Ok. Let me be honest here. I was at a total loss of words at the time I sat down to write down this review. And that has never really happened before. But when you come away after driving a supercar, these things are a natural aftermath. But wait a minute..I have driven supercars before, then why such a dilemma now? There is a reason to that. What I drove today was a little more.. ok much more than just a supercar. A 700 horsepower screaming Italian thorough bred is bound to leave you numb and speechless. Ladies and gentlemen, the Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4. The meanest, the baddest production Lambo ever built. As I write this, the feeling is still sinking in that I have actually driven this monster that Lamborghini calls a car. Overwhelmed that I am, I will still try and pen down the experience of piloting the flagship from The Raging Bull. It was one hell of an experience.
The Aventador was launched in 2011 at the Geneva Motor Show as a replacement for the Murcielago which had been around for almost a decade. The name Aventador is derived from you guessed it right, a fighting Bull. A very brave one at that, this bull was bred by the Don Celestino Cuardi Vides family and was entered into battle in October 1993. And even though he lost his life in the end, he earned the “Trofeo de la Pena La Madronera” for the immense courage he showed in the arena. That’s some story. But there always has been a special story behind the Bull every Lamborghini is named after. Ok, now to Aventador the car. At first glance you might feel that it looks similar to the Reventon, but in reality it is an all new car ground up. The body is a monocoque constructed completely from carbon fibre which is a first from Lamborghini. Apart from safety, this also makes the Aventador lighter benefitting performance. The car tips the scales at 1,575 kg and has a wheelbase of 2,700 mm. Coming to the design, the Lamborghini Aventador looks like right out of a sci-fi thriller of the future. It would feel right at home as the daily drive for any Star Wars character. No wonder it will be seen in the upcoming sequel to ‘The Dark Knight’ as well. The front and the rear looks are typical Lamborghini and I personally love the styling of the headlights. The ‘Y’ shaped DRLs look fabulous and at the same time give a very angry look to the car when you see it approaching upfront. The steeply raked windshield is a known Lamborghini trademark. The ORVMs are quite huge and offer good visibility of the road behind you. The electrically controlled side air intakes are neatly tucked in on the exterior of either side of the engine compartment, similar to what we have seen on its predecessor, the Murcielago. Infact, everything about this car is mega.
The rear is especially my favourite part of the exteriors. It is wide just like any big bad Lamborghini should be. The tail lights have arrow style LEDs with another set of LEDs for indicators incorporated in the tail lights itself. A humongous exhaust pipe is mounted in the centre and that itself gives you an idea of the mayhem that lies beneath that engine cover which you can get in transparent form as an option. The electronically controlled rear spoiler is nicely camouflaged in the body work. And don’t even get me started on how those beefy rear tyres look like from the back. Stunning !!! As with Lamborghini tradition, the scissor doors make their way into the Aventador as well but unlike the previous models where the doors opened vertically straight, the doors here open at a slight angle and give a superb stance to the car in my opinion.
Let’s talk about the interiors now. Open the scissor door to gain access to the insides. What you see is nothing less than the cockpit of a fighter jet. The digital instrument cluster is the most bizarre and incredible I have ever seen in a road car before. A huge tachometer sits right in the centre, just how I like it. The number of gears is also displayed on the tachometer. You have the option to toggle between the tacho or the speedometer as per your liking too. Lamborghini equips the Aventador with sports seats in full natural leather as standard. The seats are deep and even though Im short, I could make out that there is ample head room even for those who are 6 foot plus. Getting in is easy but getting out of the car does take a bit of an effort. The seats have manual adjust but the backrest can be adjusted electrically. However you can get full electric seats with heating as an option. You can customize the stitching for the seats and the dash in contrasting colours as per your requirement when you order your car. You can also have your steering wheel in suede or perforated leather. Definitely a nice touch. Look around the dash and the centre console and what comes to mind is “Mit liebe von Ingolstadt aus Sant’ Agata”. For those who are not familiar, that means “With love from Ingolstadt to Sant’ Agata” in the German language. Yep, the Audi effect can be seen here in the Aventador as well and a positive one at that as I mentioned in the Gallardo review sometime back.The centre console is huge and houses a TFT screen for the on board computer and entertainment system similar to the MMI interface seen in Audis. Below the screen you have the switches for power windows, ESC, front suspension lift and the hazard lights. Unlike those on the Gallardo, these have a soft touch to them and felt much easier to use. Below these you find the AC controls and the drive mode switches. More on those later. In the centre you see a small red flip open cover under which the START/STOP Engine switch is hidden. It looks exactly like missile deploy switch in a stealth bomber. The controls for the onboard computer below the Start/Stop button are convenient to use.
Last but not the least, buttons for Reverse, Manual and the electronic Parking Brake. Thankfully the Reverse button in the Aventador is located in the centre console unlike in the Gallardo where it was under the driver’s side AC vent. The glove box is anything but spacious and will only hold your vehicle documents and owner’s manual. The wire for I Pod connectivity is also provided in the glove box. At this point I must mention that the only other centre console I have seen of similar size is in the Porsche Panamera. Overall the interior quality is top notch. I have been fortunate to check out a Diablo in detail a few years ago and this is light years ahead of the quality and finish which I saw in that car.
