How I Spent My Saturday: Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4

What’s black, has a devilish 6.5-liter V-12 that makes almost 700 horsepower, is made mostly from carbon fiber, has pushrods at all four corners and costs about $400,000? If you answered, “an F1 car,” you’d be wrong but not that wrong. No my friends, we’re talking about the latest road going terror from Italy, the 2012 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4. And yes, I just drove one. Thanks for asking.

What’s it like? Well, in a non-surprising nutshell, it’s fast. Like, you can’t be serious fast. Like I just pulled the most excellent column-mounted metal shift paddle into 4th gear and the convoluted yet future-fabulous digital speedo is showing me an indicated 120 mph on a two-lane mountain road. If a cop had pulled me over I would have beaten myself with his nightstick because my actions were just so criminal. In my pitiful defense, I had no concept of the speed I was traveling because with the singular exception of the Bugatti Veyron, I’ve never sat behind the wheel of anything quite so omnipotent.

Of course, what do you think 691 horsepower (691!), 509 pound-feet of torque, the traction of AWD and a 3400 pound-ish curb weight equal? Your own personal bullet train, that’s what. I’ll give the Aventador’s straight line performance a perfect 10. But then there’s the handling, which due to those F1-style horizontal dampers and a hyper-stiff carbon fiber tub plus the nifty AWD, also rates a 10 out of a possible 10. I just couldn’t get the car to misstep. Big shocker, I know. Same goes for the big carbon ceramic brakes. The styling might be 12 out of 10, but of course that’s subjective. Can we at least agree that looks-wise the Aventador’s one capital offense past sinister?

So, best car ever? No, not quite. While better than the transmission it replaces, Lamborghini’s high-tech independent shifting-rod (ISR) 7-speed auto-clutch leaves something to be desired (for a better breakdown on the ISR transmission, see Ron Kiino’s first drive). Like the old unit, if you’re just tooling around in automatic, the shifts are slow, even lifeless. Put it into Sport (why on earth would you ever have to put a supercar into sport?) and things improve, a bit. But if you want the ultra-violence the transmission is capable of (sub 50-millisecond gear swappage) you need to switch into Corsa. Kinda.

I’m in Corsa (the ISR is manual only at this point) and I slingshot from a standstill down the road in first gear up to about 7,500 rpm. I pull the paddle and GA-BAM! What a shot! What a shift! What a double boot to my poor kidneys! Only now I’m nearing 90 mph and there’s a big turn coming, so I pull the up paddle at about 4,000 RPM. Shift. Where’s the explosion? Where’s the drama? Why haven’t my glasses flown off my face? There’s still too much interpretation of what the tranny-computer thinks I desire. For $400k, just go ahead and give me what I want, please. Hurt me. Point is, I’ve driven the Ferrari 458 Italia and the Nissan GT-R, two dual-clutchers that sport what I feel are the best transmissions on earth. The Aventador’s lightweight ISR box just isn’t as good. And that’s a shame.

Also, I’m not sure how Lamborghini this Lambo is. It might just be me, but when I think of cars from Sant’Agata I think of full-blown, all out, psychopathic bat guano. But the Aventador just didn’t light my chest hair on fire. In more than one way, it reminded me of a big Audi. Smooth, refined, but ultimately just too German. Let me give you an example. Photographer Mike Shaffer reported that from outside the car, the bull-tastic V-12 sounded like outright insanity. But from inside? Well, It was pretty quiet. Not quiet like your mamma’s Lexus RX350 is quiet, but did I mention the lack of flaming chest hair? In my opinion, Lamborghinis should shriek like they’re trying to fight off the Rapture, at all times, everywhere. I want cacophony, dammit! Personally, I’m saving my near-half million duckets for the convertible.

Or am I? Obviously, I need another crack at the Aventador. A single hour battling Honda Pilots and Ferrari FFs (did I mention it was Pebble Beach weekend?) on a tight, two-laner isn’t fair to the car, let alone me. This monster needs room to run, room to breathe, room to stab. A place where there’s no short-shifting or oncoming traffic. I’m picturing a closed-off runway somewhere in the desert where our test crew can begin to probe the LP700-4’s limits. And a road course where I can lamely attempt to do the same. Until then, I’ll just say that given the choice between the latest Lamborghini and the similarly priced Lexus LFA, I’ll take two Aventadors. Also, fast.

- All Photos by Michael Shaffer

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