CAN IT REALLY BE 21 YEARS SINCE Lamborghini introduced the Gallardo? Looking at this fabulous Caelum Blue example, it's hard to believe. With its successor - the Huracán - now replaced by the V8 hybrid Temerario, what better excuse to revisit the car that transformed Lamborghini's fortunes and took the fight to Ferrari? Prior to the Gallardo's launch in 2003, there hadn't been a new entrylevel model since the Jalpa in 1982.
Given that the Jalpa was a quick-and-dirty rehash of the 1976 Silhouette, which was itself a restyled two-seater evolution of the 2+2 Urraco launched in 1972, it's fair to say Sant'Agata's track record for smaller supercars was one of quirky, eccentric and somewhat makeshift efforts.
Still, it says a lot for the troubled state of the company in the 1980s that the Jalpa was credited with helping to turn its fortunes around, despite selling just 410 units in the space of six years. For context, when the Jalpa went out of production in 1988, Lamborghini was still building the Countach and LM002, cars that seem embedded in the company's formative days. Both those behemoths would soon cease production, leaving Lamborghini surviving on sales of its then-new flagship, the Diablo, from 1990 all the way to 2001.
Given that Audi acquired the keys to Ferruccio's kingdom in 1998 it seems equally surprising that the gnarly old Diablo was still haunting the production halls some three years into Ingolstadt's tenure. Only when the venerable flagship was succeeded by the Murciélago did Lamborghini's trajectory begin to point skywards. The Gallardo was launched a scant 18 months later, lighting an afterburner that powered the marque's relentless rise.
Fast-forward to 2013 and, when the Gallardo's decadelong production run came to an end, some 14,022 cars had been built in 32 different variants. Put another way, Gallardos accounted for approximately 50 per cent of all Lamborghinis built since the company began in 1963.
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BEST BUYS BMW M CARS
THE PERFORMANCE CAR LANDSCAPE WOULD HAVE looked very different over the last five decades without BMW. Its M division, founded in 1972, has produced some of the best driver’s cars ever to hit the road, and in the process has provided a stream of benchmark models for its rivals to chase. In recent years, stricter emissions regulations, downsizing and electrification have seen some of those rival cars falter, yet by and large BMW’s M machines have remained strong. In fact, some rank among the greatest the department has made think of the eCoty-winning M2 CS and M5 CS while others are the only options worth recommending in their respective segments. Price tags have risen with performance, however, putting those latest offerings out of reach for many, but the marque’s popularity means there are numerous earlier M models available on the second-hand market for far more attainable figures. Here are four of our favourites.
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