Blaze of glory

This is the last incarnation of the Lamborghini Murciélago. Ever. But what a way to go out, says Richard Hammond...

During most awards ceremonies a Lifetime Achievement gong is bestowed upon some lucky banker/salesman/estate agent, and there is an especially delicious moment when the honorable recipient reaches the stage.

He or she stares, glassy-eyed over the crowd, to begin their thank you speech and you can just see, just hear them thinking, "But I haven't actually finished my life yet, I'm not dead. What if I do something amazing at the last minute?"

Well, no such worries for the Lamborghini Murciélago lp670-4 SV: this really is it, the end of the line. The award arrives to be placed on the table alongside its death bed. And how perfectly and completely fitting that it should be going out in such an orange blaze of glory, noise and speed.

This might be draped in hi-tech composites and exotic metals, but it is no modern, neutered, flower-friendly supercar. Unfettered by concerns perhaps, for its ability to fit in with whatever the future may hold for cars of this breed, Lambo has been able to let the big bull run free one last time.

They might be carbon-fibre, but those balls are definitely still swinging. This is absolutely everything a supercar should be: expensive, exclusive, mesmerising to behold and hear, and ludicrously, lethally fast. It's the end of the line for its 670bhp V12 engine too, which seems to howl its protest to the skies as the revs shriek past 8,000rpm.

Congratulations to a very worthy winner - not one that's going to shuffle down from the stage clutching its award, to ask for another sherry and wonder where the years went. This bull will be hurtling upside down through the Pearly Gates on fire and ready to create mayhem and turn heads wherever it may go.