Lamborghini Gallardo vs Huracan Hire: The Old V10 or the Current One

Both are mid-engined Lamborghinis with a 5.2-litre V10 driving all four wheels, and on paper the Huracan is simply the newer, faster one. In practice the choice turns on the gearbox, the cabin, how certain the booking needs to be and what you want the day to feel like. For most people the Huracan is the easier answer. This page explains why, and the cases where it is not.

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The Short Answer

For most people the Huracan is the right booking, and it is certainly the easier one to make.
It is our own car, it is bookable today from $2,500 a day, and it is newer, quicker and far
smoother in traffic. The Gallardo is the better choice in a narrower set of cases: when the older
car is the one you have always wanted, when you would like something rarer at an event than the
current model, when you prefer a Lamborghini with a more mechanical feel, or when the lower rate
is what makes a Lamborghini possible at all. The Gallardo LP560-4 is confirmed by request from $1,800 a day.

That is the whole decision in one paragraph. The rest of this page is the detail behind it,
written for someone who has narrowed the list to these two and wants to know what actually changed
when one replaced the other in 2014.

The Two Cars Side by Side

The Gallardo figures are for the LP560-4, the version built from 2008 to 2013 with the
5.2-litre engine. The Huracan figures are for our own car and match its booking page.
Both engines are naturally aspirated V10s of 5.2 litres, both cars send drive to all four wheels,
and both seat two. The table makes them look like the same car with 37kW added. They are not, and
the gearbox alone explains most of the gap.

What Changed Between Them

The gearbox is the biggest difference

The Gallardo you are most likely to be offered has e-gear, a single-clutch automated manual.
The Huracan has a seven-speed dual-clutch. On a clear road with the paddles in use, the gap
between them is smaller than you might expect, because e-gear in its sharper settings delivers a
hard, deliberate shift that plenty of drivers enjoy. In a queue on the approach to the Harbour
Bridge, the gap is enormous. The Huracan moves off smoothly and changes gear without you noticing.
The Gallardo pauses, engages, nods and pauses again, and it asks you to change the way you drive
to suit it.

That difference shapes a hire more than any figure in the table. A Huracan can do dinner in the
city, a crawl through Saturday traffic and a coastal run in the same day without complaint. A
Gallardo is happiest when the plan is built around the drive and the city stretches are kept
short. If the booking involves a lot of stop-start driving, that alone points to the Huracan.

The engine grew, and grew more polished

Lamborghini developed the Huracan's V10 from the Gallardo's rather than starting again, so the
two share a displacement, a layout and a basic character: no turbochargers, instant response and
a rev range that rewards patience. The later engine makes more power and delivers it with a
cleaner, harder edge near the limiter. The earlier one sounds coarser and more mechanical, with
more of the valvetrain and the intake audible from the driver's seat.

Neither is better in any absolute sense. Drivers who have tried both tend to split along one
line: those who value precision prefer the Huracan, and those who value the sense of a machine
working hard prefer the Gallardo. If you have already driven a Huracan, the Gallardo will feel
like stepping back a generation, and for some people that is precisely the appeal.

The cabin went digital, and the controls moved

The Gallardo's interior is a 2000s cabin with a strong Audi influence: conventional stalks for
the indicators and wipers, analogue dials and a small screen. It is simple and immediately
familiar. The Huracan replaced almost all of that. Its instruments are a single configurable
digital display, the drive modes sit on a switch at the base of the steering wheel, the engine
starts from a button under a red flip-up cover, and the indicators are buttons on the wheel
rather than a stalk.

Those steering-wheel indicators catch nearly every new Huracan driver out for the first hour,
and we go through them at the handover. It sounds trivial, but it is one reason some people find
the Gallardo easier to settle into on the first morning: every control is where a driver of any
car expects it to be. The trade is that the Huracan's cabin feels a decade newer, because it is.

