The Lamborghini ride – what a rush!

The unique thing about a Lamborghini is that you climb down into it, unlike pretty well every other car on the road! Not the easiest thing in the world, if you happen to be eighty years old! But I have to admit, once I was in the passenger seat things got considerably more comfortable, as they should in a car that costs every penny of $500,000 when new! The one I was getting into was bright, metallic silver in colour and it had normally opening doors, not those ‘gull’s wing’ efforts that you lift upwards instead of sideways, and beautiful leather ‘sports’ seats that wrapped themselves about me, like a worried mother hen. Hello, I thought, is this to stop me falling out on the high-speed turns? But I needn’t have worried, the drive I was to be taken on was on normal roads in the vicinity of Dromana, on Mornington Peninsula. So real high speed driving with screaming engine and squealing passenger was not on the menu. And that point is the one issue that governs everything else in this little drama!

To explain, the reason both Jacqui and I were in Dromana, experiencing the delights of a powerful, expensive car, was because she had won the rides as a prize for her writing, in Starts at Sixty. It was through Red Balloon, specialists in organising prizes of this nature and for those who, unlike us, have to pay for the adventure, it’s quite expensive to go for a quarter-of-an-hour’s drive – about two hundred dollars in fact. So, with everything booked several months ahead, we set off from Yarram on a three-hour drive to Mornington Peninsula, on what fortunately turned out to be a truly glorious spring day, arriving at Safety Beach at one o’clock, with a couple of hours to kill before our three o’clock appointment with the car! As it was such a beautiful day, we spent most of the time enjoying a picnic on the beach and visiting ‘Arthur’s Seat’.

This car ride thing is surprisingly popular, judging by the continuous flow of ‘supplicants’, arriving at and departing from the garage – we were fourth in the queue waiting for a go. Luckily, the Lamborghini Gallardo wasn’t the only vehicle available, there was a Ferrari 360 Modena there as well, both of them kept permanently busy by the flow of customers.

About half an hour after our arrival, it was our turn, and being the gentleman that I am, I let Jacqui go first, having a quiet chuckle at her efforts to master the low seating (of course, 16 minutes later she had the same pleasure, watching me try to do the same)! Then off she shot, all ten cylinders of the five litre engine thundering, as about a litre a minute of fuel flowed effortlessly in at one end and out the other! Then she was gone and all was peace again, until the car came roaring back up the road towards us, with a happily smiling Jacqui peering at us from the side window!

Then it was my turn! Now I have to be honest about this, but although the ride was undoubtedly good fun, the very fact that we were being driven on ordinary roads, having to stay within the law and with other traffic all around us, meant that nothing really exciting or thrilling ever happened. Oh, the car was nice and comfortable, apart from the very firm suspension, vital on any sports car, the noise was a little loud, again part of the sports car experience and that delicious seat held me firmly in place (or it would have if we’d been doing some really fast cornering)! But the ride was certainly no better than I get from my lovely VW Passat Diesel 2L in these conditions. What the whole idea really cries out for is a proper track somewhere, where the vehicles can be put through their paces, scaring passengers to death and providing good fun for spectators as well!

So, all in all, it was a fun experience, but certainly not worth the money we would have had to pay for it, if Jacqui hadn’t won that prize! If we ever have the good fortune to win a prize again from Starts at Sixty, I think the ones offering a meal in a good restaurant would be a good idea – or is that just because I’m getting old?

Have you ever driven in a Lamborghini or another fast car? What was your experience? Are you a car lover? Tell us below!