AIR May 2019

to the steering wheel on the Huracan, a
wild sister car that is equally deserving
of the raging bull badge. Impossible
to operate at night, the tiny switches
have been replaced with a conventional
column stalk in the Aventador.
There’s nothing easy or
straightforward about any Aventador,
of course – even climbing in and out
is a Houdini-style feat designed to
scalp all 6ft-plus passengers,, and
the restricted luggage space under
the bonnet needs to be supplemented
by stuffing the passenger footwell.
Worst of all, the single-clutch gearbox
is almost comically antiquated. At low
speed, occupants will be doing a headnodding
workout worthy of Jane Fonda,
usually accompanied by cries of: “It’s
not my rubbish gearchange, honest.”
Matters improve dramatically at
higher velocity, when the shift is
smoother. Not that you’ll notice,
because harnessing the SVJ on a
public road demands full attention.
Straight-line performance in the
SVJ is stupendous. And when you’re
heading into a corner, each highrevving
downshift on the huge
paddle-shifters is pure drama.
This amount of performance and
grip takes some getting used to.
With all this set off by an old-fashioned
V12 soundtrack and outlandish
styling, the Aventador delivers a
sensory overload rarely found in any
car these days. Modern, efficient
Ferraris and soulless McLarens can’t
hold a candle to the vibrations and
resonating thrills of the supersonic
SVJ, which really sticks the boot in.
Of course, for more than USD450,000
you might expect nothing less.
If you want to make an entrance,
there’s very little on the road that
shouts as loud as a Lamborghini.
And that price doesn’t include some
of the optional equipment on my
test car, including a “viola” paint
job at USD12,000 and a carbon
engine rocker cover for USD5,400
(I said it was beautiful).
In any other circumstances it would be
right to suggest the Aventador is a twoseater
that’s reached its sell-by
date. But what Lamborghini has done
here is turn an ageing, outrageous
supercar into something even
more spectacular. Just for one last
fling, for old times’ sake – and if
only to annoy the neighbours.
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