It's a tingly, hollow-feeling hormonal rush that ties your guts in knots and makes your head feel fizzy. It's a sensation just a handful of cars can provoke. Cars like the Lamborghini Gallardo.

No other manufacturer in the world boasts an all-wheel-drive, V10-engined, 192mph entry-level model, but then no other manufacturer in the world has Lamborghini's unrivalled reputation for building jaw-dropping supercars. Consequently, absurd as it may seem, Gallardo is Lamborghini's baby. All 1440kg, 500bhp and ΂£120,000-worth of it.

It's been an elephantine gestation period and a troubled labour, but the birth of Gallardo heralds a bold new era for Sant'Agata. Such rejuvenation wouldn't have been possible without significant investment from parent company Audi. But although this has inevitably brought some cultural changes to this most Italian of marques, Gallardo is proof that the talented minds working at Lamborghini remain as fertile as the agricultural region in which the factory has its foundations.

We're waiting, as we always do, in the Lamborghini factory caf΃© just a stone's throw across a courtyard from the factory floor itself. As we stand at the window, sipping slugs of coffee so strong our eyelids begin to sweat, tantalising glimpses of part-constructed supercars can be seen above the rims of our espresso cups. Then, with a bark and rumble that makes the window pane tremor in its frame, a yellow Gallardo nudges out of the shadows, scruffy 'Prova' trade plate gaffer-taped casually onto the otherwise immaculate tail in time-honoured fashion.

Unmistakably Lamborghini, yet uncharacteristically trim and compact of form, the Gallardo manages to pack a quart's-worth of presence into a pint-sized supercar pot. At first glance there's much to link it with big brother Murci΃©lago. Gaping, angular intakes and slash-cut headlights are exaggerations of the V12 flagship's familiar facial cues, but the minimal front and rear overhangs, snake-hips and gill-like vents that slice into the rear haunches hint at a tightly-focused design that trades gratuitous stylistic extravagance for bullet-like singularity of purpose.

That's not to say the Gallardo is a barren exercise in heartless form-follows-function styling, for thanks to the combined efforts of Italdesign and Luc Donckerwolke, memorable detail flourishes abound. Just take the door mirrors. Beautiful, abstract, functional sculptures that jut defiantly forward into the airstream, they are a directional contradiction that perfectly emphasises the Gallardo's otherwise tensed, ready-to-pounce stance. The tail-lights are also a highpoint; exposed, enticingly integrated bricks of ruby red that extend into the upper surface of the rear wings. The more you look, the more you see. Like a great work of art, you could spend hours poring over the fine detail of this thing.

Surprisingly, given they've become a Lamborghini trademark, the most ordinary aspect of Gallardo is its doors. No flamboyant, crowd-pleasing scissors here. Only the range-topping Lambo warrants that particular eccentricity. Instead, driver and passenger gain access via conventionally hinged portals. Disappointing? A little, yes, but whether you swing the driver's door up or out, climbing into this newest Lamborghini is nothing less than momentous.

You sit low in the Gallardo, backside just inches off the ground, windscreen arcing off into the distance, stubby nose diving out of sight, view ahead dominated by a neat, bubble-shaped instrument binnacle. Glance in the door mirrors and you'll catch the leading edge of each rear wing scribing a long, looping trajectory before being cut off in their prime by the ruthlessly abbreviated tail. It's an extreme driving environment: thick A-pillars partially obscuring your diagonal sight-lines, letterbox rear window and worrying over-the-shoulder blindspot. Though falling short of the Diablo's levels of sensory deprivation, it's more confined than the light, airy ambience of a 360 Modena. The result is an authentic shrink-to-fit supercar interior that effortlessly overshadows the humdrum environs of a Porsche 911, while retaining a semblance of everyday usability.

Though initially a little daunting, you soon feel at home in the Gallardo. There's less intimidation, less of the paranoia that is part and parcel of sitting at the pointy end of a seven-foot -wide monster like the Murci΃©lago. You might not be able to see the Gallardo's farthest flung extremities, but you can certainly sense where they are with some confidence. It feels comfortable, tailored for the purpose of driving fast (and slow) on real roads. In this respect it combines the instinctive, go-for-the-gap 911 wieldiness with a genuine sense of occasion. Perhaps uniquely for a Lamborghini, you feel like you can really drive the thing before you've so much as started the engine.

Ah, the engine. Displacing 5 litres and delivering 493bhp and 376lb ft of torque, the Gallardo's dry-sumped, all-alloy V10 is one of the world's most potent production motors.

One of the most sophisticated, too, thanks to a variable-length inlet manifold, variable valve timing on both inlet and exhaust valves, drive-by-wire throttle and emissions levels that satisfy the toughest global legislation. It's also set in a wider 'V' angle, opened out from the 72degrees adopted in the V12 engines to 90degrees to keep the centre of gravity as low as possible.

Like the Murci΃©lago, the Gallardo employs Lamborghini's Viscous Traction all-wheel-drive transmission. Although set to direct 70 per cent of the V10's output to the rear wheels in steady-state driving, when accelerating hard, or travelling uphill on a high-grip surface, the bias will increase further towards the rear. However, when the rear wheels begin to lose traction, the viscous coupling within the transmission can direct as much as 50 per cent of the load to the front wheels.

Traction is further enhanced thanks to a limited-slip rear differential at the back, while wheelspin is contained at the front via the ESP system, which can brake individual front wheels to regain traction. It's a neat system.

In a first for Lamborghini, there's also the choice of a conventional stick-shift six-speed manual or F1-style sequential-manual paddle shift gearbox. Developed specifically for Lamborghini by Magnetti Marelli, the paddle-shift 'box employs the same basic concept as that of Ferrari and Aston Martin. Operated via a pair of paddles fixed to the steering column, it's this version we'll be driving today.

