Bought myself a Bull
Discussion
The sale of the Ferrari earlier this year left a large hole in my garage and a larger one in my motoring life. Over the last few months I'd been pondering what to fill the gap with... an R8, a Vantage, an F Type SVR but I kept coming back to a Gallardo.
I nearly owned a V10 a few years back in the shape of a Viper, but walked away at the last second due to it being an American write-off so felt the chance to tick off another engine configuration before we're all forced into electricity was something that needed to be done.
The issue for me however was that I was only interested in a manual spyder - coupes leave me cold and I'm not much on flappy paddles either (I know the SVR is paddles but the F type manual box is poor, so I could justify that one!)
Manual G spyders though don't grow on trees, in the 9 months I was watching the market, only 2 came up for sale in my price bracket and both were cars with a story!
Fast forward to a couple of months ago and a post on the Facebook club page from a chap getting ready to market his... it sounded ideal
Black with black
Manual.
Spyder
Sensible miles (I want to use the car so wasn't interested in a garage queen)
good history
As with everything though, there was an issue - the car had over £30k of carbon-fibre add-ons and so the asking price was well above my budget, regretfully I walked away.
A few weeks ago a message out of the blue "are you still interested" - negotiations followed and I picked the car up last weekend.
A leisurely drive home from Nottingham and I'm absolutely convinced I was right to wait. The car is everything I hoped it would be and more.
I nearly owned a V10 a few years back in the shape of a Viper, but walked away at the last second due to it being an American write-off so felt the chance to tick off another engine configuration before we're all forced into electricity was something that needed to be done.
The issue for me however was that I was only interested in a manual spyder - coupes leave me cold and I'm not much on flappy paddles either (I know the SVR is paddles but the F type manual box is poor, so I could justify that one!)
Manual G spyders though don't grow on trees, in the 9 months I was watching the market, only 2 came up for sale in my price bracket and both were cars with a story!
Fast forward to a couple of months ago and a post on the Facebook club page from a chap getting ready to market his... it sounded ideal
Black with black
Manual.
Spyder
Sensible miles (I want to use the car so wasn't interested in a garage queen)
good history
As with everything though, there was an issue - the car had over £30k of carbon-fibre add-ons and so the asking price was well above my budget, regretfully I walked away.
A few weeks ago a message out of the blue "are you still interested" - negotiations followed and I picked the car up last weekend.
A leisurely drive home from Nottingham and I'm absolutely convinced I was right to wait. The car is everything I hoped it would be and more.
Congratulations on your purchase. Looks like a stunner.
Has had its cats replaced with aftermarket cats? If not recommend you do this asap. The primary known issue with 5.0 cars is cat particle ingestion, causes bore scoring and ultimately engine failure. Huge thread on here in the Gallardo section on Simon’s experience - user 4321Go.
Also check out this YouTube link from RE Performance.
https://youtu.be/40oVSwFvdjw
The 5.0 can also go through 1 litre of oil every 600 miles. This is normal, so keep and eye on oil levels and read the manual on how to check the oil levels. It is dry sumped, so there is a process to follow.
Other than that, keep her generally well maintained. They are amazing cars!
Has had its cats replaced with aftermarket cats? If not recommend you do this asap. The primary known issue with 5.0 cars is cat particle ingestion, causes bore scoring and ultimately engine failure. Huge thread on here in the Gallardo section on Simon’s experience - user 4321Go.
Also check out this YouTube link from RE Performance.
https://youtu.be/40oVSwFvdjw
The 5.0 can also go through 1 litre of oil every 600 miles. This is normal, so keep and eye on oil levels and read the manual on how to check the oil levels. It is dry sumped, so there is a process to follow.
Other than that, keep her generally well maintained. They are amazing cars!
Lovely looking car that. I think they have aged really well. I felt the first generation aged badly after the LP560 was released and subsequently the Huracan but then over the next decade the early cars have something part classic/part modern about them.
Did you get the original wheels in the deal too?
Above all, congrats. Looks a great way to spend summer.
Did you get the original wheels in the deal too?
Above all, congrats. Looks a great way to spend summer.
Wow. What a lovely car!
Pretty much my dream car for many years. Being picky, I’d want a lime green one, but I’m a child.
Fantastic to see one that’s actually been used and enjoyed rather than a 6th car in a garage that gets a run out twice a year.
Cheers for putting costs in, too. It’s always interesting and most people tend not to for whatever reason.
I’ll bestalking following this with interest!
Pretty much my dream car for many years. Being picky, I’d want a lime green one, but I’m a child.
Fantastic to see one that’s actually been used and enjoyed rather than a 6th car in a garage that gets a run out twice a year.
Cheers for putting costs in, too. It’s always interesting and most people tend not to for whatever reason.
I’ll be
Superleg48 said:
Congratulations on your purchase. Looks like a stunner.
