere. This one is an e-gear but looks absolutely stunning, the metallic orange paint set off beautifully against spindly grey wheels and that trademark stripe. The Gallardo is a more conservative shape than the Huracan but, in this configuration, is hardly left wanting in the eye candy stakes. And with its fundamentally more raw character, the driver-focused set-up in the Balboni and fact that it doesn't have the Huracan's horrible light steering all make it much more appealing. And the Akrapovic exhaust fitted to this one will, I'd trust, add another level of, ah, excitement. I'll even accept the punch to the gut e-gear shifts as part of the experience. 

Exclusivity comes at a price though. At £199,990 it's actually more expensive than a brand-new Huracan LP580-2. It's almost three times what it would cost to get into an early standard Gallardo. Would it hold its money as an investment? Possibly. I don't care though. If I bought it I'd just want to drive it, and drive it exactly as Balboni would want. Which is to say flat out. Because if you're going to buy a Lamborghini it should be a Lamborghini, and treated as such.

Images courtesy of Pistonheads and Vanrooyen