Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder CAR review

Gallardo Spyder in the UK? Does that mean leaky roof and just too damn unwieldy for our streets...

You're way off target. A lot of cars simply don't translate to the UK. You drive them on (smooth, sunny) foreign roads and they make perfect sense, only to fail spectacularly when they arrive on our not so sunny and not very smooth shores. So it's a pleasant surprise that the Gallardo Spyder - £131,000, 520bhp and 197mph - works so brilliantly in the UK.

How so?

For a start the new roof is a work of art. To raise it, you press a button beside the gearknob and it sounds like a stairlift has sprung to life behind you. The entire rear deck lifts up to allow a brief glimpse of the engine, as the roof is unfurled from a tiny cubby behind the seats. It then folds down and clicks perfectly in place to create a solid (and watertight) seal with the windows. The movement takes a shade over 20sec which should just beat the traffic lights and save you from a soaking. With the roof up there's substantially more noise than in the coupe, but that's only to be expected. It may be snug, but the Spyder is by no means uncomfortable. The cabin borrows from the flagship SE version of the Gallardo, which means bright colours and carbon fibre trim. The major controls have been pinched from the Audi A8 which means they all work and the driving position (behind a brilliant suede wheel) is spot on. So it's comfy, leak-proof and semi-practical.