Driving a Lamborghini Gallardo for the First Time: A Calm, Practical Guide

If the idea of driving a Lamborghini makes you slightly nervous, you are in good company, and you are also more likely to enjoy the car than someone who is not. This guide walks through everything that is different about a Gallardo, in the order you will meet it, so the first drive feels familiar before it starts. One honest note first: if this is your first supercar and you want the car to do more of the work, the Huracan is the easier choice and we will say so. If your heart is set on the Gallardo, this is how to drive it well from the first minute.

★★★★★ Rated 5.0 from 1,431 reviews across Drive Tribe

Nervous Is the Right Place to Start

Almost everyone who hires a supercar for the first time spends the trip to the handover
wondering whether it was a mistake. That feeling is useful. The drivers who respect a car like
this in the first hour are the ones who enjoy it for the rest of the hire, and the Gallardo
LP560-4 is a better first supercar than its reputation suggests. It drives all four wheels, its
engine responds progressively rather than in a sudden rush, and its controls are laid out the way
you would expect in any car.

What it does ask for is a little knowledge. Its gearbox behaves differently from an automatic,
its nose is low, it is wide, and you cannot see much behind you. This guide goes through each of
those in the order you will meet them, from opening the door to the first ten minutes on the road.
Hire starts from $1,800 a day, each car is confirmed by request, and a first-time driver gets a
differently planned handover, so mention it when you ask about dates.

Getting In and Out Without Fuss

A Gallardo's doors open outwards on ordinary hinges, like any car, not upwards. They are long
and heavy, so leave room beside the car before you open one, and watch the door's edge near
pillars and high kerbs. The seat is very low, and stepping in foot first usually ends in an
awkward fold with your head against the roof lining.

The technique that works is the one used for any very low car. Stand with your back to the
seat, sit down onto it, then bring both legs in together while holding the top of the door frame.
Getting out is the same in reverse: swing both feet onto the ground, put a hand on the frame, and
stand straight up rather than climbing. It feels theatrical the first time and ordinary by the
third. Anyone with a sore back or knees should practise once during the handover while we are
there to help.

Seat, Wheel and Mirrors

Set the car up before you start the engine, not at the first red light. Bring the seat forward
until your right leg keeps a slight bend with the brake pressed fully, then set the backrest
upright enough that your wrists rest on top of the steering wheel with your shoulders against the
seat. The wheel adjusts for reach and height, so bring it close. A supercar driven from a
reclined, stretched-out position is harder to control and harder to see out of.

The footwell is narrow and the pedals sit a little to the left of where your body expects them.
Take a moment to find the brake without looking. An e-gear car has no clutch pedal, so drive with
your right foot only, exactly as you would an automatic, and rest your left foot beside the pedals.
Then set the door mirrors wider than usual, so the flank of the car only just appears at the inner
edge of each. You will rely on them far more than on the mirror above the windscreen.

What You Can and Cannot See

Forward visibility is better than people expect. The nose falls away sharply, the windscreen is
wide, and you can place the front of the car accurately once you have learned where its corners
are. The view behind is the hard part. The rear glass is a letterbox above the engine, and the
thick panels behind your shoulders can hide a full-size car in the next lane.

Three habits deal with it. Before every lane change, check the mirror, glance across at the gap
you can see, and move over slowly enough that anyone you missed has time to react. When reversing,
go at walking pace and use the camera or sensors if the car has them; not every Gallardo does, and
we tell you what yours has at the handover. And when parking, pick the bay you can leave forwards,
even if it means walking further.

The E-gear Gearbox, Explained Plainly

This is the part that worries people most, and it is the part that becomes easy fastest.
Think of e-gear as a conventional manual gearbox in which an electronic system operates the clutch
and moves between gears on your behalf. It has
an automatic mode and a paddle mode, and it drives with two pedals. What it does not do is behave
like a conventional automatic, and nearly every awkward moment in a Gallardo comes from expecting
it to.

Pulling away

Foot on the brake, select first with the right-hand paddle, release the brake, then press the
accelerator gently and steadily. The clutch engages as you press, and the car moves off. Press too
little and it hesitates; stab at it and the car lurches. A slow, even squeeze is what it wants,
and after half a dozen starts you will do it without thinking.

Changing gear smoothly

In automatic mode the gearbox chooses when to change, and every change involves a brief moment
where the clutch opens and drive pauses. Keep your foot hard down through that moment and the car
nods forward and back. Ease the accelerator back a little as you feel the change begin, press
again once it has happened, and the change becomes almost seamless. Drivers who learn that one
habit find the car transformed.

In paddle mode the same principle applies: ease off, pull the paddle, then squeeze back on. At
low speed, change up early, around 2,500rpm, rather than letting the revs climb. The engine has
plenty of pull low down and the changes are gentler there. Leave the sportier modes off for the
first day; they make each change faster and harder, which is satisfying on an open road and
unsettling in a suburb.

Traffic and queues

Stop-start traffic is where e-gear is least comfortable, because it has to slip the clutch
every time you creep forward. The answer is to stop creeping. Let a gap of two or three car
lengths open in front, then move up in one smooth go and stop again, rather than inching forward a
metre at a time. You cover the same ground, the car is happier and the clutch lasts. In a long,
stationary queue it is fine to select neutral and hold the car on the brake.

