As Lamborghini event organizers showed members of the media and esteemed consumers a video fawning over the all-new Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 Valentino Balboni special edition, the car’s namesake stood to the side with an unbelievably rich smile on his face, humbled by the moment.
The short film actually had two roles. At one end, it was an introduction to the latest in the well-received line of Gallardo, a sublime package of traffic-stopping design, tidy technology and 10 cylinders/550 horses of sheer exhilaration for the open road.
But the video was also a moving tribute to Balboni, Lamborghini’s long-time test driver and the lucky devil said to have personally handled 80 percent of the cars before they left the company’s plant in Italy. Because Balboni is gradually retiring after four decades behind the wheels of some of the finest machines ever created, the personalized showstopper makes perfect sense as the most poignant way to acknowledge his efforts.
“With this car, we tried to keep very, very close to the real philosophy of Lamborghini,” says Balboni, an unquestioned icon in the field of sports exotics. “Of course, it’s on a modern base. The car is on a modern chassis, modern suspension [and has] excellent tires. It was not too difficult to find a good compromise. It was much more difficult a long time ago when I had to find tires and flexible frames. This was very nice.”
Balboni smiles as a proud parent might when he speaks of the finished product, partially because the vehicle accomplishes everything he and engineers originally sought. Whether it’s the tantalizing pedal (zero to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds), the vintage aura (black leather interior with ’60s-inspired white racing stripe) or the power-assisted rack and pinion steering, the Gallardo Balboni lives up to most every functional and mythical standard previous Lamborghini editions may have set. But with news of this version boasting rear-wheel drive for the first time in 10 years, this leads to an even stronger wheel-to-road marriage. Dare we say this entry even surpasses the Gallardo LP 560-4?
“We tried to keep on with the tradition of Lamborghini, with its history and its heritage,” Balboni says. “We wanted to enforce the Lamborghini temperament and personality. Going back to the two-wheel drive, we’re going back to the original rules. We’re going for a different driving emotion. With the four-wheel drive, there’s still action. But with this one, we wanted to offer a different driving reaction, a different feeling, to be more involved on driving. We want them to enjoy controlling the car more than being controlled by the car.” At the end of the Gallardo video, the tagline “The World’s Fastest Monument” comes across the screen. It’s a fitting catchphrase for a stirring, four-wheeled tribute.
The list price for the Gallardo LP 550-2 Valentino Balboni is $219,800. Only 250 are scheduled for production.