Twenty years ago we were introduced to the Gallardo, Lamborghini’s smallest. The great Italian who, with his impressive V10, is probably even more fun than his big brother, the Murciélago. Look back, how we started twenty years ago with the Gallardo which became a huge money cow for Lamborghini.

To some extent, we can call the Gallardo the successor to the Jalpa, a further development of the Silhouette that should have guaranteed decent sales figures as an “affordable Lamborghini”. Galba was not typical of Italian design passion, nor was it a huge success. After 1988, this typical 1980s supercar came to an end. Ten years ago, the Italians dared to do it again with the VAG group at the helm.

We were not disappointed. We met a canary-yellow Gallardo who gave us chills down our spines with his V10 howl. 500 hp, four-wheel drive … and ten-cylinder derived from the Audi V8. Ouch, the purists weren’t too happy, but the sound of a bit of violence tore it all off. Lamborghini has set its sights on the Porsche 911 and Ferrari 360, both exotic models theoretically suitable for everyday use.

Thanks to the all-wheel drive system, the smallest member of the Sant’Agata manages to provide buckets with grip. The throttle is full and the tachometer needle hits 8,000 rpm, fortunately, there was still a bit of play in the little Lamborghini. For practical reasons, the Gallardo didn’t have gull-wing doors, but that shouldn’t spoil the fun, as befits a real oddity, fortunately it was still full of cool quirks. Trunk so small, control buttons borrowed from garden and kitchen Audis, you had to take them for granted. Well, if you shoot the asphalt at a maximum speed of 305 km / h, then this is the last thing you care about.

Of course the smallest Lambo has had its roof stripped. The result was the Spyder, a sunny Italian that we were allowed to sniff at the end of 2006. We’re now used to the Gallardo, and were actually a little disappointed that it looked meaner than it actually was. “Dirty tricks are alien to this Italian,” we wrote. flaw? No, we called the Gallardo “luxury in every way” and with its “sharp handling” and “eye-catching looks,” we couldn’t imagine a finer supercar.

In 2007 we stopped three German executioners with horse power directly opposite each other. The Porsche 911 and Audi R8 were allowed to sink their teeth into the Italian beauty, and they gladly did. With the R8, Audi managed to create an accessible sports car that unfortunately lost some of its sharpness. In terms of driving pleasure, the holy triple-digit group triumphed, but in pure experience the Gallardo remained unsurpassed, even though it came with a very hefty price tag at €212,000.

In recent years we’ve seen Gallardo in various action jackets. Some horsepower was added here and there and in 2008 a brief facelift was given. highlights between? In addition to the dreaded rear-wheel-drive versions, the rock-solid Superleggera is indisputably tough, losing 100 kilos and gaining some horsepower. Tough as nails, extreme and terribly desirable. In 2013, ten years after its introduction, the curtain fell and the last 14,022 gallardos were built. This makes it one of the most successful supercars of all time. The introduction of the Gallardo increased annual Lamborghini production from 250 to 2,000 units annually. After a month out of production, we’ve learned all about its successor, Huracán, whose curtain falls next year.