They look like nothing else, they sound like nothing else; they ensnare us with their ludicrous coachwork and outrageous proportions, but there is a paradox that is both central to and responsible for the greatness of many of Lamborghini’s road cars. It is this: despite the strutting-peacock styling and shameless exuberance of their silhouettes, these cars are actually best defined by the way they drive.

It is a fact that the foundations of Automobili Lamborghini were based on Ferruccio Lamborghini’s dissatisfaction with the performance and refinement of his Ferrari road cars, not with the way they looked. The story of his falling-out with Enzo Ferrari is well-known, but in the context of this test – one that sets out to discover the greatest Lamborghini road car – it’s important to remember that for a brand immortalised for a generation by vast aerofoils and pornographic Pirellis, the company was conceived through mechanical conviction, and not otherwise.

There endeth the lesson on the importance of recognising the driver-currency of the greatest Lambos – or at least it certainly ends when you are presented with these four cars on a Welsh hillside.