“WE HAVE borrowed the Scuderia from Ferrari-we trade officially with them and I have had one for a month,” says Maurizio Reggiani, director of Research and Development for Automobili Lamborghini, S.p.A. “I think the LP560-4 is two times the Ferrari. It is the last, the best. I am relaxed,” he continues, shrugging nonchalantly before taking a bite of his dinner salad.

Twice the Scuderia? How is that possible? Or has Signore Reggiani had too much of the red or dry Las Vegas heat? I’m left to wonder until we hit the racetrack the next morning.

Vwwrrrrrrrrrrr Ngngngngngngngggf Damrnit-did it again. The engine snarls angrily, and the LP560-4 bucks until I snap the right-plus paddle.! clench the flat-bottomed steering wheel as the car leaps forward, punching me back into the seat, as though to punish me for hitting the rev limiter once again. It’s not my fault; I blame the stuttering, shrieking lump behind me.

As the revs rise, the pitch goes from mechanical whine to banshee howl, but the power never stops flowing. Peak horsepower hits at the 8000- rpm hash mark, yet squashed kidney sensations indicate there’s more to come, not less. Spend your time scanning the road ahead and not the tach, and you might suddenly-bangf-snap back to reality.

The reality is that Reggiani might be on to something. After just one lap around the road course at LasVegas Motor Speedway, the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 makes a convincing argument that it deserves such an affected alphanumeric name. LP stands for longitudinale posteriore and refers to the engine position: That’s longways and mid-mounted in plain English. The first set of digits, 560, is the horsepower count, though it’s measured in Italian cavallo vapore (CV), which are a slightly smaller breed than our American horses. We’d call this Gallardo the LP552-4, that last digit accounting for the car’s four-wheel-drive system.

While LP560-4 may succinctly describe this latest and fastest Gallardo, it’s the engine that defines it. Mounted behind the driver’s compartment is an all-new, 5.2-liter direct-injectionV-lO, the first of its kind in a mass production vehicle. Lamborghini and Bosch engineers teamed up to develop the iniezione diretta stratificata technology that ensures no production direct-injection V-lO spins faster. The result: a staggering 8500-rpm redline, 552 horsepower at 8000 rpm, and 398 pound-feet of torque at 6500.

All these cavallini are routed to the Gallardo’s unchangedViscous Traction four-wheel-drive system through the thoroughly updated e.gear transmission. Lamborghini will continue to offer a traditional six-speed manual, but with 90 percent of customers ordering e.gear, it’s understandable why they spent the time and money revising it.

Lamborghini claims shift times in Corsa (track) mode have been reduced by 40 percent. We couldn’t verify that claim, but around the road course, it certainly felt as though shifts were much quicker and much more violent. For high-performance driving on the street and simply loafing about e.gear also has Sport and regular Automatic modes. The hottest ticket is Thrust mode, the LP560-4’s all-new and appropriately named launch-control system.

Clicking the rightmost e.gear button engages Corsa mode. Selecting a silver switch on the center stack disables the ESP stability control and lights up two amber Gallardos on the instrument panel, the smaller indicating the system is completely off, Left-footing the brake and matting the throttle sends revs up to between 5000 and 5500 rpm and a racket from the pipes that sounds like Satan’s ring tone, Releasing the brakes sends up a poof of smoke as the tires chirp through not quite one full rotation, The Gallardo then lurches forth, as though hunkering down, before exploding forward a millisecond later,

To observers, the whole process .ooks complicated, and, well, a bit silly. “It always looks like a failed launch,” opines JhotographerVance. To the nine satellites ,dentifying our position overhead, the Gallardo :.I’560-4’s thrust mode is a raging success: 3.4 3econds to 60 mph and 11.4 seconds through :he quarter mile at 126.9 mph.

Inside the low-roofed cabin, the Gallardo’s attempt to violate Newton’s first law is a comprehensive sensory assault. Releasing the brake sets off a two-stage reaction: Getting kicked in the ass a split second before being shot from a cannon is probably the closest approximation. The only thing missing is the burn of cordite in the nostrils.