Now we come to the main part that makes the Aventador the automobile it is. The engine. It is not a carry forward from the predecessor, but an all new motor. The new flagship Bull gets a 6.5 liter V12 engine which is mid mounted in a longitudinal position. And no, there is no Audi effect here. This is pure 100% Lamborghini. The Lamborghini Aventador gets 691 BHP @8,250 rpm and a max torque of 690 Nm @5,500 rpm. All this from a naturally aspirated 12 cylinder unit. No turbo chargers or super chargers here. Just pure raw Italian madness. Get into the driving seat and you automatically get the feeling that you are in for a special driving experience. The scissor doors are easy to reach out to and close unlike the gullwings of the SLS AMG. Again, lack of height adjust for the seat is a problem for your truly so the cushions come to rescue once again. Once you are belted up, press the brake pedal, flip open the red cover in the centre and press the START button. The way the engine comes to life itself will send a shiver down your spine so you can imagine what it sounds like when in motion. Coming to the drive mode switches which I mentioned earlier. There are three modes in which you can drive the Aventador. First is STRADA which for normal street driving, the other is CORSA which is race or track mode. This mode will work only with manual transmission. In between these two you have SPORT which sets up the car perfectly to be a blend of both the other modes mentioned above and this is what I chose of course with automatic shifting. Once you chose the desired mode by using the left or right arrow keys, pull the right pedal to choose first gear and you are ready to fly.
The first thing that you realize once you start driving is that you just cannot drive this car at slow speeds. I felt as if the car was talking to me and saying “You idiot, you are not supposed to drive me like this so either you get out or put the pedal to the metal will you?” I chose the latter option and floored the Bull. The terror and violence that follows cannot be really described in words. The acceleration of the Aventador defies all logic and throws it out of the window. The way the tacho climbs is outright scary. Each gearshift hits you like a jolt under flat out acceleration. The Lamborghini Aventador comes with a single clutch 7 Speed gearbox with ISR (Independent Shifting Rod). Note that this gearbox tips the scales at half of what its dual clutch counterpart weighs. Though the shifts are not smooth, they are damn quick thanks to ISR which consists of 4 independent rods. In this technology, while one rod disengages one gear, the other rod is already ready to engage the next one. While driving you notice that the positioning of the pedals is ergonomically awkward. While the throttle pedal is ok, the brake and the dead pedal are just too close to one another and you will find both your legs having tough time fighting for space. After a couple of instances I decided to keep my left leg away from the dead pedal. This car is so fast that I could hardly manage to hit 4 gear even on an empty Bandra Worli Sea Link. The 100 kph mark is demolished in 2.9 seconds which for the record is just off the Bugatti Veyron and the Aventador goes on to an insane top speed of 350 kph. The car gets an F1 inspired Push Rod suspension system where all the suspension elements are connected to the body itself. Good ride quality is not something that one should expect here and every road unevenness and bump is felt inside the car. But then, I wouldn’t term this as a negative. You expect comfort and ride quality in a normal car and the Aventador is NOT your average automobile. Lamborghini has given a lot of importance to handling in this car. The Aventador comes with a Haldex 4WD system and this has taken the handling to an all new level. I admit however that throwing around the RWD drive Gallardo was just too much fun. The Aventador keeps you in place though turning off ESC could change a few things. The Carbon Ceramic brakes have fantastic stopping ability and if you really want to experience some strong G’s try some late braking. Rubber for this beast comes in the form of 255/35 ZR19 in the front and mind boggling 335/30 ZR20 tyres at the rear. Now you know how the Aventador keeps itself stuck to the ground. The alloys come in silver finish as standard and if you can shell out a bit extra you can have them in black like the ones you see on the test car in the pictures. Rear visibility from the inside mirror is poor and reversing can be a problem. The optional rear view camera is what I would highly recommend here. As mentioned earlier, the large ORVMs are a big plus.
This is not a car to drive around the city in everyday traffic. It is nothing less than a pain at low speeds. The front lift suspension will of course help it over the speed bumps but as a petrolhead your heart will skip a beat when it hits bad roads. I did experience an ouch moment myself during my drive. And to say that the Aventador is a crowd puller would be an understatement. Park the car even in a deserted area and people will gather out of nowhere. Such is the street presence of this machine.
So how do I sum up the Lamborghini Aventador? Well, its huge, its low, stupidly fast and impractical. But I do not look at these factors as a minus. Why? Because this is a hypercar and hypercars are meant to be all of the above. If you don’t like that, go get yourself a Grand Tourer or the likes. Lamborghini have got the recipe just right. They have taken the game a notch up. I don’t see any competition to it in the near future until the Ferrari Enzo successor arrives. I am not including the Veyron here. Yes the Veyron is faster but then its way way more expensive than the Aventador. Not that the Lambo is cheap. The Aventador starts at Rs. 4.11 crore Ex Showroom Mumbai for the standard car and then you keep adding the options. It is way beyond the reach of most of us but if you experience one, you will want one. The Lamborghini Aventador has been the fastest and most powerful car I have driven and tested in my life. It has been a privilege and a personal achievement of sorts to have piloted this car or jet, whatever you may like to call it. I don’t know whether I will drive a more powerful automobile than this like the Bugatti Veyron in the near future. But then, I had never imagined that I would drive the Aventador either. Something to think about.
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