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Mike Sinclair3 May 2014
REVIEW

Lamborghini Aventador 2014 Review

Supercar speed and power combine with a chassis that demands technique. Like the fighting bull after which it's named, Aventador does not suffer fools

Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4
Track Test
Phillip Island GP Circuit, Victoria

Outrageous looks and almost as outrageous performance marks Lamborghini’s flagship Aventador LP700-4 as arguably the most OTT mass-produced car available today. Mega performance in a chassis that demands precise technique means that 99 per cent of drivers will be faster in the likes of Porsche’s new Turbo S or Lamborghini’s own upcoming Huracan. But the Aventador is a show and traffic stopper. Buy yours in Orange – after all, why not go the whole hog!

A couple of laps of a racetrack is barely enough to get to grips with a car’s most basic character let alone deliver an in-depth examination of a car’s strengths and weaknesses.

Any hope of doing so is further degraded by Sook’s Law: where the ability to conjure reasonable racetrack pace and consistency is inversely proportional to that car’s pricetag and power output.

So how do you think you’d go at the wheel of Lamborghini’s flagship Aventador -- all $761,500 plus ORCs and 700hp (515kW) of it?

I sucked!

Thus follows the ramblings of a bloke who’s just ticked another box in This Automotive Life (ie: driving a V12 Italian at a sporting clip at what remains one of the world’s best racetracks) but didn’t trouble the scorers in terms of fast, consistent laps. Take them for what they are...

We first sampled the Aventador via our man in Europe, Mr Taylor, at its launch back in July 2011. When Lamborghini lifted the lid on the 6.5-litre V12 carbon-tubbed supercar to create what it claimed was a “new benchmark in the world of open-top luxury super sports cars”, he of the checked shirt, Matt Brogan, got to punt the Aventador Roadster around a Floridian racetrack and promenade in South Beach. Both of the boys delivered chapter and verse on the technical aspects of the cars – I commend their work and won’t regurgitate it here.

Three years down the tracks, it took Australia’s first ever Lamborghini factory event before yours truly got behind the wheel. With significant effort expended on ‘harmonising’ Lamborghini’s local dealer network, in 2014 the factory deemed it time to invest in the Australian marketplace and did so via the Lamborghini Esperianza customer drive event – a deep dip into the world according to Lamborghini.

The chance to punt a bona fide supercar around a proper racetrack doesn’t happen all that often. Lamborghini Esperianza delivers just that – to both Lamborghini sales prospects (with the wherewithal to buy said supercar) and journos (very clearly without!).

And at the first of these events Down Under, the Aventador was the star – a fleet (I counted seven) of the low, wide and manic scissor-doored supercars were air-freighted to the Island along with factory racer driving instructors for the event.

Sales prospects were delivered a brief technical outline of the car plus a pocket history of the brand itself. As part of the experience we scribblers too were plied with the propaganda.

The presentation spoke in reverential tones about Lamborghini’s founder Ferrucio Lamborghini but somehow missed out completely that he built tractors first. I didn’t see Audi (current owner) mentioned once. With a supercar drive dangling, I thought it churlish to labour the facts...

My notes, normally my strong point, are from this point remarkably sparse – perhaps I was still debating whether to ask the tractor question.

But you don’t need a lot of words to provide a snapshot of the Aventador. They read (verbatim):

Coupe and Roadster
147kg monocoque – carbon, 35,000 Newtons per degree
Front and rear F1-style pushrod suspension
V12, 6.5 litres, 700hp, 500kW-plus
ISR seven-speed, 50 millisecond shift time
2.9 sec 0-100km/h
2.25 kg/hp
350km/h
$761,500. $795,000 for roadster.

Remember what I said about Sook’s Law? I wasn’t the only one uttering the pilot’s prayer: “Oh Lord, Please don’t let me f@#% up.”

Gulp!!!

ON THE TRACK
Putting the outrageous price and power figures aside, if the styling of the Aventador does not provide enough drama in its own right, the upward sweep of the scissor doors as you open them seals the deal. For some, this gimmick in its own right transforms a car into a super car.

The effect was lessened just a little given my first Aventador laps were in the Roadster. Somehow the whole entry and exit thing is different without a roof over your head. What isn’t lessened is the direct line from the V12 to your eardrums.

It almost goes without saying you sit low in an Aventador but it somehow feels even lower in the Roadster – maybe it’s the fact the side windows barely go to belt buckle height. Or perhaps it’s the exaggerated height of the console that separates you from your passenger.

Whatever, the overall effect is one of a low, reclined yet beautifully finished and fitted out bath-tub – albeit one with a steering wheel at one end and a ticking thermonuclear device at the other.

The quality of the fit-out didn’t surprise me, nor the fact the car seemed to shrink around you (despite its external dimensions – at 4780mm long it’s only a hand-span shorter than a Commodore but the same measure wider...). I do, however, remember being surprised that both the wheel and the seat adjustment were manual, and that I couldn’t find the window switch. It was one of the battery of poorly marked switches on the centre console.

There was, however, no missing the covered fighter-jet style switch below them. Flip the cover, push the red button and the theatrics commence.

With plenty of Volkswagen Audi Group knowhow, the boffins could have made the engine start instantaneously (after all, it does so when the car’s stop-start system is in operation). Instead, there’s a deliberate fraction of a second whir of the starter, a few more full revolutions without spark and then, whoompff -- all 12 cylinders cannon into action. And take it from me, in the roadster that’s an extra treat.

