Sep 27, 2016 03:44 PM
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The LP580-2 is the only Lamborghini whose pre-tax and pre-destination MSRP scoots under the$200, 000 mark, albeit by less than the cost of one of the brand’s many logo jackets, but the good news is that very few people will realize you are driving what amounts to the base version. Apart from slightly redesigned bumpers, it looks identical to the LP610-4, projecting an equal amount of wedgy aggression. The cabin is identical, with the exterior's edge-intensive design theme carried throughout—even the steering wheel has corners—and the underlying Audi architecture well hidden.
The decreases on both sides of the power-to-weight equation have left the LP580 feeling exactly as rapid as the 610—in a word, very. The engine remains a masterpiece, one that growls, snarls, and ultimately screams its way toward its stratospheric redline—and with the sort of perfectly proportional throttle response that makes it feel as if you can add horsepower one pony at a time. Experiencing it again is instant vindication of Lamborghini’s decision to stand against the widespread move to turbocharging, and we remain happy to trade the naturally aspirated engine’s relative lack of low-end torque for its sonorous high-revving fervor, on a track at least.
That There’s the Sideways Mode
As in the Huracán LP610-4, there are three switchable “ANIMA” dynamic modes for the steering, engine, gearbox, and(optional) adjustable dampers. Strada(road) and Corsa(track) modes remain as before, but the intermediate Sport setting has been repurposed into what’s basically a drift mode, unhanding the leash of the Huracán’s stability control to allow the greatest amount of slip and actually softening the adaptive dampers to help with oversteer-inducing weight transfer. The dual-clutch automatic gearbox shifts quickly and cleanly when instructed to do so by the long paddles that sit behind the steering wheel, upshifting unprompted if you reach the fuel cutoff in either Strada or Sport modes but bouncing against the limiter if you reach it in Corsa.