I saw one on the road yesterday and it looked great. I went on Ebay and saw a few for sale in Florida for around 120,000. How does it compare to older Gallardos in the 04-06 range for performance and practicality seeing that they are similar in price?

 

The cars you see around are pre-production cars being driven by employees of SRT, to log the necessary miles before the motor can get final certification (I believe 1,000,000 total miles necessary). I have owned a 2008 Viper (same basic drivetrain) and a 2005 Gallardo. I put almost 48,000 miles on my Viper and over 7,000 miles on my Gallardo in the 7 months I've owned it. The SRT Viper's actually start at $97k, and the GTS model starts at $120k.

In regards to your question of performance, the Viper just straight demolishes the Gallardo, there really isn't a comparison until you slap a set of turbo's on the Gallardo. Even without any of the electronic nannies on my Viper, I felt more comfortable driving the car aggressively than the Lamborghini, which felt like it pushed a lot in the corners.

As far as practicality, you could daily drive a Viper (I did) but it really isn't that practical in the Gallardo. It's a rolling car show, with people always gawking at you, coming to ask you questions, snapping photos, etc. If you care about your car not being damaged, it also makes you a little more paranoid when you drive it. I never hesitated to take my Viper anywhere, but there were a lot of places I wouldn't dream about taking my Gallardo.

Factor in the ownership costs for a 9 year old Lamborghini, versus a brand new under warranty Viper, and it's a no brainer. My total maintenance cost on the Viper for all four years, plus two clutches and the aesthetic mods I did, wouldn't even touch the cost to change the clutch in the Gallardo. Hope this helps!

 

You may have just made my decision for me. I plan on having the car for awhile so im trying to be 100% positive on what car i am going to purchase. I'm going to wait for the opportunity to test drive the new viper before I make any decisions.