The Aventador’s electronics offer three drive modes -- Strada, Sport and Corsa -- selected via buttons on the high console adjacent the starter. The most obvious effect is the speed and action of the changes of the ISR single-clutch seven-speed gearbox. There’s no suspension adjustment but the modes also tune the throttle response and the degree of intervention of the stability and traction control systems.

In deference to the pricetags of the cars, Lamborghini said that turning stability control all the way off was a no-no. In deference to my health and welfare (and motoring.com.au’s bank account), I was happy to comply.

My first laps were almost literally a blur. Unsurprisingly, the Aventador is wickedly quick in a straight line, but I was circumspect with the car in the fast corners and clearly being ham-fisted out of the slow corners, as evidenced by the flat engine note as the traction control steps in. But in full flight, oh that noise – if Lexus’ LF-A has the best engine note in the road car world, the Aventador’s V12 must come a very, very close second.

Even 265km/h of wind noise in an open-top roadster can’t completely drown it out. Mega!

But the relationship did not get off to a smooth start. In retrospect, driving the Roadster in Corsa mode was a mistake. Like old-fashioned automated manuals, in this in-between mode, the gearchange action and throttle on-off-on-again dance was far from deft. Indeed, even at my relatively conservative pace it seemed to upset the car’s balance.

At the same time I was getting used to the placement of the pedals in the right-hand drive car. This is a car very definitely set up for left-foot braking. Using just your right means a significant shift of your foot away from the throttle for braking and this too tends to make the car a little pitchy.

In time you’d smooth things out, but in those first familiarisation laps I can guarantee you I felt all at sea.

TAKE TWO
Thus when I approached the Aventador LP700-4 Coupe an hour or so later, I did so with some prior knowledge and learnings onboard. It was time to take the bull by the horns.

But I still whimped out... A little... Well, a lot...

Choosing the top-spec Corsa mode, the ISR’s gearchanges border on harsh but the throttle lift is shorter and the whole effect is more cohesive.

Charging out of the pitlane at Phillip Island, the Coupe was scrabbling for traction but seemed a foot shorter and narrower than the Roadster. And there was no wind noise to mask that wonderful engine noise.

In a 515kW supercar even a standing-start out-lap demands a decent brake (with my left foot) into Phillip Island’s Turn One. Back on the throttle hard and the distance between that apex and the entry to the long double-apex Southern Loop is suddenly shorter... Waaaay shorter!

And the resulting unbalanced progress through the long corner as the car loaded and unloaded its front and back-ends was proof positive that, unlike some other fast -- indeed very fast -- cars, the Aventador clearly doesn’t suffer fools.

Cars like Porsche’s latest 911 Turbo and Lamborghini’s own Gallardo allow you a significant amount of leeway and ‘pamper’ the driver in terms of their reactions in situations like braking too late or even planned trail-braking into a fast corner. The Aventador didn’t bite me, but it growled through clenched teeth a couple of times.

The sheer pace the V12 piles on requires a mind shift on a racetrack. On the road it would require a brain transplant.

In many cars, the long left-hander that deposits you onto Phillip Island’s main straight leaves you feeling like you’d like an extra 100hp. Not in the Aventador. The steering is communicative and as you feed in the throttle you feel the wheel go just a little light as the front-end pushes and you temper your enthusiasm. Not too much, however -- lift off too aggressively and the big V12 feels like it’s coming around to take the lead.

Even in a straight line if you pause the cerebral processing for a few moment to enjoy the soundtrack you’re likely to end up in trouble. And then coupled with serious speed is that pronounced weight transfer under braking and on turn-in. It’s not wise to expect the Aventador to do both things at once.

That’s certainly the advice of Lamborghini Squadra Corse instructor Marco Apicella and ex-Red Bull Junior Program driver, Nathan Antunes.

In Phillip Island’s fast Turn Eight I get off the throttle earlier, brake smoothly and turn in gingerly and the back-end still feels like it’s stepping out of line and ‘jacking’ at the same time. Compared to the speed I’m generating in Turn One, having braked hard from around 270km/h, and the car taking almost full throttle through Turn Four, it’s scary enough to make me progressively slower through the Hayshed each lap.

Later Antunes agrees that’s the one place the car feels at sea. Apicella adds that for serious track work harder rear springs are necessary, bringing with them sharper turn-in characteristics that would not endear the car to fast road driving. That statement prompts the realisation there are very, very few roads on which you could exploit even a small part of the Lambo flagship’s abilities. And none of them legally...

All too quickly and without time to absorb the seat of the pants and fingertip ‘data’ to answer so many questions I’ll be asked, the drive is over.

This won’t be the last time we’ll get to drive a Lamborghini, says local regional boss Sebastien Henry as I step away from the car. With the all-new Huracan around the corner, I’m hopeful the Singapore-based Italian-speaking Frenchman is true to his word...

Lamborghini Aventador Coupe price and spec [Roadster in brackets]:
Price:
$761,500 [$795,000] (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 6.5-litre naturally-aspirated 48-valve V12 petrol
Output: 515kW/690Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed single-clutch automated manual
Fuel: 17.2L/100km
CO2: 398g/km
Safety Rating: not tested

What we liked: Not so much:
>> Mega performance and soundtrack is the best you can buy >> Requires precision and technique to drive fast
>> Turns heads and stops traffic >> ISR gearbox is old tech
>> Requires precision and technique to drive fast >> Roadster cabin is draughty (at 265km/h)
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Our team of independent expert car reviewers and journalistsMeet the team
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