Thrust mode is impressive not only at stoplight grands prix, but for top-end runs as well. Unlike the previous Gallardo launch-control system, which required manually shifting the gears, a thrust-moded LP560-4 will autorocket through all six gears on the way to a terminal velocity of 201 mph.

Still, twice a Scuderia? I haven’t driven one yet, so I can’t vouch for my colleague Frank Markus’s subjective assessment, but our test gear says no. Sure, the Gallardo LP560-4 is the Enzo’s equal to 60 mph,but the Scuderia beats it by three tenths. By the quarter mile, both horses are showing hooves to this bull.

There are other gripes, as well. The $10,000 carbon-ceramic brakes are almost frighteningly unresponsive until they’re properly heated.When called on at supercar speeds, they’re sublime, but at slower speeds, the long pedal travel can be disconcerting.

While the refreshed exterior now has distinctive Y-styled LED head- and taillights and a restyled nose more in line with the Murcielago and Reventon, the inside is basically unchanged-and still Audi-esque. Aside from the badges, stitching, and strip of shiny switches across the center console, the leather trim, steering wheel, HVAC/nav buttons and knobs seem to be pulled straight from the A 4 parts bin. Apparently $211 ,000 doesn’t buy that much exclusivity.

Ferrari 430 Scuderia India

The 430 Scuderia, a V-8-powered, aluminum “volume-sales” model we all kind of assumed was just another lightened, midcycle riff on the F430 turns out to be one serious supercar. It may be Ferrari’s best-performing GT car ever, despite its fire-sale $272,306 price. It is unquestionably the Ferrari that mere owners-not factory test drivers or Fl world champions-will be able to drive the fastest on demanding roads or race circuits without winding up on wreckedexotics.com.

Granted, the 503-horse 430 carries 18-percent-more weight per filly than does the 65 I-horse Enzo and it lacks the Enzo’s exotic pushrod-actuated suspension, active aero-gear, and a few other racy touches. And yet with Michael Schumacher at the helm, the 430 Scuderia circulated the fast track at Fiorano in 1 :25.0, equaling test driver Dario Benuzzi’s best run in the Enzo, circa 2003, And indeed our own test equipment recorded a quicker launch in the 430 (1.2 seconds to 30 mph versus 1.4 in our last Enzo) and a blistering 0-to-60 time of just seconds to the Enzo’s comparative pedestrian 3.4. Granted, by the quarter mil e, the Enzo’s power advantage vaults it ahead by 0.2 second and almost seven mph, but on shorter circuits like the 1.8-mile Pista di Fiorano there’s precious little time spent at those speeds. In fact, as development engineer Michele Giaramita explained the many advantages the 430 enjoys at different spots on the track, we had to wonder if Schumacher might’ve been sandbagging just a skosh in the name of saving Enzo’s face until the next limited-runV-12 super¬cavallino arrives. Follow along and see if you agree.

Ferrari took a holistic approach to enhancing the F430, whittling away at anything that slows a car down and applying the latest tricks learned in Formula 1 racing. Power, weight, tires, and suspension were the low-hanging fruit. Using carbon fiber throughout the interior and engine compartment, ditching sound-deadening materials and fitting a Lexan rear window and titanium springs and lug bolts helped shave 220 pounds off the F430. A host of detail refinements to the 4.3-liter flat-plane-crankshaftV-8 added 20 horses and four pound-feet of peak output, but fattens the torque on either side of the peak by a bunch, making the overall performance feel like much more than a four-percent improvement (see “The Down-Low on Torque”). Stickier Pirelli PZero Corsa tires (10 rom wider in front), plus lowered (0.6 inch), stiffer springs (35 percent front/32 percent rear) boost handling, braking, and acceleration-launch performance.

