Item: Lamborghini Aventador 2011-2016
Rating: 3.5

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If you’re going to drive a new Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4, especially when clad in the optional vivid Arancia Argos paint, you should slap a couple of accident black spot roundels on its flanks.

As a thing to drive, the Aventador is as safe as anyone could reasonably expect a 690bhp supercar with sub-3.0sec 0-62mph capability to be, but as a device to distract other drivers from the road ahead, its powers may be unprecedented. You might never crash yourself, but you’re going to see plenty.

The Aventador is pitched against the likes of Ferrari's F12
Andrew Frankel
Senior contributing writer

Maybe, but that doesn’t mean its existence is not to be celebrated. Among mainstream production cars – which excludes esoteric models such as Paganis and Koenigseggs built in single or double-digit numbers – the Aventador now stands alone.

Although the Aventador is laden with state-of-the-art technology, at its heart it remains a supercar of the old school, a massively wide, impossibly low machine powered by a outrageously powerful and classic normally aspirated V12 – words that would have applied no less accurately to the Countach at its first public showing more than 40 years ago.

Lamborghini also offers an Aventador Roadster variant, with a two-piece carbonfibre targa top weighing just 6kg that can be removed and stored in the Aventador’s nose. There is also a 729bhp Aventador S and the ludicrously quick and sharp 740bhp Superveloce, while Lamborghini have also created a couple of special edition versions including the Aventador Pirelli and the Miura Homage.

Outlandish looks aren't all that's required of a supercar, however, and the Aventador has some seriously competent rivals in the form of the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta, McLaren 675LT and Mercedes-AMG GT. Does it do enough to justify consideration? Let's find out.

Verdict

Model tested:

Rating: 7

Used Lamborghini Aventador 2011-2016 review

Good

Gotham City styling

Classic supercar proportions

Outstanding engine

Bad

Terrible low-speed ride

Infuriating gearbox

Audi-influenced interior

DESIGN & STYLING

Lamborghini Aventador Y-shaped headlights

Unlike the Murciélago, which was a highly evolved Diablo, the Aventador is entirely new, so Lamborghini has taken the opportunity to sit down and draw up what appears to be the dream supercar specification.

Full carbonfibre monocoque? Check. Clean-sheet 6.5-litre V12 motor? What else? Race-derived pushrod suspension? Natch.

The car’s transparent engine cover looks incredibly cool, as it should for the £5000-odd it costs
Matt Prior
Editor-at-large

But it wouldn’t be a Lamborghini without looks as distracting to motorists as an Eva Herzigova Wonderbra billboard. Design in-house by Lamborghini Centro Stile, its shape alone is all that some will need to be convinced it’s a good place to park a quarter of a million readies. It includes a deployable rear spoiler and also huge cooling vents that emerge from its flanks when the variably valve timed, quad-cam, 48-valve motor threatens to overheat.

The gearbox is a robotised seven-speed manual with, says Lamborghini, the quickest shift ever to be achieved from such a configuration. The company says it chose it over a dual-clutch automatic system like that now favoured by Ferrari because it is both lighter and more compact. There is no three-pedal option.

Power flows through the gearbox to all four corners of the car in a ratio governed by a central Haldex coupling. There’s an electronically controlled differential at the front and a mechanically locking item between the rear wheels.

INTERIOR

All mid-engined V12 Lambos of the past 40 years have had scissor doors, a tradition the Lamborghini Aventador is not about to break.

They draw gasps from your passenger but offer only rather awkward access to the interior and an inelegant escape during which the tall must take care not to crack their cranium on the upswept edge of the door.

You flip a red metal flap to access the starter button. A pointless gimmick or harmless piece of theatre? We think the latter.
Nic Cackett
Road tester

Once inside, however, there is a feast for your eyes in the form of a TFT instrument panel that looks like a refugee from some abandoned skunkworks fighter aircraft. And unlike most eye-catching instruments, this one also really works. So it’s such a shame to see a central navigation display plundered from a previous-generation Audi A4, along with its barely disguised MMI switchgear.

