The Lamborghini Aventador SVJ roadster is the hardcore, concentrated, and undiluted essence of a classic supercar. It’s powered by a massive, 759-hp 6.5-liter V-12 stuck in the middle of the car. It’s free of turbochargers, superchargers, and any concern about fuel costs. And it’s a real Lamborghini engine—not something assembled in an Audi engine plant and shipped to Italy in a box. This is special stuff, a V-12 that’s not shared with Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Porsche, Volkswagen, nor any other of Lamborghini’s corporate kin.
The SVJ roadster looks as though it were chiseled out of a block of petrified cash, and it roars as if the exhaust were composed by Giuseppe Verdi. Shockingly impractical, spectacularly theatrical, it’s altogether maniacal. The example we drove, drowning in Rosso Efesto red paint, cost $667,661. That’s about two-thirds of a million dollars, the sort of money buyers like to brag about having paid. We should mention that the price includes $14,800 for the paint, a $6400 gas-guzzler charge, and $3695 for destination. So, value.
The SVJ stands for Super Veloce Jota. It pays tribute to the one-off Miura Jota, a model that test driver Bob Wallace modified in 1970 to meet the FIA’s Appendix J rules.
Swan Song
In every way, the equipment that turns a pokey old Aventador S coupe into the SVJ model also is aboard the roadster. The engine is fortified with titanium intake valves and fitted with a new intake system and a La Scala–worthy exhaust. Output improves by 29 horses compared with the 730-hp Aventador S. But EPA ratings of 9 mpg in the city and 15 mpg on the highway make it one of the 10 least efficient vehicles currently on sale.
Lamborghini will make a total of 800 roadsters, likely finishing up production in 2021 as the Aventador hits its 10th and, perhaps final, year. Lambo says it’s committed to the V-12 engine, but the upcoming Sián pairs all those cylinders with a hybrid system. With that in mind, the SVJ roadster has a sort of elegiac vibe. This feels historic, as it’s likely to be the last of Lamborghini’s V-12 machines in which the engine doesn’t share some of the glory with an electric motor.
Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Roadster Is No Surprise
Aventador SVJ – The Fury of a 759-Horsepower V-12
As to the operation of the carbon-fiber top, don’t bother removing it. It’s too much of a hassle to get on and off. So leave it off, and when monsoon season comes, drive your Urus. Flip up the red cover on the center console, press the start button, and for a moment, the SVJ roadster sits in pregnant pause. It’s like the conductor of an orchestra waiting to make sure the audience is seated before starting the performance. Then, after an anticipatory whir from the starter, the whole damn thing screams like the New York Philharmonic being thrown down an elevator shaft at Nakatomi Plaza. Lamborghini mounts the exhaust outlets high in the tail, which puts the sound almost at the driver’s ear. We’re not sure if there’s some code buried in the Aventador’s software that would allow fire to spew from the exhaust, but it would look cool while trawling through Miami.
The scissor doors are silly and difficult to close, but they’re so beloved that they are as much a part of this Lamborghini as the V-12. The Aventador remains, by far, the most civilized of the 12-cylinder Lambos. The driving position is good, there’s room for even tall drivers to stretch their legs, and the seats are supportive and shaped to accommodate just about anyone. The steering wheel is manually adjustable for height and reach. The shift paddles are in the right place even when the steering wheel is sawing about catching a lascivious powerslide. But, like in any old supercar, actually seeing anything out the rear window isn’t an option.
Purely Focused
Pick a drive mode—Strada for street use, Sport for street abuse, and Corsa for when the street is actually a track—and the all-wheel-drive system tweaks its front-to-rear bias and changes the damping rates from firm to “I’m jiggling.” In any mode, the chassis has the sort of adhesion that makes barnacles look like quitters. The ride quality in Strada is tolerable, with handling keen enough for most situations, but clicking into Corsa does notably sharpen the driving experience. Save Corsa for the next lifetime when you’re reincarnated as Valentino Balboni’s more talented nephew.
Dive into a corner and the front end bites into the apex while the rear-wheel steering brings the tail along in a perfect arc. This car drives much smaller than its 106.3-inch wheelbase indicates. Incidentally, if you’re cross-shopping by wheelbase, that’s identical to the defunct Chevrolet Cruze’s. Maybe you can find a clean one sold out of a rental fleet.
Lamborghini wants everyone to believe that much of the credit for this brilliant handling comes from the Aerodinamica Lamborghini Attiva (ALA) active aerodynamics system. ALA does all sorts of neat, tricky things using variable aero openings in the nose and tail to direct air where it’s most useful during hard driving. But come on, unless you built your mansion alongside Turn 5 at Daytona, the opportunities to reach velocities where the aero stuff matters will be rare. Let’s give credit where it’s due: The 255/30ZR-20 front and 355/25ZR-21 rear Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires and the all-wheel-drive system do the real work here.
Charmingly Coarse
Now, the bad news. The transmission is crap. Back when it was introduced, in 2010, Lamborghini’s seven-speed Independent Shifting Rod (a.k.a. ISR) single-clutch automatic gearbox promised short shift times. But in traffic while in Strada mode, every shift includes a moment of hesitation while the transmission decides whether it wants to actually change gears or not. It’s enough that the driver and passenger can feel their torsos move forward into the belts. Shift times are quicker in Sport and Corsa, but at the expense of some smoothness.
Lamborghini claims that the roadster is only 110 pounds heavier than the closed-roof model. Launch it in Sport or Corsa and it leaps forward so quickly that the air around it takes on an al dente texture. Lamborghini claims a zero-to-62-mph time of 2.9 seconds and a top speed of 217 mph. C/D hasn’t tested the SVJ roadster yet, but it sure feels that quick. And the standard carbon-ceramic brakes are big enough to stop the inevitable entropic dissipation of the universe.
It’s been a good run for Lamborghini’s old-school, V-12–powered wedges. They all started with the curvaceous Miura, then Lambo moved on to the outrageous Countach, the devious Diablo, and then the stupendous Murciélago. All great, if flawed, exotics. The Aventador is the best of them all; so good that it’s largely taken for granted now. What’s next will be something different, if not something better.
Source: Reviews - aranddriver.com
