Driving up from Birmingham to Leeds in the LP640 recently it suddenly struck me still what a stunning Supercar this big Lambo really is. Cruising at around the legal limit this White monster parts traffic in front like the Red Sea, there’s a constant roar from that thunderous V12 behind your ears and on top of all that a lovely high pitched whine from the gearbox. That’s not all – the LP640 has an airpump that shifts air from the cats every so often, so now and again this sound (not dissimilar to a Dyson Vac) kicks in too. It’s an old chestnut but piloting an LP640 at high speed has got to be the nearest thing to flying a jet. We’ve had this icon two years and the magic still hasn’t worn off. In fact park the LP next to any Ferrari bar an Enzo/F40 or similar and it makes the cars from Maranello look like Milk Floats.

Back in August 2007 Andy and I travelled to the Lamborghini factory at Sant’Agata, Italy to pick up this monster and boy what a trip back through the Alps we had. The Orange Murcielago was also at the factory having had a top end engine rebuild so we swapped around a bit both a bit cautious that one engine was brand new and the other had just been rebuilt. Mind you the maximum recommended engine RPM on a rebuilt/new Lamborghini V12 is 4000rpm. Not much but on a Lambo in 6th Gear (no pun intended) it equates to 120mph, more than enough to see us through the Gottardo pass and into Switzerland.

There’s just something about Lamborghini’s that stir the soul. When you have a minute find the opening credits via You Tube for ‘The Cannonball Run’. Just have a listen to that 4.0 Litre V12 Countach 5000S – what an absolutely gorgeous note. These days with fuel injection and other relatively modern engine management systems, that throaty roar only heard from Carb engines has gone for good, a great shame.

But back to the LP640 and some of you may be aware Lamborghini have recently introduced the LP670SV an even faster derivative of the LP640. At £300,000 including a few extras we’d love one. But for the moment the LP640 will come a very close second..