Practically speaking, three grocery bags in the nose is the cargo limit if the passenger seat is filled, but those groceries would make it home in a hurry. Violent acceleration is available on demand.
The Murcielago may be the diametric opposite of an SUV, but it, too, has all-wheel drive. Together with electronic traction control, it helps put a corrupting amount of absolute power to the ground with a minimum of antisocial wheel spin.
Speed
The Murcielago is one of the fastest production cars ever, reaching 97kph from a stop in 3.6 seconds. Yet the Lamborghini can dawdle around town, calling no attention to itself other than that which comes naturally to a machine that is radically shaped and radioactively yellow.
Fuel economy is not a talking point for Lamborghini salesmen; the car slurps a gallon of premium every 19km, and more in town. In other words, it gets even more appalling mileage than a Land Cruiser or a Suburban in a package that is even more frivolous and unnecessary.
New Yorkers are clearly divided about automotive frivolity, and they urgently want to share their views. People assume that a fellow extracting himself through the upraised door of an exotic car that pops and fizzes as it rolls up at hip level wants to hear -- nay, deserves to hear -- from them.
Two proximate encounters typified the currents of thought. A too-cool-for-school hipster crowd laughed and pointed derisively as I pulled up to the Mercury Lounge on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. A block away, workers from Katz's Delicatessen, out on a cigarette break, gave me a round of applause.
Women seemed less appreciative than men. While crossing at a light in TriBeCa, some black-clad ladies made it clear that they do not do like Lamborghinis. This is a paradox of the Murcielago experience: Young dudes think it will get them dates, but it turns out that the demographic group most attracted by the car are other young men who think it will get them dates.
As befits a machine so lacking in subtlety, Lamborghinis have long taken their names from the realm of bullfighting. While Murcielago means bat in Spanish, it was also the name of a 19th-century fighting bull whose life was spared in honor of his indefatigable courage and spirit.
Murcielago owners must not themselves lack courage or spirit; they will need both qualities to drive their cars in public. A self-selecting bunch, those who need 575HP and have 300 grand burning holes in their pockets need not look anywhere else.
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