‘Curbing’ a Lamborghini costly lesson
It is a sound no automobile journalist wants to hear. It is the sound of beauty being tarnished, money being tossed out the window and plain old red-faced embarrassment. It is also, if you listen closely enough, the sound of reputation being sullied, of having to slink back to an automotive distributorship like a philandering husband skulking back from an ill-conceived night “out with the boys.” It is the sound — expensive and humiliating — of “curbing” the wheels of a $540,000 Lamborghini.
Schmucking a couple of grand worth of high-tech, forged aluminum APP Tech wheels definitely ranks as a downer.
My story is one of everyday distraction. I was shooting photos of the phantasmagorical bone-white Aventador in a remote location and, after an hour the darned thing wouldn’t start. I finally figured it was the alarm system thinking we had stolen the car.
Though quickly reset, my nerves were jangled nonetheless. So when the instrument panel later flickered while parking, I peered down for a closer look. You know what happened next: One second you’re innocently heading to your barber for a quick $40 straight-razor shave and shampoo and the next, you’re looking at a year’s university tuition worth of scraped wheel.
Again, what bothers me so much was the complete innocence of the entire debacle, quite literally how “it could have happened to anybody.” The deeper point of reflection, however, is that any distraction, deliberate — texting while driving — or the fleeting — glancing at said instrument panel — is fraught with disaster whether you’re piloting a 700-horsepower road rocket, or a 74hp Mitsubishi Mirage.
And yet, manufacturers want to load up our cabins with even more visual, auditory and sensory inputs.
Lamborghini Canada did refuse my insistence on paying for the paint damage caused by my momentary distraction. But, for the record, a sizable donation has been made to Volkswagen Canada’s favoured charity, United Way Centraide Canada. And if Italian parts prices really do turn out to be the stuff of legend, even more tithing may be needed to assuage my guilt.