There’s a correlation between how fast a car can go and how fast it feels like it’s going. Up to a certain point, actual speed and sensation tend to follow linear graphs, but after that, they start to become inversely proportionate. If one were to put a number to this point in a modern supercar, it’d be 3.5 seconds to 100 kph. Anything quicker than that and the job of ensuring that feel and agility can still be transmitted becomes a tall ask. This problem tends to affect some of the Volkswagen group’s cars, with the Porsche 911 Turbo/Turbo S and the outgoing Bugatti Veyron being classic examples of how engineers have struggled to inject the automotive equivalent of dopamine into their chassis.
With Lamborghini, though, and especially the Aventador SV, this isn’t the case. We were in Spain to sample what could be the last SV to suck large fistfuls of air into a naturally aspirated V12, because I have a sneaky feeling that the next V12 Lamborghini will be ‘assisted’ by a bunch of batteries and motors, shutting off the petrol burner at town speeds. What if you are a chap from the eastern side of the Bosphorous, with a penchant (and the means) to keep some supercars in your summer home in London? Every opportunity that you have to rev the nuts off this monster around in the city will be thwarted by an electric motor that refuses to ignite the V12, unless you’re doing some serious speeds. Oh, the agony.
What better move, then, than to drive it like you stole it? And steal my heart it did. Around the fast and furious Circuit de Catalunya, the Aventador SV left me gobsmacked. As the lead Aventador showed us the way out of the pits, three very hungry SVs, with 2220 bhp between them, opened up in unison. With three modes on offer, everyone had opted for the most hard core – Corsa mode. The exhausts from the cars barked like a symphony from hell, while the throttle and gearbox had the lightness of a hummingbird’s wings.
Around the tight, twisting corners that followed, the SV seemed to be more in control than its ‘standard’ cousin. There was more grip on hand, better and faster chassis turn-in and even more feel from the steering wheel. Those who believe that the Aventador is too ‘friendly’ a supercar should drive this version – it’s massively engaging and completely enthralling. Show it a fast straight, like the one at Catalunya, and it simply annihilates markers with its blistering pace.
At the end of the start-finish straight, with the new LED instruments flashing a number northwards of 280 kph, the SV’s cabin was bloody loud place to be in. With carbon fibre skin for door trim and sports seats, the car is bare enough to serve the purpose of being a loud, invigorating machine, but not bare enough to make you feel shortchanged. That massive rear spoiler maximises downforce in three stages, and it looks menacing to anyone following it or viewing it in their rear-view mirror.
This car will cost you more than a bit of loose change if you want to put one in your multi-car garage. If you do get one, it will now have to be pre-owned, because all 600 Aventador SVs that will ever be manufactured have already been spoken for. Even for those lucky few who are on that list, they will be paying upwards of Rs 7 crore, ex-showroom India, for this work of art. It’s not just a great Lamborghini – it’s one of the greatest supercars to have ever been made.
