My day-to-day mental operations often include a lot of daydreaming. Blame books and a car magazine collection that has been growing since 2008. By the time I discovered the Old Site, my brain was full of cobwebs that explored the weirdest avenues of the car internet.
Flagship Lamborghinis have a special place in my heart. Like a lot of ‘90s kids, my first exposé was a particular installment of Need For Speed on the PlayStation 2. The cover featured a prominent, yellow-painted Murcielago like the one that had just debuted at the 2001 Frankfurt Motor Show and landed in the EA game franchise around 2002. As a kid, I was motivated to own one (well, a digital one) and competed in campaign races to win that particular Murcielago. It was already the perfect color, what more could seven-year-old me ask for?
Still fresh in my head, the first copy of DuPont Registry I picked up was in 2006 (technically my brother picked it up but I still have it). The dream machine on the cover? None other than a Murcie. So it’s clear the desirability factor is high, and even as I grow and know better as an adult, it has always been on my radar.
The First Question New Murcielago Owners Seem To Ask
This brings me to a valuable lesson: no matter how much money you have, nor smarts you acquired to do valuable tasks that earn you said money, it seems buying something like a Murcielago leaves you a bit harebrained.
Case in point, there are forums with commenters that will raise tough questions. They usually go something like this:
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Just bought my first exotic! I have a 2004 Murci Coupe. In the center console I have a few buttons and indicator lights that seem to randomly blink. What is the buttons labeled 1-2-3-4 indicate?
Or:
So im in the process of searching and purchasing my first murcielago. (ive driven a few) but i notice that some of them have a control panel that sits behind the shifter. Ive searched for this with no results. ive also seen this control panel in some later model Diablos. A friend of mine who owns an 03 gated murci has these buttons and he has no idea what they do as well. He says when he presses them he feels no change to the car. So please can anyone finally explain what these buttons are for. If i had to guess Id say something with the suspension, but IDK.
Even Reddit sees this question come up:
Can anybody tell me what the auto button is for on the 2002 Lamborghini Murcielago?
Obvious grammar errors aside, it seems we’ve had more than a few stumpers who bought a Murcielago unsure of how one particular detail works:
So, here we have a layout of buttons with up and down arrows sandwiching an Auto option, a 4-3-2-1 countdown, with Auto and Error indicated via blinking lights. Hmmm.
What Do These Buttons Actually Do?
It’s simple, really. The Murcielago suspension has six Koni shocks – two in the front, four on the rear axle – that feature electroniocally-adjustable damping. The mystery buttons are merely the control panel for the dampers, which allow owners to adjust the suspension on the fly for enhanced handling (more damping, stiffer) or a more comfortable ride (less damping, softer).
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Why does this confuse everyone?
The issue lies in the design. In the Lamborghini, the shocks are connected to a microcontroller (aka PIC) that communicates with a Koni ECU that’s separate from the car’s main ECU. While traditional ECUs from this era are known to be tunable, microcontrollers often contain lines of code that are unmodifiable. Based on what I’ve been able to glean from Lamborghini documents online, the four settings (as you’d expect) correspond to four different levels of stiffness.
The Murcielago was the first new model under Lamborghini’s new owner, Volkswagen, and it was touted as a highly technological alternative to what Ferrari was producing. This is clear in the Lamborghini-provided cutaway above, which touts the vehicle’s AWD system and electronically controlled dampers.
Did The Adjustable Dampers Actually Make A Difference?
Curiously, it’s difficult to find reviews that mention trying out the settings and, even then, I’ve had a hard time finding someone stating the stiffer dampers made a big difference. Car And Driver tested it in a 2003 Murcielago and didn’t find much difference in performance. Specifically, the reviewer notes that:
“…despite the four driver-selectable damper settings, we noticed only two ride flavors: stiff and stiffer. Bumpy corners can induce a kind of lateral skittishness common to suspensionless go-karts.”
I gotta say, I’m in love with the Murcielago, but the idea of having the feel of a “suspensionsless go-kart” in a 4,000-pound supercar sounds like quite a handful.
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This wasn’t the first time these switches appeared as, shortly after taking over the company, Volkswagen put them in the soon-to-be-discontinued 2000 Diablo. By 2005, the control panel disappeared entirely, with the dampers relegated to a system that was fully automated. This makes a lot of sense. The average supercar buyer, especially the average Lamborghini buyer, probably isn’t interested in adjusting the suspension on the fly.
Thus, the “auto” mode was likely the default for most users even if they had the option of choosing the damping setting for themselves.
The latest Lamborghinis now have what the company calls Lamborghini Piattaforma Inerziale Version 2.0, which launched on the Huracan EVO. This is a
“…comprehensive set of accelerators and gyroscope sensors located in the car’s center of gravity, monitoring real-time lateral, longitudinal and vertical acceleration, as well as roll, pitch and yaw rate. The magnetorheological suspension, also upgraded to version 2.0, adapts damping instantaneously following inputs from the LPI.”
Basically, the system is now faster than your brain anyway, so there’s not much in having some little buttons to control it.
Many of the forum posts I found were from people who noticed the “error” light turning on, so the complexity of having an adjustable suspension operated by a set of buttons connected to a separate electronic brain seems like more hassle than it’s worth.
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If you somehow end up with a Murcielago with these buttons, just know I’m insanely jealous. I’m also happy we can shine a little light on what they are, though I have no clue how to fix the issue if you only noticed the buttons because of the flashing “error” light. Rest assured, if your Murci is riding like a suspensionless go-kart, the system is probably working as intended.
If any of you have a Murcielago with the driver-setting adjustable dampers, I’d love to know if you actually use them, and how much of a difference the settings make. Let me know in the comments!
Images: Lamborghini, unless stated otherwise