The rest of the improvements are pretty much all Formula I-inspired, starting with the aerodynamics, which are optimized to increase front and rear downforce without resorting to large wings by creating suction underneath the body. A patent-pending “base bleed” method of relieving aerodynamic pressure from the rear-wheel housings helps bring the 430 Scuderia’s drag coefficient in five percent under the Enzo’s (see “Aero-Tica”).Next, the ever-evolving Fl paddle-shift automated manual gearbox controls have been hyper-caffeinated to deliver shifts in an unfathomable 60 milliseconds. This new Fl-SuperFast2’s shifts happen in about a quarter of the time required for a manual shift-or for a shift in the first-generation FI box in the Enzo, for that matter (see “As Good as a Dual-Clutch?”).

The Fl-inspired “Manettino” switch that controls the various drivetrain, suspension, and traction/stability-control systems gets a new setting. In place of the civilian F430’s “Ice” mode is a “CT-Off” mode that eliminates traction control, permitting more tire-spinning drift without completely disabling the stability control.

Another new feature ordered up by Fl-ace Schuey is a soft-suspension override button. Ordinarily the sport-suspension damping is selected in any Manettino position except the base “low road-holding” mode, but when driving in the Race, CT-off, or CST-off (no safety net) settings, a touch of this console-mounted button relaxes the dampers to allow the tires to conform to rough sections of pavement for maximum tire grip.

Technology transfer from Fl to the 430 Scuderia is the Fl- Trac traction/stability-control system, which for the first time on a road car also has authority over the electronically controlled E-Diff2 wet-clutch limited-slip differential. Put simply, this system is designed so that in the Manettino’s “Race” mode, any driver should be able to approach the apex of any turn and simply flat-foot the throttle and steer through letting the electronics modulate brake pressures, engine torque, and differential lockup. The electronic processor time is so fast that you’re never aware of any brake pulsations or electronic jiggery-pokery, you just feel like a pro shoe motoring out of every bend. That faster processor also controls the anti-lock brakes and shares credit with the larger front carbon-ceramic brakes for trimming the F430’s already impressive braking distances by around eight percent to 93 feet from 60 mph and 255 feet from 100. Initial brake bite also is considerably improved from the F430’s, allowing deeper braking points on corner entry. Check out our Fiorano circuit graphic to see where each of the above improvements help the 430 Scuderia catch the mighty Enzo.

Out in the hills above Maranello, these many small improvements combine to form one awesome piece of machinery, made all the sweeter by being a surprisingly complete and comfortable car. There’s no radio (the engine note is worth 1000 iPods) , but it’s well air-conditioned and trimmed in rich Alcantara and leather inside like a proper road car, not a stripped-out racer. Just pulling out of the parking lot, the zillion bits of road grit being thrown up from the tires to the undercarriage suggest these summer gumballs will die young but live spectacularly until then. Motoring through town, it’s a docile sweetheart until you have to reverse. In keeping with Raul Julia’s first rule of Italian driving (”What’s behind me is not important’ ‘), the view out the mirrors is limited, and the Euro-market four-point harness makes it tough to turn for a better look.

Once past the city limits with a long stretch

of open road ahead and no traffic around, you come to a stop, twirl the Manettino to CST-off, engage manual shift mode, first gear, and then hold the downshift paddle until the gear-indicator display alternates between” 1″ and “L” and a tone sounds. Simultaneously release the brake and floor the throttle. Get it right and the tires spin briefly, then hook up for one serious G-sled ride. LEDs on the carbon-fiber steering wheel illuminate at 500-rpm intervals above 6000 rpm. Pull the upshift paddle when they blink at 8500 and with what feels like a strike to the rear bumper from a giant polo mallet, the car jolts forward in the next gear, bellowing with newfound basso profundo.Within minutes, you’re scaling the Emilian Apennines, and a switch to “Race” mode seems prudent.With each curve and switchback, you brake a little later, astonished at the power of these carbon binders. Hit the apex and flat-foot the go-pedal, letting the superfast computers sort out apportioning torque for the hastiest possible exit. A particularly uneven stretch

leaving Pavullo reveals the wisdom of Schumacher’s soft-suspension mode switch, the relaxed suspenders providing better comfort and better braking and road-holding. After an hour of hard running, the route has circled back to Maranello just in the nick of time. Another 10 miles of acclimation to the 430 Scuderia, and you might be forever jaded toward lesser machinery. Like Enzos .