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Blown away
Following a drivetrain makeover that affects all Gallardos, each of the ratios in the 'box has now been lowered to maximise low-down thrust.
The V10 still pulls cleanest with the rev counter showing 2,500rpm and above, at which point acceleration arrives as brutally as if I'd just been shot in the back of the head (I've been reliably advised that since a Miami-wide law-enforcement crackdown, it's less likely to actually happen these days).
A full 520bhp and 376lb ft of torque are now at work, sent to the road with no struggle for traction through a permanent four-wheel-drive system.
Just grip the flat-bottomed, part carbon-fibre, part suede-rimmed steering wheel and keep your hand hovering over the paddle shifters, in readiness for up-shifts through each of the six ratios of the robotised-clutch transmission.
'I find myself making a couple of laps through an underpass, just to savour the yowl of the V10'
In either regular or even-swifter-responding Sport modes, there's no subtlety to the way the E-Gear (as Lamborghini labels it) 'box slams between its ratios.
Or in the realisation that within just 4.3 seconds, I've moved from a standstill to a velocity 5mph quicker than even the most generous speed limit in place anywhere in Florida legally allows.
The evidence of such over-exuberance is added to by the incredible racket trailing along behind, last heard on the start line of an F1 race as the lights go green. In reaction to the position of the throttle, valves are now opening the exhaust system up to its very widest, loudest extent.
Pulling away from the chaos of the eight-lane South Dixie Highway I find myself making a couple of laps through an underpass, just to savour the yowl of the V10 ricocheting off the concrete walls and back into the car.
A man comes running out from a house immediately alongside, shouting and waving. This is it. Either he's called the Highway Patrol, or he's about to unleash a vigilante rage on me. "Please wait here for five minutes," he pleads. "My wife has just gone to get a film for the camera."

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