The Lamborghini Aventador is the long-awaited replacement for the legendary Murcielago. And quite some monster it is, boasting a vaguely comical 690bhp from its all-new V12 engine and a top speed of 217mph.
In many ways, though, it’s an old-school kind of car. Lamborghini refers to it as a 'super sports car' but in the end it’s still a big old bruiser with a monumental V12 engine and an exhaust note to make your heart explode. Same as it ever was from Sant'Agata, then.
What’s different is what lies beneath the typically extrovert exterior. Gone is the manual gearbox, no more is the legendary Bizzarrini V12 engine. Instead the Aventador is powered by a brand-new 60 degree, 6498cc V12 mated to a seven-speed paddle shift gearbox. And at its core sits a no-expense-spared carbonfibre monocoque wrapped in body parts fashioned mostly from carbonfibre – hence the claimed 1575kg kerb weight – with single-seater style pushrod suspension at each corner.
What we’re talking about, in other words, is a car that may look and sound like a traditional raging bull but one that’s very much at the leading edge technically.
Even the cabin is every bit as new and revolutionary as its engine, gearbox or suspension. And, mostly, it works as well as it looks. The basic ergonomics inside are better than the Murcielago’s; not only is the driving position much better organised but there’s also more room for your head and elbows, plus better visibility all round.
And yet it still feels unequivocally like a Lamborghini. Prod that start button and you’ll hear a familiarly charismatic scream from the starter motor, followed by a quite outrageous eruption of revs when the engine fires.
Even at 5mph this car sounds and feels fantastically alive. To begin with the steering seems lighter and a lot less cumbersome than a Murcielago’s, and the entire car feels more mature.
But the big news concerns the performance, and I can tell you here and now that it is astonishing. You do not just climb aboard this car and nail its throttle to the floor at the first sign of a decent road. Instead, you build up to that moment, slowly, and discover other things about this incredible car en route.
Like how explosive its throttle response is, even at 4000rpm, and how switching between its various drive modes (Strada, Sport and Corsa) alters not just the gearchange speed and severity but the crispness of the engine mapping as well.
And then there’s the gearshift itself, which Lamborghini claims is 40 per cent swifter than a Gallardo Superleggera’s, making it “one of the world’s fastest-ever automated gearboxes.”
It’s not a dual clutch system but it does pre-select ratios, so the effect is almost the same – in theory. In practice, however, it’s a long way from swapping ratios as quickly or as smoothly as a Ferrari 458 or McLaren MP4-12C. As ever, Lamborghini has engineered the shifts to feel as dramatic as possible. In Corsa mode, for example, you get a mighty thump in the back on upshifts and a huge burst of revs on downshifts.
But it’s difficult not to be in the mood for it when you’ve got 690bhp of V12 thundering away behind your head, plus one of the best balanced mid-engined chassis in existence through which to deploy it.
The acceleration and the noise are monstrous in every way, and the carbon-ceramic brakes are nigh-on race-car powerful, but there’s a fundamental composure that makes the Aventador seem unusually friendly for a big, hairy Lambo.
The steering is so light yet so precise, the handling balance so well resolved that you can take huge liberties without feeling like you’re on the verge of an accident. So long as you respect just how rapidly it accelerates it’s actually a pretty easy thing to drive hard. Much more so than the ‘will it, won’t it?’ Murcielago ever was.
If you’ve got the money and are sufficiently extrovert generally, it’s hard not to recommend the Aventador. One caveat, though. If you’re looking for the full-on ‘edge of oblivion’ driving experience that the Murcielago offered, you may be somewhat shocked to discover how refined the Aventador is. For most of the time, that’s a big step forwards. Make of that what you will.