The shape

The Gallardo is a clean, compact wedge with a short nose and few surface details, and the
LP560-4 update sharpened the lights and bumpers without cluttering it. The Huracan is lower, wider
in stance and more angular, built around hexagons in the lights, the vents and even the cabin
switches. Both are unmistakably Lamborghinis. In person the Gallardo looks smaller and more
old-school, which is why it photographs so well against a period backdrop and why it reads as the
rarer car at a venue.

Clearance, rain and the everyday things

Our Huracan has a nose lift, and we show you how to use it. On the Gallardo the
front lift was an option, so whether a particular car has one is something we confirm before you
commit. On a steep driveway that is a meaningful difference. In the wet, both cars drive all four
wheels and both are far more composed on a damp road than most supercars of their eras. The
Huracan's stability systems are a generation newer, and its dual-clutch avoids the slipping-clutch
moments that make a wet uphill start in the Gallardo less tidy.

Luggage is where the two are closest. Each carries its bags in a compartment under the front
bonnet that takes a soft weekend bag or two, with a little space behind the seats for jackets.
Neither is a touring car in the sense of carrying real luggage, so a two-night trip for two means
packing light in either. Fuel is similar too: both V10s want 98-octane premium unleaded and use it
generously, and the Gallardo is no thirstier in practice than its successor.

Why the Huracan Is the Easier Booking

The Huracan is a known quantity. It is our own car, we know its history and condition, and
its availability sits on its own page. When you book it, you know exactly which car will arrive,
and the bond, the excess and the kilometre allowance are fixed figures you can read before you
start.

The Gallardo is confirmed by request. That is not a lesser process, but it is a different one.
You send us your dates, we source a car that meets our standard, and we come back with the
specific car, its gearbox, whether it has the front lift, and the full price. Nothing is charged
until you say yes. It takes longer than booking a fleet car, and for dates only a few days away
it may not be possible at all. Should a Gallardo prove impossible for your dates, you are told so
directly and the Huracan is offered in its place.

The practical advice is to ask early. A Gallardo request sent a few weeks ahead gives us time
to find the right car, check its condition and confirm the details properly. A request sent on a
Thursday for that Saturday is far more likely to end with the Huracan, and if the Huracan is also
taken, the McLaren 650S is the fleet car we would offer next.

When the Gallardo Is Still the Better Choice

When it is the car you always wanted. The Gallardo was the Lamborghini of a
whole generation's bedroom walls and video games. If that is the car in your head when you think
of the badge, the Huracan will be a very good car that is not quite the one you meant.

When rarity is the point. Huracans are a familiar sight in Sydney now. A
well-kept Gallardo in a period colour is not, and at a wedding, a car club gathering or a shoot
it tends to draw the more interested crowd.

When you want the older feel. Some drivers find the Huracan almost too
competent. The Gallardo makes you work a little harder, rewards you for getting the gear change
right and feels more like a machine than a device. That is a real preference, not nostalgia.

When the rate decides it. Over a weekend, the gap between the two daily rates
adds up to a significant sum. If that difference is what stands between you and a V10 Lamborghini,
the Gallardo gets you the engine, the badge and the all-wheel drive for less.

When you would like a manual. A small number of LP560-4s were built with a
six-speed manual in an open metal gate, and no Huracan was ever offered with one. If a manual
Gallardo can be found for your dates we will find it, and if it cannot, we will tell you honestly.

Which One to Book

Book the Huracan if it is your first supercar, if the hire involves real traffic, if the dates
are close, if the forecast is uncertain, or if you simply want the more complete car of the two.
It is the Lamborghini we recommend most often, and the
Huracan hire page shows it ready to book.

Book the Gallardo if one of the reasons above describes you and your plan suits it: a shorter
hire built around a drive or an occasion, with the dates sent to us early enough to source the car.
Its review page covers the car in full. If the
older gearbox is what worries you, read
our first-time Gallardo guide
before deciding, and if you are also weighing up the Audi side of the family, the
R8 and Gallardo comparison sets out that choice.