Cool Stuff

We’ve made it, we have nothing left to prove to anyone, only to ourselves. This philosophy can be attributed to and experienced in an astonishingly congruent manner in two super sports cars. Rarely have two cars been so closely aligned with this magazine’s theme as these two.

“Stay cool” is more than just another slogan. It expresses a way of life, reminding us not only to be cool, but also to stay that way. Like these two cars, which seem so effortless in their appeal, their ingenuity, their radical nature and their talent for timeless perfection.

2010 was obviously a good year, perhaps it even held that moment we are all looking for, the moment in which time stands still. We’re constantly searching for moments of happiness, inventing fashions in order to chase after them posthaste, but the impression is mounting that it may be worth turning back a few chapters. Steve Jobs presented the first iPad. Sebastian Vettel became the youngest Formula 1 world champion to date. And the Siberian iris was flower of the year in Germany. Still with us? We don’t want to overdo it either.

The Porsche 911 Turbo and the Lamborghini Gallardo are reliable benchmarks for technical and conceptual endurance; they stand for an avant-garde class of practical supercar that has proven itself over the vector of time, something that perhaps wasn’t even listed in the product specifications. Because you can always rely on their essential consistency, the constant evolution of their technology. It’s a fine line, both for experts and connoisseurs: driving a well-aged car with all of its primal power and beauty without having to join a vintage club or take part in Sunday drives over the Stelvio Pass.

What is really fascinating about these two cars in the fourteenth year of their existence is the seriousness with which they commit to their vision and the focus with which they still confront the poetic questions of high-speed driving today. These two driving machines are accessible for effortless straightforward lifestyles because they themselves still belong to the no-fuss generation: get in, fasten your seatbelt and drive off with a casual glance in the rear-view mirror – the equivalent of a motorcyclist who slowly lifts his booted left leg theatrically from the asphalt as he accelerates rapidly down the road.

This Gallardo and this Turbo, completely different in their concept, are so similar when it comes to the sheer power, the hard braking, the tight steering, the taut seating position, everything as matter of fact as you would expect from a super sports car – and yet without causing you any fatigue or exhaustion, always full of response and information, from the front axle, from the rear slip, from the depths of the all-wheel gearing, bursting from the dynamically mounted furnace, the fervent machine, frenetic in its revs, milling and howling in the extremes. Wicked, yes, but – the years are our witness – still reliable after all this time.

Before we get completely carried away in our euphoric enthusiasm, let’s take a small break with the most important specs to catch our breath:

Porsche 911 Turbo S (997.2): meteor grey metallic, natural leather interior in cocoa brown

Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4: also grey metallic, black Alcantara interior

Both sports cars impress the observer as timelessly modern driving machines with the ultimate in connoisseur quality; owners of one or the other are guaranteed to be an established sports car enthusiast, while the choice of color reflects their stylistic restraint. A profound appreciation for aesthetics and design is obvious. They are character actors of a fading era, a time when you still had something real in your hands in the sense of direct access to the machine, to the road, to life, before the generation of digital natives took over. These automobiles are no referential marketing tools with a driving experience button, but exist in and of themselves, just like animals – or children.

At this point, we would like to shout a word onto the stage: sprezzatura. This is the Italian term for effortless grace and casual elegance. Germans aren’t very good at it, of course, but we don’t want to get into that here, we just want to mention it as an essential character trait. Though if you think about it carefully, the Gallardo actually benefits from the best of both worlds, as it contains a lot of components from the VW Group, developed in advance and in parallel. In particular, it shares more than a few parts with the Audi R8.

As an evolution of the old-school Porsche, the 997.2 is fundamentally rooted in a strong tradition, a classic rear-wheel car for the daily drive, an icon, a consistent and logical continuation of the technical and model developments. In this respect, the sixth 911 generation continues to ( … )

→ Read the full story now in rampstyle #32.