One Lamborghini is an indulgence. Twenty-eight is a parade. Starter buttons are pressed, V-12s and V-10s hammer and yowl against the bare concrete of a parking garage, and the 2016 edition of the Western Canada Giro gets under way. Hang on everybody, here come the bulls.
On one hand, Canada is a country that normally eschews fancier machinery. We like things thrifty: our best-selling passenger car is the Civic, whereas in the United States, the Camry holds the sales crown.
However, Canadians can’t get enough of the pride of Sant’Agata Bolognese. The two best-performing Lamborghini dealerships in North America are Toronto and Vancouver. By mid-September, Vancouver has already matched its 2015 sales record, and is looking at moving the bar higher.
“We’re starting to see a different kind of owner,” says Robert Rons, manager of Lamborghini Vancouver. “Not just those who’ve inherited wealth, but entrepreneurs. It’s starting to become more of a community.”
The Giro, Italian for “tour,” is the Canadian version of a similar event held by Lamborghini North America this year in Utah. Take pride, Canadians, our Giro was bigger. Laid out over four days, the event takes owners out of the city and onto winding mountain roads, stopping off at fine restaurants and a private racetrack. Even better, all proceeds from the Giro go toward the Make-a-Wish foundation, ensuring that this drive helps someone else achieve their dream.
Most of the Lamborghinis in the Giro are new-generation cars, including a couple of the just-released 740hp Aventador LP 750-4 Superveloce Roadster. My chase car is the “entry-level” Lamborghini, a Huracán LP580-2. It costs as much as a house. Wait, this is Vancouver: it costs as much as a down-payment on an apartment. Rear-wheel-drive only, it’s slightly lighter than its stablemates, and is set up to be livelier to drive at the expense of ultimate grip.
With a 5.2-litre V-10 making 572 horsepower, it’s still far too much to exploit on a public street. In crowded traffic along Highway 1, Giro participants keep their cars tightly leashed. A Countach or a Diablo wouldn’t be happy about such treatment.
However, a modern Lamborghini is actually a civilized affair. You get the wedgy looks and the dagger silhouette, yet there’s still headroom enough for a normal driver. The Bluetooth works. So does the air-conditioning. The stereo is decent. It’s a front-row ticket to the theatre of Lamborghini ownership, but now your seat doesn’t catch on fire every second Tuesday.
You have to think Ferruccio Lamborghini would be pleased. The industrialist who founded the company thought Ferraris too race-focused, and originally sought to make more genteel Grand Tourers; with a modern Lamborghini, you get both the livability and the speed.
After fighting some truly horrific traffic, the road opens up and the 28 cars begin forming convoys of five or six machines. We pass a couple of school buses on their way to a field trip, and they suddenly list to the left as kids plaster themselves to get a better look.
The same thing happens when we stop in Chilliwack for a coffee break. Laid out side-by-side in a mall parking lot, the Giro’s rolling car show becomes a brief static display, and onlookers appear from all directions.
“What’s going on?” they all ask, followed immediately by, “Can I take a picture with your car?”
To their credit, none of the Giro participants acts the prima donna. They’re only too happy to show off their machines, and I even catch one or two conversations branching off to talk about pickup trucks or muscle cars. It’s an impromptu cars and coffee meet, popping up in the middle of the ordinary work week.
As the last stray cars form up, it’s time to move on to more open pastures en route to a lunch stop at Manning Park. The road clears of traffic by Hope, then starts climbing into the mountains. It’s a perfect day: the ash trees with their golden leaves fluttering in the breeze, the tarmac snaking up towards the pass.
“Our Lamborghini owners love to drive their cars,” says Asgar Virji, president of Lamborghini Vancouver. “They’re essentially always just looking for an excuse.”
But there’s more to it than that. As the exotics gather together again in an unremarkable parking lot, they represent something elemental and endlessly appealing about the supercar. It’s the coiled potential, just sitting there to be unleashed.
The Giro will go on to Area 27, where they’ll unleash some of that potential on the freshly paved tarmac of British Columbia’s newest racetrack. The V-12s will scream and the V-10s bellow, and everyone will come away with giant, semi-permanent grins.
But a Lamborghini is about more than just pure speed: it’s about adventure, and sound, and raw excitement. It’s why people buy lottery tickets. It’s why many of us grew up with Countach posters on our walls. You never know, right? Make a wish – next year, you might be joining the party.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this article stated the just-released vehicle was the Aventador Spyder. It is in fact the Aventador LP 750-4 Superveloce Roadster.