Early Comparison - 2012 Lamborghini Gallardo vs 2013 Ferrari California

NIcely detailed description. Interesting.

 

great read, MJ! thanks for sharing. always love reading comparisons from ppl who own or have owned other exotics, since my Cali is my first exotic. it's good to know that the Cali holds its own. good point about the subtleness of the California. I have mine in TDF blue and some ppl don't even notice the car - which I kind of like (fly under radar). I too am a little paranoid about going about in this world (NYC to boot) in such an expensive and high profile car. but it's kind of doable with the Cali.

 

Thanks for posting. Well written and informative.

Glad you are enjoying your Fcar.

 

Thanks for sharing your initial impressions mj. I am reassured with my decision to go with the black Cali over the balloon white lp560-4. Both cars owned by my friend who was parting with both upon receipt of his 458 spider. The brilliant color of the Lamborghini in direct sunlight offset by black rims was stunning but I found the ride harsh. The single clutch tranny provided a race car feel but the neck snapping shifts grew tiresome after awhile.

In my Cali, I had a car full of teenagers pull up to me on the freeway and two mustangs try to race me this past Saturday. Unsure whether I want more attention. I've had a couple girls try follow me home in the past too (I'm close in age to you). Not as cool as I may have envisioned.

Interestingly, as we were surfing this past Saturday together, my friend told me of all the cars he's owned including a 997.1 and r8 that the lp560 was the only one he missed.

 

Thanks for the comparison. I do think that the Cali and the Lambo are such different cars for different purposes that they don't really compare, however interesting. The Gallardo is closer to a 360 or 430. Cars more similar to the Cali in purpose are various Aston Martins, Mercedes SL, BMW M6 and Jag XKR. And I wouldn't trade my Cali for any of them.

 

Very interesting, thanks for putting the time and effort into the review

I think the gallardo is a great car to drive, it's fun, characterful, Italian and interesting.

I would purchase one over a 911 turbo in a heartbeat

But for me the Cali is a level above a gallardo

 

Thank you for your detailed description, i agree with previous post, different categories.
I was viewing Bentley GTC, Aston Vanquish and Masa and when i got close to a Fuoco Red Cali, well it was love at first sight it just made the others look unwieldy and cumbersome. I had to buy it there and then. So very happy with my decision and reading your post reassuringly so.

 

thanks for your comparison, lambo seems to me a little narrow and inconvenience, but very agile. thanks and enjoy.

 

I've never owned a Lambo but in the past few years I've owned a 458, R8GT, GTR, Bentley SS, Corvette ZR1 (all at the same time). I think it goes without saying that I enjoy driving fine cars. All were great cars and a blast to own and drive. They turned both heads and apexes with ease. However none were perfect. I purchased the 458 with 500 miles so I didn't have the good fortune to build it and as I came to realize Ferrari race seats are not the smartest seat for a drive longer than an hour or two OR the best solution for a 5'7" driver. The car was otherwise amazing in Rossa Scuderia with tan interior. It handled like no other car I've ever owned. It felt like it anticipated your desires a millisecond before you moved the steering wheel. Acceleration was awesome and the exhaust note intoxicating. It was the only car that I never felt the need to modify anything. But in the it was as far from a daily driver as one could get (perhaps except for an Aventador) and it was a car that I usually drove from point A to B and back to A again.

I owned the R8GT for a year and hated that single clutch electronic trans every day that I owned it. It was interesting for a minute (hey watch this I can synch and mesh a downshift on a single clutch with such ease) then it was just annoying. Clunky and difficult to drive effortlessly. Further, I owned an R8 6 speed manual at the same time (in fact I still own it) that I had modified by Stasis into their Challenge Extreme 738HP (confirmed by dyno) monster and whenever given the choice between the GT and the Stasis the Stasis always won.

The GTR and the Corvette went together...brutal machines that were incredibly fast but not very sophisticated. If you're 30ish and you have a 100K to spend on a car and you want fast and don't mind a lot of plastic than either might be on your short list.

The Bentley is the only car that was recently sold that I miss. It was very fast and a virtual torque maniac but still handled really well for a car that big and that heavy and yet had all the panache and head turning ability of even the 458. It was quiet and comfortable and if you could have only one car I can see a lot of reasons why one could argue it should be the Bentley SS.

That brings me to my present cars...a 2013 M5 which has been a great car. Fast, competent handling, 4 doors with a proper back seat and a great all-around daily driver, the aforementioned Audi R8 convertible sTasis 738 hp mean machine and a humble jeep Rubicon Wrangler that would have been great if we had gotten any snow like we used to get in Philly and.... hopefully in the next couple of weeks my Ferrari California 30 that I built per my specs which should be nearly crossed the Atlantic by now.

So in the end its difficult to find a single car that is the best at everything. If limited to a single car its always going to be somewhat of a compromise. If their are times when you need to move 4 or more people in comfort you'll want a sedan, if the weather is frightening you need a 4 wheel drive machine with enough clearance, etc etc etc..hmmm maybe i'm describing the Ferrari FF? But then I'd miss top down driving. See what I mean?

 

^informative read. Most go from California to 458, interesting that you are going the other way around. I test drove a Bentley conti gt and found it rather heavy and uneventful. Perhaps I need to try the super sports. The r8 was on my short list but I heard many complaints about the auto tranny. Perhaps the updated dct will remedy this. I think it's a beautiful design. I drove the gtr at wot, it is a beast in sheeps clothing. All the hours I spent on gran turismo5 paid off when driving the gtr. Truly reminded me of my ps3. It was not a visceral experience like driving a 911 or fcar. More surgical and sterile IMO. Hope you enjoy your Cali. I drive mine everyday it isn't raining.