Has had its cats replaced with aftermarket cats? If not recommend you do this asap. The primary known issue with 5.0 cars is cat particle ingestion, causes bore scoring and ultimately engine failure. Huge thread on here in the Gallardo section on Simon’s experience - user 4321Go.
Also check out this YouTube link from RE Performance.
https://youtu.be/40oVSwFvdjw
The 5.0 can also go through 1 litre of oil every 600 miles. This is normal, so keep and eye on oil levels and read the manual on how to check the oil levels. It is dry sumped, so there is a process to follow.
Other than that, keep her generally well maintained. They are amazing cars!
Thanks for this, I was aware of the issue with the cats, this car has a sports exhaust system with 300 cell cats so no CEL, passes MOTs fine and (most importantly) no possibility of ingestion.Has had its cats replaced with aftermarket cats? If not recommend you do this asap. The primary known issue with 5.0 cars is cat particle ingestion, causes bore scoring and ultimately engine failure. Huge thread on here in the Gallardo section on Simon’s experience - user 4321Go.
Also check out this YouTube link from RE Performance.
https://youtu.be/40oVSwFvdjw
The 5.0 can also go through 1 litre of oil every 600 miles. This is normal, so keep and eye on oil levels and read the manual on how to check the oil levels. It is dry sumped, so there is a process to follow.
Other than that, keep her generally well maintained. They are amazing cars!
RE performance is just down the road from me and I bought this car with Ricky's advice, it's actually booked in there next weekend for a full checkover as well.
Super Sonic said:
You've posted two threads on your new car. I know it's a lovely car and you're very excited etc but...
(didn't have the heart to report duplicate thread)
Thanks for this post - indeed I have a post in the dedicated Gallardo section and also here in Readers Cars, you'll find that's pretty common on this site but as I say, thanks anyway.(didn't have the heart to report duplicate thread)
Shnozz said:
Lovely looking car that. I think they have aged really well. I felt the first generation aged badly after the LP560 was released and subsequently the Huracan but then over the next decade the early cars have something part classic/part modern about them.
Did you get the original wheels in the deal too?
Above all, congrats. Looks a great way to spend summer.
This car has been "updated" in certain areas (carbon top covers on the rear lights etc) to try and make it look more modern, I'm not fully decided yet on which of the mods will stay and which will go but in general it does look pretty good I think - less impressed with the interior, I'm fairly sure the dash and HVAC system are straight out of a similar age Audi A3 I used to have but you can't have everything I guess!Did you get the original wheels in the deal too?
Above all, congrats. Looks a great way to spend summer.
I didn't get the original wheels but I did get the original rear spoiler and steering wheel, funnily enough I actually like these rims so have no desire to change them back - the wing mirrors are going to have to change though, they're full carbon fibre and worth a fortune, given the places this car will be parked / left that's probably asking for trouble so I'll find a pair of OEM mirrors and swap them out for sure.
Zarco said:
Very nice. A V10 is on my bucket list too.
O/T - Looking at your profile, you did well buying and selling your 360. Maybe more on the buying; that was a steal in 2013!
The 360 purchase was a hell of a risk at the time (there's a thread or 2 on here about it) but it turned out well in the end, it now lives in Canada - a very well travelled Donkey!O/T - Looking at your profile, you did well buying and selling your 360. Maybe more on the buying; that was a steal in 2013!
I shall miss it but moving on was the right call.
loftylad said:
Wow. What a lovely car!
Pretty much my dream car for many years. Being picky, I’d want a lime green one, but I’m a child.
Fantastic to see one that’s actually been used and enjoyed rather than a 6th car in a garage that gets a run out twice a year.
Cheers for putting costs in, too. It’s always interesting and most people tend not to for whatever reason.
I’ll bestalking following this with interest!
Cheers, I'd been looking for a long time and yes, my first choice would be green too, however they really aren't common so beggars can't be choosers and all that!Pretty much my dream car for many years. Being picky, I’d want a lime green one, but I’m a child.
Fantastic to see one that’s actually been used and enjoyed rather than a 6th car in a garage that gets a run out twice a year.
Cheers for putting costs in, too. It’s always interesting and most people tend not to for whatever reason.
I’ll be
I did get an indiciative cost of about £5k to change the colour using something called liquid paint which is similar to a wrap but a lot of the accent colours wouldn't work with a green exterior so I think it'll stay black for now.
As far as the costs go, I use PH to keep track of my own automotive expenditure and due dates, so it's as much for me as anyone else but I always liked to see the accurate costs of owning a particular car too so try to keep it up to date.
Hopefully there won't be too much expenditure attached to this one!
For those who've requested more pics / videos, I'll try to get some sorted later in the week.
5harp3y said:
looks the business! More pics needed!
Your wish is my command, I've not taken it anywhere for some proper pics yet, so just a couple of statics on the driveway
One of the biggest improvements from the previous owner is this steering wheel, I got the OEM one with the car as well but this is just so much nicer to look at and use
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