Driven Hard: Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4

It's a fair bet Girolamo Savonarola wouldn't have much liked the Gallardo LP560-4. An Italian Dominican priest and leader of Florence from 1494 to 1498, he reckoned the Renaissance was a generally bad idea, and enjoyed burning books, hats, musical instruments, and other 'occasions of sin', as the Catholic church called them. The best-known of his misguided moral crusades was the notorious 'Bonfire of the Vanities'.

When Tom Wolfe used this as the title of his 1987 novel, his targets included Wall Street's so-called Masters of the Universe, though he had a prurient media and self-serving politicians in his sights too. Wolfe, needless to say, was 20 years early on the location and ferocity of this particular bonfire.

The Gallardo LP560-4 is an 'occasion of sin' so powerful it would need a trident missile to dispose of it. Even in Wall Street's reduced circumstances and with a new president calling time on the madness, nothing screams vanity like a Lambo.

It's as unsubtle as ever. Luc Donkerwolke's original design bundled most of Lamborghini's visual excesses together into a leaner, more compact and arguably rather Germanic-looking package. The 2008 reboot keeps the wieldy form and chiseled surfacing, but turns up the volume.

Trailed by last year's Reventón, the LP560-4 suggests that someone in Lamborghini's design department has Top Gun on heavy rotation, with the fetishised fighter jets and overt militarism. The front end is all sharp creases and oblique angles, and though it's part of a portfolio of aerodynamic improvements, this is mostly about attitude. All that's missing are a pair of machine guns.

At the back, the mission was different: The old car tailed off with the abruptness of a cliff-face, the new one gives traffic something to ponder as the car muscles past. It's rude, just as a Lambo should be.

But this is all very much business as usual. This car is a 2008 Top Gear award-winner partly for a bunch of what are plainly non-traditional Lamborghini attributes. A lot of the press around the 560 led with the news that the company was committed to reducing its CO2 emissions by 40 percent across the board. The engine in the LP560-4 emits 327g/km, down from 400, while fuel consumption improves to a combined average of 21mpg. Even so, nobody has ever bought a Lamborghini on this sort of pretext.

So really, we should forget all that stuff. This is about performance, and the LP560-4 is beyond fast, and closer than ever to the surreal warp factor velocity that its older V12 brother delivers. Technically, this is a clever engine, running more cleanly when you're not leaning on it, generating power harder and faster when the mood takes you.

Which it will. With Porsche now in charge of the VW group, there are a lot of different ways to get your kicks from this sprawling empire, and Audi's not-unrelated R8 runs the Gallardo particularly close. It's a stunning car, but the Lamborghini is, well, a Lamborghini. For a start, the R8's cabin is disappointing. Despite borrowing some old Audi bits, the Gallardo's isn't; it's well-executed, surprisingly understated, and mixes the supercar staples of alcantara and leather to good effect. It ought to: it costs $198k, after all.

Turn they key, and the LP560-4 erupts into life, bellows a bit, then settles into a grumpy-sounding idle. There's a sense of drama here that you just don't get with other cars, including some other supercars, before you've even engaged first gear.

In truth, the E-gear paddleshift gearbox has now been eclipsed by various dual-shift Ferrari, Porsche and Audi systems, but though far from smooth, it suits the car: This isn't supposed to be smooth. It's a physical, heavyweight experience, even if at only 3,100 lbs, it's light for a car with four-wheel drive.

Which, of course, helps make it heroically sure-footed. Its steering is superb, it goes exactly where you want it to go, and it turns in, accelerates and stops in a way that inspires maximum confidence.

The 560-4 delivers the sort of drama you want, and effortlessly side-steps the sort you don't. As 'occasions of sin' go, it's certainly better than a hat.