First Test: Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 Valentino Balboni

Few cars are more menacing to look at than the current crop of angular, angry-eyed, impossibly low Lamborghinis. The fact that they're all incredibly powerful and blisteringly fast only enhances their malevolent mien. But to keep them from throwing too many riders, these raging bulls have been reined in by the reassuring traction of all-wheel drive for the past 10 years, which helps keep all four hooves charging in the driver's desired direction. Well, the bright orange beast on these pages puts an end to all that. It's a rear-heavy rear-driver with a stability-control-off switch. It seems amazing that some legal disclaimer doesn't have to be agreed to with a fingerprint detector before keying the ignition.

This special limited-edition Gallardo (250 worldwide) is rather verbosely named to honor 40-year veteran Lamborghini test driver Valentino Balboni, who has not only helped develop every car since the Miura SV, but hass personally test-driven some 80 percent of all individual Lamborghinis ever sold. Deleting the driveshaft and front axle hardware saves 165 pounds, improves steering feel, and shifts the weight balance one percentage point aft (to 43/57 front/rear), but can 500-plus horsepower be efficiently routed through only two tires? And more important, does this transform the Gallardo into a fearsome widow-maker?

As its 550-2 middle name suggests, the familiar 5.2-liter V-10 is detuned by 10 horses relative to its 560-4 stablemate, to make "only" 542 SAE horses (its 6.4-pound/horsepower ratio still trumps the all-wheeler by two-tenths). Second, the compound for the identically named and sized rear tires has been tweaked to improve traction. Subtle changes to the spring and damper rates help ensure efficient weight transfer at launch and safe limit handling (more about which in a moment).

The answer to the power delivery question is a qualified "yep." Our tester was equipped according to Valentino's preference, with the standard six-speed stick and the optional $15,600 carbon-ceramic brakes. E-gear paddle-shifting is (to Balboni's chagrin) optional, and its launch control system results in reliably quick starts every time, but when a practiced piloto gets the footwork right (revs at about 2800 rpm, quick clutch drop resulting in only a few feet of wheelspin), this lightened rear-driver launches harder and quicker, establishing a 0.2-second lead relative to the 560-4 by 30 mph, which steadily grows to 0.8 second at 170 mph (which the VB hits in just 24.9 seconds and 8/10ths of a mile). It nips at the mighty Murcielago LP670's hooves, trailing by only a tenth or two (seconds and mph) through the quarter mile. The qualification: Getting it right takes lots of practice; repeatedly getting it wrong gets expensive. And while you'd expect the toothy shift-gate to prevent any possible wrong turns, hurried 1-2 upshifts somehow wind up in no-man's land on occasion, which blew several runs (never a problem with E-gear). That gate itself, however, is a precision-milled masterpiece, offering minimal clearance to the shift stalk without ever rattling as the shifter vibrates. Brilliant.