A 200-MPH Salute

Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 roadster three quarters of a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 grand sport at one-quarter of the price.

Lamborghini's Aventador Roadster, arguably the best varietal ever bottled at Sant'Agata Bolognese, is the perfect way to celebrate the company's 2012 global sales being up by 30 percent, the healthy backlog of Aventador orders, and Lamborghini's 5oth birthday. While the rest of the car world frets over electrics and hybrids, Lamborghini is toasting its middle age with a $448,295 magnum of dolce spumante.

This is hardly the first time a manufacturer has popped the cork on a coupe to woo sun worshippers, but there's more to this Roadster (which is actually a targa) than solar-heated seats. To minimize the loss of structural integrity, its carbon-fiber tub is reinforced with thicker rocker sections and additional composite material laid over the driveline tunnel and firewall.

While the rest of the car world frets over electrics and hybrids, Lamborghini is toasting its middle age with a $448,295 magnum of dolce spumante.

With the two gloss-black roof panels removed, the targa's torsional stiffness is 37 percent lower than the coupe's but, short of a lab measurement or a sibling comparison test over a bad road, you'll never notice the slightly softer foundation. Resealing the cockpit by plugging the top panels' locating pins into four windshield sockets, plus securing the two rear latches, restores 15 percent of the lost stiffness.

Each top panel weighs just 13 pounds thanks to Lamborghini's first production application of its forged-composite process, which takes 1 to z inch-long carbon-fiber strands laced with resin, packs them into a precise mold, and squeezes them in a heated 1100-ton press. If you wish to bask in the glow, remove the tops and plug them into receivers in the luggage compartment for storage. That consumes 90 percent of the limited luggage space, a problem for your valet to resolve.

That consumes 90 percent of the limited luggage space, a problem for your valet to resolve.

Other targa-specific features include twin pop-up B-pillar posts that deploy in the unlikely event of a rollover. The side-window glass is beveled along its top edges for tight sealing, and a small glass panel between the rear roof pillars can be lowered electrically to orchestrate the back breeze and V-1z serenade. The claimed weight gain is a modest 110 pounds.

While sculpting the original Aventador, Lamborghini's chief designer, Filippo Perini, drew inspiration from the F-22 Rap- tor, the B-z stealth bomber, and shiny green beetles with zigzag legs. His team added a few stylish hexagons to the Roadster to underscore Lamborghini's admiration of the sixth element-carbon. Four overlap- ping, tempered-glass panes set inside two elongated hexagons solve the problems of maintaining a view of the engine while venting heat and providing weather protection. Other hex shapes surround the exhaust pipes, cover the fuel filler, define the door openings, and guard the engine stop-start button against accidental use.

The powertrain layout is as mesmerizing as the jagged exterior. The 691hp 6.5-     liter V-12 mounted just behind the cockpit has the output end of its crankshaft aimed forward. A transfer case sandwiched between the engine and the seven-speed Oerlikon Graziano automated gearbox spins two drive shafts offset to the right of the car's centerline. One drives the rear limited-slip differential housed inside an extension of the engine's sump, and the other delivers torque through a Haldex coupling to the open front diff. While up to 6o percent of the available output can be routed forward, in practice the front twist varies between none and 30 percent. So the Roadster's rear Pirelli P Zero boots-now offered with APP TECH forged wheels in an optional 21 inches-do most of the work, as they should for optimal steering and handling.

Instead of diving into the hybrid deep end, Lamborghini engineers merely dipped a toe into the efficiency pool with two new engine-control schemes. One bank of cylinders cuts out while cruising in upper gears at speeds below 84 mph via a temporary interruption of fuel delivery. At traffic lights, a stop-start system shuts down the entire engine, relighting it in only 180 milliseconds with a starter powered by a super capacitor. The Roadster's higher weight and drag result in EPA ratings of 10 mpg city and 16 highway versus ii and 18 in the coupe.

Instead of diving into the hybrid deep end, Lamborghini engineers merely dipped a toe into the efficiency pool with two new engine-control schemes.

Fuel economy is likely a low priority for anyone stepping past the scissor doors and swinging a leg over the foot-wide sill. Once the entry procedure is mastered, the firmly bolstered bucket seat, flat-bottomed wheel, sparkling liquid-crystal instruments, and center-console control array worthy of a 777 begin their beguiling act. Punch the starter button to scare the i2-cylinder, and you begin believing that this seat really could be worth its outrageous price, which is a mere $44,100 more than the coupe's.

The Aventador Roadster's unmatched dynamic range is the clincher. Instead of surfing through tedious configuration menus, the driver just taps two buttons that summon a choice of "strada," "sport," or "corsa" modes, which alter key powertrain, chassis, and body-panel variables. Corsa delivers the physics equivalent of a cliff jump: Clicking the paddle shifters smartly will whipsaw your viscera to 60 mph in about three seconds and through a quarter-mile in less than 11. Timely wheel-and-pedal work yields near-1.o-g cornering and denture-detaching i.o-g-plus braking. The audio track sounds like a stirring mix of Winter- nationals and Le Mans. In strada, the steering lightens for the ride home from a hot day at the track, and the seven-speed gearbox upshifts with Hydra-Matic politeness. Sport is the happy compromise, where the hydraulically assisted steering effort is dialed back from exercise-machine mode and you're provided with a choice between high-utility manual and placid automatic shifting.

In strada, the steering lightens for the ride home from a hot day at the track, and the seven-speed gearbox upshifts with Hydra-Matic politeness.

The Aventador Roadster's brilliant performance, 200-mph top speed, and endearing manners put it in an elite club that currently includes three Ferraris (458, FF, F12berlinetta) and McLaren's 12C. A 991-series Porsche 911 GT2 will likely join the conclave in a year or so. What distinguishes the Roadster in this illustrious group is that it offers a turbulence-free alfresco mode with a courageous yet compelling design statement. That, and that it achieves its speed without resorting to turbocharging, is what makes this car a smart, quarter-price alternative to Bugatti's Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport. For saving this tasty refreshment for the Aventador's second coming, Lamborghini deserves our heartiest Cin Cin Salute.