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Kraftwagen König
Quick! Grab your DVD of Steve McQueen's epic film, "Le Mans." Fast forward to the bit near the end where McQueen's Gulf Porsche 917 is chasing down the No. 8 Ferrari 512, and crank up the volume. There! That shot where the No. 8 Ferrari passes the stricken No. 5 car on the last lap. Listen... That's exactly what the Lamborghini Murcielago LP 670-4 SuperVeloce sounds like at 7000 rpm in fourth gear.
You're traveling at a shade over 1160 mph in the low-slung Lambo at those revs. And you still have two gears to go. Oh, lordy... This is the supercar from central casting. Big. Loud. Fast.
Lamborghini launched the Murcielago way back in 2001 on the slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily. The volcano was smoking gently as we flew in, and as we drove up the mountain some of the lava from an eruption mere weeks earlier was still cooling. It wasn't hard to figure out the subtext here: This car is meant to be intimidating. Handle with care.
Which is why the LP670-4 SV is such a surprise. It's the lightest, most powerful, fastest Murcielago ever built. Yet it allows us mortals to tip-toe closer to the very edge of its truly volcanic performance envelope than any big-banger Lambo in history. If any $450,000, 661-horsepower, 212-mph, hip-high wedge of weapons-grade testosterone could ever be called a pussycat, this is it. Well, up to a point.
The SV might look like a regular Murcielago with some styling cues from the megabuck Reventon tacked on, but the changes to this car go way more than skin deep. The regular Murcielago is built using a combination of carbon composites and tubular steel. For the SV, the metal bits were redone in a new super-high-strength sectional steel that increased torsional stiffness by 12 percent and saved 44 pounds. A new exhaust system saves 57 pounds.
The hand-finished interior is all carbon fiber and Alcantara (which Lamborghini claims is lighter than leather) and features hip-hugging, lightweight race-car bucket seats, saving a further 75lb. The front fenders, rear quarter panels, engine cover, and all the trick new aero bits, including the front spoiler and the huge "Aeropack" wing (a $7000 option that cuts the top speed to 209 mph but develops an awful lot of downforce) are made from carbon fiber. In conjunction with the removal of the drive unit for the moveable rear spoiler (a small fixed spoiler is standard on the SV), these help save 28 pounds. The SV tips the scales 220 pounds lighter than a regular Murcielago. But with its giant 26.4-gallon fuel tank brim full, it still weighs in at a hefty 3894 pounds.……
2010 Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SuperVeloce First Test and review - Motor Trend
