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Jay Leno holds Lamborghini showdown, compares Gallardo LP570-4 and LP550-2

Jay Leno's Garage welcomes two of our favorite Lamborghini models over for compare-and-contrast session, the Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera and Gallardo LP550-2. Note, however, that these are the 2012 coupes, not the 2013 models with their revised front and rear fascias.
Leno likes the size of the Gallardo over the Aventador, and between the two siblings, his philosophy leans heavily toward the rear-wheel drive and superior comfort of the LP550-2. With the help of Andrew Romanowski of the Lamborghini Club of America, Leno goes through little-known details like the LEDs in the engine bay and the particulars that distinguish the two vehicles like the Alcantara, polycarbonate windows and lighter tires on the Superleggera.
Then, doing something that he would never do with human guests on his television show, he takes his favorite out for the driving segment and leaves the all-wheel-drive coupe at the garage to pout. You can learn a few things yourself and listen to Jay sing hosannas about the overall build quality and rear-focused power of the LP550-2 in the entertaining video below.

World's Best Dad invites Lamborghini owners to son's birthday party

The resulting unalloyed joy, as you'll see in the footage below, is priceless.
One of my defining moments as a budding car enthusiast came the first time I got to see a Lamborghini up close. I was out in Los Angeles visiting a relative with my mother and sister, and I took the change of scenery as an opportunity to look for more exotic cars than my middle-class Midwestern upbringing would usually encounter. We were on a walk, when off in the distance I saw - and heard - something extraordinary: An early '80s Lamborghini Countach, black with those bronze five-hole wheels, pulling into a parking spot. My mom still takes great joy in periodically retelling the events of that day, and as the story goes, I joyfully took off without warning, chasing the car down the street shouting "Lamborghini!" "Lamborghini!!" in my best eight-year-old Italian accent.

Lamborghini's Aventador replacement will receive a new V12 engine

Lamborghini is about to close one of the longest and most significant chapters in its history. It announced the Aventador Ultimae unveiled in July 2021 is the last non-electrified, V12-powered street-legal model it will build. The car's successor, whose name hasn't been revealed yet, will inaugurate a gasoline-electric hybrid powertrain built around a new V12 engine. Company boss Stephan Winkelmann filled us in on some of the details. Sending off the non-electrified, V12-powered supercar is a big deal for Lamborghini, so a lot of time and resources went into increasing the engine's output for the grand finale. It develops 770 horsepower at 8,500 rpm and 531 pound-feet of torque at 6,750 rpm, figures that eclipse both the Aventador S and the Aventador SVJ. Winkelmann told Autoblog that 770 horses was "the best possible power output we could get" out of the 6.5-liter engine. It's the end of the road for this V12, because the Aventador's replacement will receive a new engine. Winkelmann said it's too early to reveal specific details, like its displacement, but he stressed it's not something we've seen before. And the hybrid system is notably not related to the technology that powered the limited-edition Sian. "The technology is different, it's a completely new engine, a completely new drivetrain, a new battery, everything is completely new. There's nothing out of the Sian or out of the Aventador [in the next flagship]," he said. Some things won't change. Winkelmann cited carbon fiber construction, four-wheel-drive, active aerodynamic technology, and a four-wheel steering system as attributes from the Aventador that are worth keeping. And, adding a turbo (or two, or three, or four) to the new V12 was never considered — forced induction adds weight and puts unnecessary stress on an engine. Besides, the V12 has "horsepower en masse." Natural aspiration is here to stay. Regulatory hurdles are part of what's driving Lamborghini towards electrification, so the Ultimae truly is the last of its kind. However, the non-electrified V12 could live on in some few-off models built for track use, like the Essenza SCV12. "For homologated cars, it's a no. For the others, we will see. It's not planned so far, but there could be an opportunity," Winkelmann replied when asked if future V12-powered race cars could eschew a hybrid system. This is it, then. Lamborghini will build 600 units of the Aventador Ultimae, a number split 350-250 between coupes and roadsters.