When Ferrari created the 456 in 1992, it threw away all the visible Fiat parts bin components that had so blighted their interiors for years, but 20 years on and despite that colossal list price, it’s a lead Lamborghini appears disinclined to follow.

But at least it means the cabin is easy to understand and operate. And while the Aventador’s brand new design has not brought a perfect driving position (we’d have preferred a touch more longitudinal travel on both the seat runners and steering wheel), visibility is surprisingly good, given how low and wide it is.

Boot space is impressive, too, but storage opportunities on board are negligible. The glovebox is minuscule and there’s a lidded box between the seats that provides somewhere to put the disappointingly obvious Audi key but little else.

As for the standard equipment the Aventador gets all the safety electrical tech one would expect from ABS, stability control, hill start assist, anti-slip control along with the ability to change the characteristics through Lambo's drive select system. Inside is dominated by the Audi-derived infotainment system, but it does come with sat nav, Bluetooth and USB connectivity, while there is also dual-zone climate control, automatic lights and wipers, bi-xenon headlights and 20in alloy wheels wearing Pirelli P-Zero tyres.

The Pirelli edition sports a two-tone colour scheme with a choice of opting for a matte black roof and a glossy paint job or vice versa while Lamborghini's Centro Stile development centre has included exclusive equipment options on the Aventador, while only 50 of the Miura Homage were made but were available in the Miura's 18 original colour options with the option of painting the lower skirts in gold or matte silver. Inside there was lots of Miura Homage decals, stitching and badging dotted around.

The majority of the Aventador S differences revolve around technical changes, with this V12 Lambo coming with four-wheel steering and a magneto-rheological shock absorbers working on a pushrod system to modify the suspensions behaviour according to the road conditions, while also coming a fully personalisable fourth driving mode. Topping the range is the Superveloce which gets a stripped out interior dominated by large sections of carbonfibre being visible but also include swathes of Alcantara furnishing the interior and a dynamic steering rack that makes the SV all the more responsive.

While the standard equipment may seem thin on the ground, the options list certainly isn't with a wealth of colour choices for the body, interior stitching and brake calipers, audio options and other convenience devices to choose from.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

Lamborghini says the Aventador is now in that most exclusive club of cars that will take you from rest to 62mph in under three seconds – 2.9sec, to be precise.

And when you factor in its 690bhp, the traction afforded by its all-wheel drive and mid-engine configuration, coupled with a gut-busting launch control strategy and a gearbox that’ll upshift in 50 milliseconds, you’ll not doubt the numbers. We’d expect a 0-100mph of around 6.5sec too.

The clanking from the rear diff at parking speeds makes the Aventador sound like a 1980s Group C Le Mans car.
Andrew Frankel
Senior contributing writer

But while the car’s size, shape and power are undoubtedly intimidating, you acclimatise quickly. Indeed, so smooth and linear is the power delivery the actual kick in the kidneys feels less dramatic than a turbo car of probably fractionally inferior outright performance such as a McLaren 6 75LT. Although the Aventador SV upped the ante with its ballistic 740bhp under the bonnet, it is the Aventador S which is likely to be the more compelling car.

In the finest traditions of great Italian V12s, the Aventador’s pulls from 1000rpm as if that was what it was born for, and then just keeps going on and on gently building in urge, sharpening its sound by degrees, reaching a shrieking crescendo just the other side of its 8250rpm power peak. Although an Aston Martin V12 has a more musical note, this is undoubtedly one of the finest V12s even to be bolted into the back of a supercar.

If only the gearbox were able even to approach this standard. Small and light it may be, but it’s bad enough to knock an entire star off the rating for this section. It can be driven in manual or automatic mode, in either Strada or Sport setting, leaving the most extreme Corsa program as a manual-only option.

In any setting, the car is horrid to park because it appears unable to creep, while the automatic function is slow and jerky. So manual is the only sensible choice. In Strada, the gearshifts are simply too ponderous, while in Corsa they are so savage that the jolt can physically hurt; what it is doing to its mounts can only be imagined.

So Sport manual is the only one of five configurations that works effectively. Call it up and remember to lift off the gas between shifts and the Aventador can be driven smoothly, but it requires concentration – rather defeating the labour-saving point of having a paddle shift in the first place.

