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Italian supercar company Lamborghini is testing a "more affordable" V8 version of its all-wheel-drive Gallardo, complete with revised front and rear styling.
The prototype is powered by the 4.2-litre direct-injection engine from the Audi RS4, which develops 309kW (420bhp) and 430Nm of torque. Variations of this engine are used across the Audi range. Germany's Audi owns Lamborghini.
The current Gallardo uses a 5-litre V10 engine producing 373kW (500bhp) and 510Nm. This unit also powers the Audi S6 and S8.
The V10 Gallardo starts in New Zealand at $270,000. Reports from Europe say using a more mainstream V8 engine would mean an entry-level Gallardo at closer to $200,000 here.
The market for supercars is the fastest-growing segment in the automotive industry, according to the Institute for Automotive Business, a study group in Germany. It says worldwide sales will grow from an estimated 123,600 units this year to 248,000 units by 2015.
A photographer for spy agency Automedia caught the prototype Gallardo in action at the Nurgburgring circuit in Germany this week and reported that it was noticeably quieter at speed and appeared lighter on its four feet than the V10.
European analysts say the V8 from the RS4 would be a logical engine choice if Lamborghini decides to move ahead with the slightly more sedate and affordable Gallardo variant. Such a car would almost certainly pick up the rear-biased all-wheel-drive system from the heavier V10.
So, too, the choice of gearboxes: a six-speed manual or six-speed sequential system called E-gear.
The Gallardo is Lamborghini's most-produced model to date, with 5000 variants over the past three years. The second-place Diablo took 10 years to sell 2903 units.
Lamborghini founder Ferruccio Lamborghini made his money building tractors and air-conditioning systems after World War II.
He collected sports cars, including Ferraris. But if Ferraris had a weakness, he said in the 1950s, it was with clutch components.
He said Ferrari used the same components and suffered the same clutch reliability problems as Lamborghini's tractors.
Lamborghini approached Enzo Ferrari with his criticism. Ferrari told him to go away, that a tractor manufacturer was not qualified to criticise Ferraris.
Affronted, Lamborghini decided to "build better Ferraris than Ferrari". He founded his own rival sports car company near the Ferrari factory and hired ex-Ferrari engineers to design and develop the cars.
Lamborghini took as his company crest the bull from his Zodiac sign, Taurus, and insisted that he, unlike Ferrari, would never build cars for racing.
His first production car, the Lamborghini 350GT, was critically acclaimed as having strengths where Ferrari had weaknesses.
His third model was a mid-engined car developed by his race-hungry ex-Ferrari engineers in the 1960s to a prototype stage without his knowledge. He allowed them to continue but insisted that no racing variants be built.
This car became the ground-breaking Miura, acknowledged as the first of the mid-engined supercars. It was named after a breeder of Spanish fighting bulls, Don Eduardo Miura. The name Gallardo is a breed of bull in the Miura bloodline. It also means "gallant" in Spanish.
