Lamborghini

Diablo

Dr. Alex A. Vizcarra, knockout@ix.netcom.com

I just want to relate to you about the interesting, and rather unusual weekend I had. I had spent most of Friday afternoon at the shop of a very good friend of mine, who also happens to be a Mercedez-Benz master mechanic, and a POC Porsche racer. I borrowed his lift so it would make the task of installing my new RM/DALI Racing swaybars a lot easier, as well as replacing the defective RM cat-back exhaust, of which Randy sent me a replacement with no questions asked.

Anyway, (enough of the plugs;) I was wrenching away underneath my car, while bench racing with my friend, and guess what? A black Lamborghini Diablo pulls into his garage! "Oh, by the way, this Diablo's coming in to have his cat back exhaust replaced..." my friend says. OH, YEAH, I say.

It's a brand-spanking-new 98 Diablo VT (as in four wheel drive). As the doors move skyward to unload the driver, who looks like a cool guy in his early forties, I continue to wrench away, trying hard to contain my excitement, as after all, I own an exotic, too!

Hell, I just drop the wrenches and approach the fella. It turns out that he almost bought an NSX as well. But he decided that he had 210K extra dollars more and went for a Diablo instead. He actually paid 300K for the thing. At this time, home mortgages were going through my head, do you think the banks would loan me 300K for a house made by Lamborghini Homes with no fixed address? Maybe not.

I walk around the car, admiring its huge Brembo brakes beneath those huge OZ racing modular wheels. And those steamroller 315/30/17 P-Zeros in rear! Paintjob is awesome, and found out the paint is by PPG.

If you think the NSX was low, this car is even a foot lower. But surprisingly, ingress and egress wasn't any harder, for me at least, maybe because of the jacknife doors. Inside, the leather smelled like no other. Reminded me of my expensive Italian shoes I used to have back then when I cared about impressing the girls. Once seated inside, a cursory look indicated that the Italians have gone a long way in terms of fit and finish. Looks pretty good actually. The tan interior looked flawless from where I was.

He popped the engine cover. The kevlar cover flexed as he lifted it to reveal the humongous engine, about the size of two NSX engines with the corresponding amount of horsepower. I asked him why he wanted to change his exhaust, he says because it is too quiet. Hmmm... Ok. He starts up the engine and blips the throttle, and while there is this wonderful mechanical sounds emanating from the engine itself, it is rather quiet. Kinda like the stock NSX engine. I go, "yeah, I know what you mean..." Then if you guys think aftermarket exhausts for the NSX is expensive, this guy just paid 5K for an even more compact set of catback exhaust, which looks like any respected race car fabricator could put together for much much less. Exoticar mentality at work here, I guess.

You wanna go for a drive? He says. I stop in my tracks, as I couldn't believe it. I guess he's just a nice guy. Sure, and I stop what I'm doing, wash my hands and jump into the driver's seat. Of course, he settles into the passenger seat. (He's not all that nice, after all. ;)

I start the engine, and blip the throttle a few times. Hmmm.... it does sound like the NSX from the inside... Anyway, I back out of the garage, and wow, this is one WIDE car. It has huge shoulders on either side, but actually, I found rear visibility not to be as bad as I thought, even with that huge rear wing. I thought the rearward visibility was worse on the Lotus Esprit Turbo I had for a short while a few years ago. Steering is also powered, so it is not as heavy as I thought, but not light either. Overall the feeling is just right.

I take the beast a couple of runs around the neigborhood, and I must say, it is a very, very impressive machine. Low end torque was lacking a little bit, but I'm used to that. Once the revs got into the 4K range the engine just comes alive and shrieks with delight, giving you a very satisfying push from the back. I couldn't imagine how much better the engine would sound with the new exhaust. It is also next to impossible to break traction with the four wheel drive, the thing just launches.  The gated shifter wasn't too hard to use, I was doing power shifts in no time. The down side was the stiffness of the clutch. My gastrocnemeus muscle (calf muscle to the rest of you folks) was worked out quite a bit, when we came back to the garage and parked the car carefully at one of the other lifts. Another downside I also noticed was the lack of visibility of the front fenders. It simply disappeared, and all you see is the road. This is one of the things I actually liked about the NSX, is the visibility of the left and right fenders, which helps locate the front wheels, and the visualization of the road immediately in front of you. There is no such thing on the Diablo.

Overall, I was really surprised to find the Diablo a very easy car to drive. This is not to say that it will be easy to drive at the limit, as I did not get a chance to do this. I am also not sure how this latest model will compare with the older ones, as I hear they are quite a bit harder to drive. However, with the exception of a rather heavy clutch, this is one car I could live with everyday. (Yeah, right, I don't even drive my NSX every day).

But one thing I was really surprised about, was the willingness of the owner to let me drive his Diablo, and even let me drive the way I did!  I guess it's just the way we got along, or maybe it's an co-exoticar owner bond that I did not know existed. You meet the nicest people with an the NSX...

As it turns out, it was a very exciting day. I learned more about this car than I ever did before. Someday, when I grow up...

Whoever said that "the difference between the men and the boys are the cost of their toys" was right. This guy also owns a Ferrari 512TR.

This makes me feel like a little kid.

Countach

Tino Stramotas, boxer5@ix.netcom.com

I dreamed and drooled over Lambos eversince 1967 when I was taken for a ride in London in one of the first Miura's in England. Many years later, a friend of mine, now chassis designer at Lambo took me for a tour of the plant and asked me why on earth wouldn't I consider buying one of those awesome US-bound Countaches parked in their delivery yard. Well, a few months later, I did buy a new 88 and lived to see my dream turn into a nightmare.

When I sold it two years later with only a few thousand miles on it, I had four flat-bed towing receipts, more than $10K of warranty repairs and a couple of fires on the freeway to brag about. How much better is the Diablo to own, I wonder...