Turn the key, watch as the LCD portion of the dash illuminates, depress the brake pedal, pull back on both paddles to select neutral, twist the key against its spring loading and wait for the bang. It takes a while to come: a second or so of piercing starter motor wail penetrating the cockpit before all ten cylinders kick into life. It's a big, bruising sound, busy at idle, satisfyingly sonorous when you give it a juvenile blip-blip on the throttle. Pull back on the right-hand paddle, squeeze the throttle and away we go.
I find it somewhat galling that thanks to the programming expertise of some sad computer nerd, a total novice could quite happily jump in a car like the Gallardo and change gear with all the hard-earned, decade-and-a-half learned smoothness of a sad car nerd like me. Still, the adoption of such new-fangled technology does make for an uncannily refined low-speed Lambo. No calf-busting clutch pedal to pump, no recalcitrant gearlever to stir around until the gearbox oil is warm. Just slick, finger-flippin' short-shifts, perfect for creaming that awkward getting-to-know-you phase, which invariably takes place on traffic-clogged, stop-start roads.

Part-throttle and steady-state noise levels are pretty subdued, which seems at odds with the hardcore, animalistic Lamborghini ethos of old. But modern times demand a certain level of civility, even in a thoroughbred Italian supercar.

The damping is tolerant of urban lumps and bumps, soaking up road shocks with a minimum of fuss and demonstrating how well isolated the extruded aluminium space-frame chassis structure is from what punishment the double-wishbone suspension is going though. What's obvious from the outset is that the Gallardo is built to be used regularly, not just for high days and holidays. So has Lamborghini gone soft? Not exactly...

Having cleared Sant'Agata and skirted around Modena, we find ourselves on familiar evo testing territory, high in the hills above Maranello. In the five years since evo was launched, I've been fortunate enough to drive some momentous cars on these roads: Maserati 3200GT, Ferrari 360 Modena, Spider and 575M, the very first Pagani Zonda C12 and C12S. They are roads I know as well as my journey home from work. This is going to be fun.

The first opportunity to floor the throttle is one to savour, for the noise is unlike that of any other road car in production. The response is instant, hardening from a mellow, slightly distant warble to a sharp-edged, no-nonsense bellow. Once on song, the noise is like two Group B Audi quattros singing slightly out of sync.

Finger the 'Sport' button on the transmission tunnel and the upshifts become snappier, downshifts accompanied by sickeningly sweet throttle blips and a barrage of spits, pops and bangs. It's a riot of mechanical music.

It might be the baby of the Lamborghini range, but the Gallardo has grown-up muscle, the gearing true supercar reach. The numerous hairpins that pepper our test route are tight but not excessively so, but it still feels right to hook first gear when you're going for it. As you'd expect, there's immense traction, even with this much power, and it's not long before the ESP system is switched out, such is the confidence you gain from the front end's faithful feel and the innate balance of the chassis.

In fact the front feels ever-so-slightly reluctant for the first part of any given turn. But where a Ferrari 360 is all initial bite and response, quickly followed by a mild but significant sense of under-tyred understeer, the Gallardo settles into the subtlest whiff of understeer before finding its feet and remaining resolutely on-line. You can hear it working each tyre in turn, first the fronts, then as you begin to feed in the power, so the rears begin to chirrup in unison. In terms of tangible, reliable feedback and sheer chuckability, the Gallardo has the Modena licked and gives the 911 a run for its money.

Play with the throttle mid-turn, or even chance a lift on the entry to the tighter corners and you can provoke a delightfully exploitable shift from safe 'warning shot' understeer to holdable power-oversteer. It's a car you can grab by the scruff of the neck and drive. The power delivery helps - all that low and mid-range muscle to keep the Pirelli PZero Rossos lit up. Its beefy, sustained shove is reminiscent of big hitters like the Maranello and Murci΃©lago. What it lacks, or rather what you'll miss if you're a fan of the 360 Modena's savage top-end race to the redline, is a perceptible power peak, a point at which the V10 is giving its all.

The best way I can describe it is that, when driving purely by ear, it feels natural to pull for a higher gear 1000-2000rpm short of the 8000rpm redline. It's not that the engine gets rough, tails off or runs out of puff (maximum power is reached at 7800rpm). Tellingly, though, its torque peak is reached at 4500rpm, and it's this threshold that makes the biggest impression. Yet in raw accelerative terms the Gallardo is never less than mighty.

Equally awesome are the Gallardo's brakes. Monster 365mm front and 335mm rear discs shimmer behind glorious 19in alloys and are gripped by fist-sized eight-piston front and four-piston rear Brembo callipers. They work sensationally well. Braking extremely late into the bumpiest corner entry we can find, the ABS refuses to be wrongfooted, with just the slightest pulse underfoot hinting at the battle being fought between tyres and tarmac. Pedal feel remains firm and consistent, even at the end of a prolonged and committed hill descent peppered with hairpins and punchy first-second-third straights. This is one bull that charges and stops with equal conviction.

Diehards were quick to pour scorn on Audi's involvement with Lamborghini, but far from diluting the essential appeal of this most charismatic of supercar builders, Audi's commitment to the long haul has provided Lamborghini with the stability, security and continuity it has been crying out for since the Countach days.

Ironically, just as the breed of fighting bulls from which the Gallardo takes its name were made stronger and more courageous through selective breeding, so the union between Lamborghini and Audi has developed a new and formidable supercar.

Be in no doubt, the Gallardo will send shock waves through the heart of Maranello, Stuttgart and beyond.