 

I have a 2011 BMW 5 series also, nice car alpine white over oyster and black with a lot of nice options. I rode in a new m5 and m6 vert, both alpine white and both good cars.

 

myphillylawyer, how does the M5's DCT compare with the Ferrari version? Thinking about an M5 but torn between transmission choice (DCT vs. 6MT).

 

If I didn't have my Audi 6MT then perhaps my choice would have been different. However, as a daily driver in Philadelphia's somewhat crappy traffic having a MT can become a PIA if that's what your using most of the time. That said, I don't think BMW quite measures up to the full electronic manual experience of driving my 458 using the paddles. In the 458 it was the preferable way to drive and it felt so normal....so much like a manual. In the BMW its closer to a tiptronic or a Mercedes. Better than either of those examples but closer to those than to the 458. I drove the single clutch etrans of the previous model M5 for a test drive and it was undriveable. BMW has made amazing advances since then. I think that most drivers, unless they are ardent 3 peddle drivers, would find the new DCT to be more than acceptable. But as a previous 458 owner and using that as my comparison, the M5 doesn't blip the throttle and give you the seat-of-the-pants experience that the 458 does when you drop a gear (or two). In complete auto mode with all the options ratcheted up to their max its very quick through the gears with good aural feedback. Just not 458 good....but then it is 1/3 the cost of a 458 and I wouldn't say that its 1/3 as good. So difficult to make any absolute proclamations.

 

But Dean, don't you miss the ability to go straight from 4th to 2nd or even 6th to 2nd sometimes in your 6MT?

I love the sound effects from the DCT downshifts but I think it can get tedious flipping the F1 paddle 3-4 times without pausing too long between flips, just to corner a hairpin. Meanwhile, your braking is also sort of messed up because the transmission is sequential and it takes time to row down to the desired gear.

I've watched a number of F1 drivers from their O/H cameras and they often have to downshift 3-4-5-6 gears to get in the correct gear for the corner. That delay is bothersome because the driver must be continually tweak the attitude of the car as each gear change kicks in and they end up braking longer than they would otherwise in a MT car. Whereas in your 6MT, if you just brake hard, declutch, blip, gear down and turn-in, wait for the apex, then wind her up and it's straightforward.

I'll have my car soon and I'll have to check this out after the break-in period. Hopefully, an experience F1 paddle driver will comment on his experience.

P.S. A thought just occurred to me. I recall a reply that TAZANDJAN posted on another thread:

So what if when you corner a tight hairpin with an F1 street car, instead of doing a multiple downshift you just hit neutral and brake hard simultaneously (both feet in) and tap the downshift paddle just as you start your turn in? That might give you a shortcut from having to do multiple downshifts just to get in the right gear for a tight corner, letting the DCT figure out the correct gear to enter and exit the corner with.

Of course you wouldn't necessarily do this with all corners.

Does anyone do this? I was watching Alonso and Massa, they were both doing multiple downshifts within 1-2 seconds; just like the other drivers.

 

Very nice review and something I was looking for. You are right, the Gallardo draws people out of the woodworks and while some may live for that feeling, I was not fond of it (although it's a great car). The Cali may be my car.

 

I MUCH prefer a good 6MT on a sports car than any automated manual, even as unbelievably good as they are now. But one thing is for sure with modern automated trannies (Koenigsegg's single-clutch is as quick as a DCT): I don't care what shifting scenario you throw, including dropping multiple gears. You simply CANNOT shift nearly as quick with a manual... even if you don't shift properly. Proper DCT shifting technique requires treating it like a sequential tranny, upshifting and downshifting ONE GEAR AT A TIME. That's how a DCT was designed to shift (each sequential gear is on the opposite shaft/clutch, so always ready). But even if you forget to downshift, all you have to do is hold the '-' paddle for a second and it chooses the lowest possible gear for the speed, still making it quicker than a manual IMO.

Bottom line is a manual is simply much more fun/involving than any automated tranny IMO (if you like them, of course ), but that's about it. And THAT is the reason why almost nobody wants them anymore. Everybody wants to feel like Schumacher 5 minutes after driving the car for the first time. A manual requires much more work to master. And even then, I'd never be nearly as quick as a DCT. Therefore, not attractive to most exotic owners, as sales numbers confirm. Sad but true. Always miss the 430 6MT when driving the Cali, but there's zero doubt which one shifts/launches quicker... under any circumstances. Have a good one folks.

 

Was there any UPDATE posted on this that I missed..?? The orig was GREAT..

 

No, I don't think so. The OP is really into experiencing many different exotic cars, went from Cali30 to 458, ...to a Bentley GT Le Mans Edition as well as a host of other cars, and then an FF.

FWIW, I think his comments on the original Gallardo v Cali30 was pretty fair. I've never wanted to drive a Gallardo, even when one was offered free to me to drive around for a week, for many of the reasons the OP mentioned. I just wasn't interested at all. However, I have test driven an Huracan 610-4 which has the current version of the same V10 from the Gallardo and it is a very sweet engine. The problem with the Gallardo is its gross lack of refinement, an uncomfortable car to drive around. The Huracan 610-4 is a complete opposite in that regard, perhaps too much so for some people.