Gallardo

Segment
Coupe

The Lamborghini Gallardo is many things, not least of which a symbol of automotive excess and the precursor to the Lamborghini Huracan. It's also a weapons-grade piece of high-performance road-going machinery, with a fire-breathing naturally aspirated 5.2L V10 good to be squeezed for 552 horsepower in its later model years.

And sometimes, it's a rallycross car.

A video uploaded to the TH-Motorsport channel on YouTube last month, uncovered by The Drive, captures what is surely one of the baddest, most dirt-slingin'est Lamborghinis around, being driven in the Autocross Ortrand in Eastern Germany - an event that, despite its name, is very much what we would call a "rallycross" here in the US.

We don't need to tell you that a Lamborghini does not make for the most obvious rallycross car, AWD or not, and indeed, it absolutely stuck out amongst the myriad of Audis and Volkswagens also entered in the event. But considering the sheer number of Gallardos sitting idly in garages all around the world, wasting away as they're driven somewhere between "rarely" and "never," major props to this guy or gal for strapping into their flashy German-Italian supercar and sending it in dirty, wheel-to-wheel competition.

Plus, if we could choose only one engine to listen to every day until the day we died, we'd definitely pick a V10. This Gallardo sounds positively fantastic being slid sideways around the dirt track.

Ultimately, this right here is why rallycross deserves to blow up here in the US. Europe watches the FIA World Rallycross Championship. Why can't we be more like Europe?

Or maybe it's a reminder that Italy needs a new, modern-day successor to the Lancia Stratos - the brilliant wedge-shaped, rear-mid-engine Group 4 rally car that won the WRC title three years in a row in the '70s - to enter into modern rally-style racing events. The so-called "New Stratos" from Manifattura Automobili Torino is cool and all, but with just 25 planned for production, the chances of one going racing are essentially nil. Plus, it's just a Ferrari F430 with a $600,000 body kit.

Whatever it is, this rallycrossing Lamborghini Gallardo is utterly brilliant.