Hills and driveways

Never hold the car still on a slope with the accelerator. With a single clutch that means
slipping it, and slipping it is what wears it out and produces the hot smell nobody wants to
explain. Hold the car on the brake, then move to the accelerator and press a little more firmly
than you would on the flat, so the clutch engages cleanly and the car goes. On a steep driveway
the same rule applies: commit gently but decisively rather than feeling your way up.

Reverse, neutral and switching off

There is no park position. When you stop, the handbrake holds the car, and the gearbox needs to
be left in the right state before you switch off; we walk you through the exact sequence on the
car you receive. Reverse is selected differently from an automatic lever, and it is worth trying
once on the driveway during the handover, so the first time you need it is not in a busy car
park with someone waiting.

The Nose, Speed Humps and Driveways

The most common way to damage a Gallardo is to scrape the front. The bodywork under the nose
sits close to the road and overhangs the front wheels, so it reaches the top of a kerb crossing or
a hump before the tyres do. The fix is speed and angle. Approach anything raised at walking pace
and on a slight diagonal, so one front wheel climbs first and the nose rises with it rather than
meeting the slope head-on.

Some Gallardos have a front lift that raises the nose at the press of a button. If yours has
one, use it for every driveway and every car park ramp, and give it a few seconds to finish rising
before you move. If it does not, the diagonal approach does the same job. Speed humps and the
cushions on suburban side streets want the same care, and the car is too wide to thread between
them. Leaving a steep driveway in reverse is where the tail can touch, so go slowly there too, and
on the first day skip multi-storey car parks with tight spiral ramps; there is almost always a
street park nearby.

Wet Roads and the All-Wheel Drive

If there is one reason to feel reassured, this is it. The LP560-4 drives all four wheels. Most
of the drive goes to the rear axle in normal conditions, and the front wheels take more when the
back tyres begin to lose grip. On a wet road that means the car pulls cleanly away from the lights
and stays settled when you press the accelerator in a bend, which is exactly the behaviour that
frightens people in older supercars.

All-wheel drive helps you accelerate. It does not help you stop, or corner beyond what the
tyres can hold, and a Gallardo's tyres are wide, which makes them more prone to skimming on
standing water. In rain, leave twice the usual gap, brake earlier and more gently, treat painted
lines, metal plates and the first shower after a dry week with suspicion, and keep the traction
and stability systems switched on. Driven that way, a wet day in a Gallardo is calm rather than
tense.

Fuel

The Gallardo takes 98-octane premium unleaded only, and the V10 gets through it quickly,
especially around town. Plan to refuel more often than you would in an everyday car, and pick
stations with a flat entry, because a steep lip into a forecourt is another nose hazard. We show
you where the filler is and how it opens at the handover. The fuel arrangement for your hire is set
out before you pay, so you know what level the car should come back with.

What the Handover Covers

For a first-time supercar driver, the handover is the most useful half hour of the whole hire,
and we will not rush it. Expect it to include:

• A walk around the car together, photographing every panel and wheel with you present, so its condition is agreed before you leave.
• Your licence checked in person and every named driver confirmed.
• The e-gear controls: first gear, neutral, reverse, automatic and paddle modes, and the switch-off sequence.
• The front lift, if fitted, and a practice run over the kerb crossing the car will actually use.
• Lights, wipers, hazard lights, mirrors, the handbrake and the fuel filler.
• Time to sit in the car with the engine off, adjust everything and ask questions.

Ask every question you have, however small it seems. Nothing is an embarrassing question about
a car worth this much, and the ones people skip are usually the ones that matter an hour later.

Your First Ten Minutes on the Road

• Before moving: seat, wheel and mirrors set, phone mounted and navigation entered, so nothing needs touching once you are rolling.
• Minutes one to three: a quiet street near the handover. Pull away and stop five or six times until the clutch take-up feels predictable.
• Minutes three to five: brake firmly once at low speed with nothing behind you, so you know how strongly the car stops.
• Minutes five to eight: a few turns at junctions to learn the turning circle and where the front corners are.
• Minutes eight to ten: join a main road at a steady pace, practise easing off through each gear change, and leave the motorway and the fast roads for later.

Keep the drive settings at their gentlest for now. The urge to show the car off in the first
ten minutes is real, and it is when most minor incidents happen. Once the gearbox, the brakes and
the width feel familiar, which for most people is within half an hour, the car opens up and
becomes what you hired it for. A quiet weekday morning on the Old Pacific Highway makes a
good first proper drive once you reach that point.

If It Still Feels Like Too Much

Some people read all of this and decide they would rather their first supercar did more of the
work. That is a sensible decision, not a failure of nerve. The Huracan we run has a
dual-clutch gearbox that is smooth at walking pace, a nose lift and newer stability systems, and
it is bookable directly; the Gallardo versus
Huracan comparison sets out the differences honestly. If you would still like the Gallardo,
its full review covers the car itself, and we will
be there at the handover to make the first drive a good one.