Headline from Swami: Lance Briggs' 2007 Lamborghini found crashed on Edens Expressway at dawn
Headline 2 from Swami: No dogs reported killed in accident
Headline 3 from Swami: Bears' $7 million linebacker not in car when police find it.
Headline 4 from Swami: Police not sure who was driving, but guess Lance didn't loan out his $350,000 car to the butler or Rex Grossman. And now, the real story....
Swami sez: Who cares about a linebacker, when it's the car we really want to know about?
So, here's what "Car & Driver" Mag said last month about Lance's ride:
2007 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 Roadster - Short Take Road Tests
Options are a mere $52,710.
2007 Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 Roadster
The Highs: Zero to 60 in 3.5, that 150-mph wind in your hair, a fine way to meet your neighbors.
The Lows: Tinkertoy top, inordinate cost, extroverts only.
Nabbing a Lamborghini for testing involves trying to chisel into a press-car calendar thick with celebrity-studded red-carpet parties hosted by the likes of Donatella Versace. It isn’t easy getting on the schedule. Lamborghini’s silk-suited brand managers are hyping a fantasy lifestyle, and we in the grubby Fourth Estate have nothing to offer against a Donatella photo op except burned-up clutches and chunked tires.
So when our single day finally arrived to snap into the Fritos-shaped buckets of a 632-hp Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 roadster—a car with $52,710 in options—it was tempting to dismiss it as just a cartoon commentary on the excesses of the filthy famous. Tempting, that is, until we arrived at the test track.. Introduced last year as a face-lifted Murciélago, the LP640 smoked 60 mph in 3.5 seconds and went wild whooping through the quarter-mile in 11.8 seconds at 126 mph. It brought its 4100-pound girth to a halt from 70 mph in just 150 feet and pulled more than 1.00 g on the skidpad. Ferrari Enzos move only slightly quicker and sell for more than a million. The base $351,700 LP640 roadster has some engineering cred that true car people can appreciate, even if Donatella hasn't a clue.
As with the previous Murciélago, the LP640 roadster looks like an LP640 coupe that lost its roof panel to a passing tornado. Jagged edges and some unfinished lines are the result. The roadster's roof-toupee is a better description-is a flimsy canvas sheet with a few snap-in poles and fold-out ribs to hold its shape. Practiced hands take about five minutes to insert tabs A into slots B. A plaque warns against exceeding 100 mph with the roof on, something the roadster can accomplish in second gear. When not threatening to shear off, the roof stows-just barely-in the front cargo bin.
The 487 pound-feet of torque arrive more evenly, the revs are more linear, and the big Lambo is more everyday streetable than before, especially with the optional $10,000 e-gear paddle-shift six-speed transmission that blurs its shifts under light throttle. Under full throttle, the engine bellows the big roar and the shifts crack like home-run bats. The Lambo is happiest blasting in straight lines, the result of all those pounds and a wheel beset with understeer.
Only those happy to suck up the constant attention and public palaver that inevitably accrue to a Lamborghini driver should even consider one. You know who you are. You’ve got Donatella on speed dial.
At 81.0 inches wide, this Italian muscle car feels like a chopped and channeled Hummer in traffic. The visibility from this carbon-fiber foxhole is limited, especially to the rear, and you'll want to keep the windows up to hold back the Katrina-like wind lash at speed. An alarm sounds if the rear-hinged engine hatch is not latched securely, lest it rip off on the freeway. Underneath the engine cover and a latticework of carbon-fiber braces that reinforce the roadster's structure lives the DOHC 48-valve 6.5-liter dry-sump V-12, the product of an extensive freshening of the previous 6.2-liter unit.
VEHICLE TYPE: mid-engine, 4-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door roadster
PRICE AS TESTED: $404,410 (base price: $351,700)
ENGINE TYPE: DOHC 48-valve V-12, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection
Displacement: 396 cu in, 6496cc
Power (SAE net): 632 bhp @ 8000 rpm
Torque (SAE net): 487 lb-ft @ 6000 rpm
TRANSMISSION: 6-speed manual with automated shifting and clutch
DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 104.9 in
Length: 181.5 in
Width: 81.0 in
Height: 44.7 in
Curb weight: 4100 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS:
Zero to 60 mph: 3.5 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 8.1 sec
Zero to 150 mph: 16.1 sec
Street start, 5–60 mph: 4.1 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 11.8 sec @ 126 mph
Top speed (drag ltd, mfr’s claim): 205 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 150 ft
Roadholding, 200-ft-dia skidpad: 1.01 g
FUEL ECONOMY:
EPA city driving: 10 mpg
C/D-observed: 14 mpg
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