Lamborghini Gallardo

The Lamborghini Gallardo is a sports car built by Lamborghini. The Gallardo is Lamborghini's most-produced model to date, with 5,000 built in the first three years of production. It is less expensive than Lamborghini's larger, more powerful Murciélago.

The car is named after a famous breed of fighting bull. The Spanish word gallardo translates into "gallant".

The Lamborghini Gallardo was designed as a competitor to the Ferrari 360, and now competes with its replacement, the Ferrari F430 both of which have V8 engines and develop similar peak power. The Gallardo is said to be a better engineered vehicle that can reach extreme speeds, yet the V12 Murciélago is a faster vehicle. Many reviewers have commented that the Gallardo has much better rearward visibility and is more maneuverable and tractable in low-speed traffic, making the Gallardo a more practical car to drive. It is also much more practical to use in bad weather than many other cars in its class, thanks to a specially developed rear-biased all-wheel drive. Although corporate owner Audi is renowned for its Quattro AWD system, Lamborghini uses a system of its own.

Unlike the Countach, Diablo, and Murciélago models, the Gallardo does not have scissor doors.

The Gallardo was designed by Luc Donckerwolke, who won the 2003 Red Dot Award for the design of both the 2003 Gallardo and 2002 Murciélago.

At current U.S. prices, a 2008 Lamborghini Gallardo coupe costs USD $186,250 - $222,800, while a 2008 Lamborghini Gallardo spyder costs USD $201,595 - $263,595.

The Gallardo is the first and only car to use the Lamborghini V10 engine.

The Gallardo offers two choices of transmissions, a conventional (H-Box) six-speed manual transmission, and an advanced six-speed electro-hydraulically controlled 'semi-automatic single-clutch sequential manual', or, as Lamborghini abbreviates it to, "E-gear". The latter ("E-gear") allows the driver to make shifts much faster than a manual transmission would, however with this option one sacrifices a certain measure of control that the manual transmission would offer. The driver shifts up and down via paddles behind the steering wheel, and does not need to manually actuate the clutch.

The Audi R8 sports car, launched in early 2007, is based loosely on the Gallardo, and uses a 4.2 litre V8 in place of the Gallardo's V10 to avoid competing directly with the Gallardo.

For the 2008 model year, the Gallardo will be adding an onboard computer, iPod connectivity with USB, heated mirrors, Q-citura stitching that originally could only be found on the Nera model as well as a beige soft-top on the Spyder.