Lamborghini’s Aventador 700-4
Roadster can do 0-62mph in three seconds dead and power on to 217mph. It’s
hugely impressive in every sense of the word.
You can forgive Lamborghini for being, well
bullish. At a time when supercar sales across the board are falling, the Sant’
Agata company can hardly turn them out fast enough. Guess how many Gallardos
it’s shifted since 2003? Would you believe 13,000? That’s not far short of half
the total number of Lamborghinis ever built during its 50-war history.
Lamborghini’s
Aventador 700-4
So it’s understandable why Lamborghini
feels confident enough to launch a 700bhp hyper car with an on-the-road price
of $441,980. And why it chose Miami to show the car off to the world’s press:
this is one machine guaranteed to upstage the Ferraris belonging to the kind of
citizen that Crockett and Tubbs worked so hard to bring to justice. The brief
to its designers was simple: ‘Forget utility. Concentrate on aesthetics and
performance.’
Even if it turned out to handle Like a
blancmange (don’t worry, it doesn’t), the Aventador Roadster would carry major
kudos just for the way it Looks. Lamborghini’s ever-cheerful head of design,
Filippo Perini, is a proper car enthusiast, he owns a much-used Alfa Duetto
Spider, a Caterham Sever and a Ford GT4O rep and he’s taken the origami school
of styling to the max with the Aventador, which Looks more like a concept car
than most concept cars. The engine cover has been given a hexagonal ‘suit of
armor’ appearance and, unlike the 1990s Diablo Roadster (see panel, right),
which had its removable roof panel stored above the engine, the Aventador
Roadster’s twin panels stow in the front compartment, allowing that glorious
V12 to be on full view at all times.
Caterham
Sever and a Ford GT4O rep and he’s taken the origami school of styling to the
max with the Aventador, which Looks more like a concept car than most concept
cars.
And it is glorious, without question.
Producing 700bhp at 8250rpm from its 6.5 liters, it sounds fantastic at any
speed - not least because you can electrically lower the glass panel behind the
cockpit to increase your aural satisfaction. Trickling through town in heavy
traffic, it’s hard to resist using the flappy-paddle-controlled seven-speed
gearbox in manual mode, holding each gear slightly longer than is strictly
necessary to generate a deep -chested growl under acceleration, and the
pop-pop-pop of un-burnt fuel when you Lift off.
The more ecologically sensitive will be
pleased to hear that the V12 has been tweaked to incorporate a very effective
stop/start for city driving, and that it switches to just six cylinders at
small throttle openings and Low road speeds. It all goes to help Lower
emissions and reduce fuel consumption, and since you don’t actually notice half
the cylinders going to sleep from time to time, they’re commendable changes.
The Roadsters eco credentials also benefit
from its comparatively modest weight of 1625kg (just 50kg heavier than the
Coupé). That’s thanks to the carbon fiber tub, about which Lamborghini is
inordinately proud, since it’s made in-house using state of the art technology.
Carbon fiber gives the Roadster an exceptionally high degree of torsional
stiffness, too: during testing at Nardo, the Roadster is said to have turned in
near-identical Lap times to the Coupé’s.
That’s
thanks to the carbon fiber tub, about which Lamborghini is inordinately proud,
since it’s made in-house using state of the art technology.
Lamborghini was confident enough in the
Roadster’s abilities to let the press pack hammer a selection of them around a
twisting circuit at Miami’s Homestead Raceway. You can select Strada
(‘Street’), Sport or Corsa (‘Race’) modes for the transmission shift points,
and these modes also govern the front: rear torque split for the 4WD system:
10:90 in Sport, 20:80 in Corsa and 30:70 in Strada.
Power hard out of a corner and the sheer
grunt available will push the nose wide, but otherwise the car feels well
planted and you can have fun experimenting with throttle-steer thanks to
steering that’s quick and talkative. The huge quantity of power and torque on
tap make the Roadster mentally demanding to push hard on a track and it never
feels quite as wieldy as, say, a McLaren MP4-12C or a Ferrari 458 but, in
truth, you wouldn’t buy an Aventador Roadster primarily as a track-day weapon.
It’s reassuring to know that it’s more than up to the job, however: the press
cars were alternately thrashed mercilessly and left idling for three hours
non-stop, and never put a foot wrong.
Lamborghini’s
Aventador 700-4 interior
Some people might think 300 grand Is a
lotto pay for a car but the Aventador is even more visually dramatic than a
Countach and a fraction the price of a Veyron or Pagani. As such, it’s actually
something of a bargain.