RIDE & HANDLING

Lamborghini Aventador rear hard cornering

It is hard to see how Lamborghini chassis engineers could have driven the Aventador on UK roads and signed off the ride as fit for purpose.

No one expects supercars to ride like limousines, but the Aventador’s lack of compliance, especially at low speeds, is bad enough to make you envy the occupants of any passing Number 49.

An electronically controlled shock absorber system might transform the ride.
Matt Saunders
Road test editor

True, the ride smooths out to somewhere near acceptability as speeds rise, but the symptoms of a car with spring rates more suited to the track than the road remain, especially in the wet. The car is too inclined to understeer in slow corners, a trait accentuated by what feels to be a tight differential at the back. However, with all four wheels doing the pulling, traction is still outstanding.

And there’s good stuff here. The hydraulic steering is terrific, with perfect gearing and genuine feel, allowing you to position the car to the inch every time while grip lasts. And the faster you go, the better the car is; at low speeds the car is too inclined to let its nose run wide of the apex, but if you can find a long, open and wide curve and find the courage to pitch the Aventador in at the kind of speed that would see most normal cars pockmarking the countryside, it is close to brilliant.

Grip from those vast 335-section rear tyres is astounding, and should the car start to peel away from your intended line, the slightest lift brings it cleanly back. Contrary to all signals given at lower speeds, at these velocities the Aventador has real balance.

Predictably, the Lamborghini Aventador is fitted with mighty carbon-ceramic disc brakes. Their stopping power is extraordinary, although the initial bite of the pedal on the cold, damp roads that coincided with our test was poor.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

If you look at a car like a McLaren 6 75LT with a similar power-to-weight ratio, you may goggle at the fact that while it can manage 24.2mpg, on the same cycle the Aventador does just 17.6mpg.

Then again, relative to the 13.7mpg of the most recent Lamborghini Murciélago, some would call that progress.

Some options are prohibitively costly
Andrew Frankel
Senior contributing writer

Either way, the prospect of adding an extra kilo of CO2 to the atmosphere for every 2.5 miles would be sobering were Lamborghini owners minded to think that way.

On the plus side, residual values for the Aventador is strong and although running costs will be extortionate, at least you can expect first-class service from Lamborghini dealers.

As ever, beware the options list; electric heated seats and a rear parking camera together cost more than a Dacia Sandero.

VERDICT

Verdict

Model tested:

Rating: 7

Used Lamborghini Aventador 2011-2016 review

Good

Gotham City styling

Classic supercar proportions

Outstanding engine

Bad

Terrible low-speed ride

Infuriating gearbox

Audi-influenced interior

Compared with the Murciélago it replaces, the Lamborghini Aventador is as a supercomputer to an abacus, and were verdicts determined on such grounds alone, the Aventador would earn the full five stars.

In fact, it doesn’t even get near this ultimate accolade. In certain rare conditions where the roads are wide, open, quiet and immaculately surfaced, we can see a driver deriving as much enjoyment from an Aventador as he might from any other supercar – perhaps even more. But introduce even a few of the limitations of the real world and its composure starts to crack and crumble.

Improve the stereo. We know you’re meant to listen to the sonorous V12 engine, but there’s no excuse for tinny sound
Matt Prior
Editor-at-large

Two issues in particular are its undoing. By the standard of modern paddle-shift transmissions, the gearbox is poor even in its optimal configuration and simply unpleasant in any other. More damning still is the ride, which means that while there are some roads in the UK where the car can be enjoyed, the journey there and back is likely to be so uncomfortable that you might not even bother.

There are aspects of the Lamborghini Aventador we truly love; its looks and engine, for instance, are unquestionably landmarks of design and engineering. But not even they can lift the sense of disappointment that surrounds the rest of this car.

While it is undoubtedly lighter, quicker, stronger and stiffer than its predecessor, it is as a device to grab you by the heart and never let go that is the first duty of all V12 Italian supercars. And while here the Lamborghini Aventador takes an equally massive leap, this time it is in the wrong direction. Which is why we would suggest that if you must follow your heart to look towards the Aventador Superveloce or the Aventador S.