And like the coupé is available in fire-breathing Superveloce form which means the Aventador Roadster has 729bhp at its disposal rather than the equally ludicrous 680bhp that is bestowed on the standard Aventador.
Despite weighing some 50kg more than the coupé, Lamborghini claims the Roadster can set exactly the same time around the number one handling circuit at the Nardo test facility in the hands of all its test drivers.
Had the roof simply been removed and various areas of the car not been redesigned to accommodate the one quarter decrease in stiffness, there is no way the Roadster could achieve such basic speed across the ground.
On the road that’s exactly how it feels: pure, fast and sharp, and perhaps even a touch more precise than the coupé at the front end thanks to the fitment of bigger diameter tyres (optional 21-inch 355/25s at the back with 20-inch 255/35s at the front on the one we tested). These, say Lambo’s testers, make a small but key difference to front-end bite during the turn-in phase.
The result is a car that's less prone to understeer in slow corners (which is welcome) without there being any extra nervousness at the back in fast corners (ditto). Overall the Roadster just feels like it has more grip than the coupé everywhere, basically, and at least as well balanced near its monumental limits.
So although it might weigh an extra 50kg, the roadster gives little if anything away to the coupé from behind the wheel. Other than the fact there’s no roof, it even feels the same when you’re in the driving seat, which is no surprise given that the dashboard, instruments, switchgear and seats are all identical to those of the fixed head.
The roof itself comes in two forged carbonfibre panels that are removed by unlocking a couple of latches and lifting them out manually. Each panel weighs just 3kg and stores neatly beneath the bonnet in the boot. Once in situ they render the luggage capacity all but useless, but then, as Lamborghini says, “You don’t buy a car like this to go shopping with”. Which is fair enough, even if it would be handy to be able to put something slightly larger than a toothbrush in the boot when the sun comes out.
Rather more impressive (and entirely believable) is Lamborghini’s claim that the roadster can reach its astonishing 217mph top speed with or without the roof in place. The highest speed I reached was about 160mph along the main straight at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, at which point any noise being generated by the wind was drowned out completely by the machinations of that monster V12.
At lower speeds, however, it’s clear that Lamborghini's designers and aerodynamicists have done a fine job of managing the flow of air away from the cockpit: at 80mph with the windows up and the small rear bulkhead screen raised, conversation is remarkably easy to maintain.
Unlike the Murciélago Roadster, there’s a genuine level of refinement to this car’s demeanour when you’re driving it al fresco, up to and beyond three figures.
But the best mode to drive it in is with the roof up and the bulkhead panel that sits behind your head down. This tiny glass panel is the only thing that separates your ears and brain from the screaming, 691bhp V12, and when you lower it the volume levels become cataclysmic.
You can almost smell the unleaded being burned, and it sounds far, far angrier – and louder – than the coupé does at any point within the 8500rpm rev range. You sometimes wonder if your ears might actually be getting damaged.
