Lamborghini Diablo GT

The Diablo GT isn’t just the fastest and most expensive Lamborghini in history, it’s also the most exclusive. And very possibly the best. Developed by Sant’ Agata’s most famous tractor maker as a limited edition road version of the GT2 racing car, the 211mph Diablo GT is now the fastest production car in the world, since the McLaren F1 is no longer in production. Lamborghini says it will build just 80 in total, all in left-hand drive, of which only six will make it to the UK.

For the GT, the familiar quad-cam V12 has been bored out from 5707cc to 5992cc to produce a staggering 569bhp at

7300rpm and 464lb ft of torque at 5500rpm.

Technical highlights include titanium conrods, a lighter steel crankshaft, redesigned camshafts and individual throttle units for each of the 12 cylinders. A five-speed gearbox drives the rear wheels but three different final-drive options are available. The test car was fitted with the shortest gearing option, with fifth accounting for 25.3mph per 1000rpm, which limits top speed to 190mph but is said to improve low- and mid-range acceleration dramatically. Suspension is substantially uprated and a restyled body made mostly from carbon fibre reduces the kerb weight by 70kg.

Very few cars we’ve road tested can live with the Diablo GT in a straight line. TVR Cerbera? No way. Ferrari 360 Modena? Not quite. And we recorded the performance figures in the wet. That we could only open up the V12 properly once we had the car rolling in third gear at 80mph puts our acceleration times of 4.4sec to 60mph and 8.7sec to 100mph into amazing perspective. The 30-70mph time of 3.1sec is well inside anything we’ve recorded for rivals from Porsche, Ferrari, TVR and Lotus. Only the McLaren F1 and Jaguar XJ220 are quicker in our experience.

The Diablo’s weight and vast width have always meant that it’s had to use that giant-killing performance to make up on the straights what it loses through the corners, and although it’s much improved over earlier versions, the same applies to the GT. From inside it feels enormous and very intimidating, yet once you’re acclimatised it’s just about possible to enjoy the GT’s grip-biased handling on public roads.

The steering is light and accurate, the body control much improved and it’s at least as manageable near the limit as a 360, despite having a third more power and an extra 100kg.What the GT is not good at is offering any form of comfort. If the roar and rumble from the vast tyres doesn’t put you off long journeys, the rock-hard ride will.

 

The days of poorly built Lamborghinis are long gone but that does not excuse the Diablo’s other fundamental design problems. By Ferrari standards it is from another era, one in which dreadful faults were tolerated because no one in the supercar world knew any better. Next to the 360 Modena and 550 Maranello, the Diablo seems laughably compromised.

The new seats provide better support but aren’t as comfortable and make getting in and out more difficult. But the GT scores with its improved rear visibility courtesy of a camera mounted on the spoiler which transmits images to a screen on the console.

Luggage space is pretty hopeless, but what really limits the Diablo as an everyday car is its sheer bulk; another thing that separates it from the cars built down the road at Maranello.

Having said that, there remains something unique about the rituals required before you turn the key. Ferraris are easier to drive and a lot more comfortable but none leaves an impression like the Lambo.

Spend an hour with the Diablo and you can’t help but marvel at the noise and sheer road presence. It remains a unique experience, the last in the line of a gloriously mad strain of supercars.

But after a day or two the smiles of amazement are replaced with sighs of frustration over the compromises a car like this demands. If Lamborghini is to threaten Ferrari it must iron out such impracticalities as the heavy gearchange and dreadful driving position. If, on the other hand, it is happy to build the world’s fastest but most flawed cars in tiny numbers, we wish it well.