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2016 Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce a stunner (13131 hits)


This supercar's speed is almost unfathomable and it will never cease to surprise you, but the car is still amazingly forgiving when things get crazy

David Booth

By 

Originally published: 21 hours ago

Circuit de Catalunya, SPAIN  — Let’s talk numbers, shall we. I know, I know, numbers are boring. You’d much prefer to skip all that educational stuff and get right to nitty-gritty where you’re imagining yourself behind the wheel of a bright red supercar, slip-sliding through some high-speed hairpins, tire smoke pluming from undercarriage and an adoring crowd openly envying you. But bear with me, the numbers really do tell a story. An interesting one even.

To be specific, let’s talk the Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce’s numbers, the kind of numbers that really get a gearhead’s motor running. Like horsepower, for instance: the new SV has 750 of those, 50 more than before. Weight? This latest range-topping Lambo has 50 less kilograms of that and when it comes to avoirdupois, less is always more. Acceleration? Boy, oh boy, does this thing accelerate. Zero-to-100 kilometres an hour in less than 2.8 seconds, zero-to-200 in a scant 5.8 more, and the top speed is somewhere on the silly side of 350 km/h. Wow! Triple wow even.

Speed is nothing without grace, and the 2016 Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce has both in excess amounts.

Speed is nothing without grace, and the 2016 Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce has both in excess amounts.
David Booth, Driving

But that’s not the number that should grab your attention. Nope, the extra special number I want to bring to your attention is 6:59.73. As in six minutes, fifty-nine and seventy-three one-hundredths of a second. That’s the new LP750’s lap time around Germany’s famed Nurburgring and, even in supercar world, that’s frighteningly fast. As in, if you were in the passenger seat, you’d almost assuredly have an accident that you weren’t expecting till your senior years. The only truly street-worthy car to record a faster lap is Porsche’s 918and it needed a V8, two electric motors and Porsche’s boy-racer Weissach competition package to dip below the seven minute mark. Such is the import of the Nurburgring lap time to those who shop supercars these days that, having announced its sub-seven minute conquest of Germany’s 20.8 kilometre Green Hell, Lamborghini can probably now fire its marketing manager; no further enticements need be made.

Also read: Sometimes, Nurburgring track times are childish theatrics 

On a lesser racetrack like the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, all this newfound rapidity means surprise — as in how the hell did I get here so fast — lurks around every corner. Braking for every hairpin is a Holy-Crap-am-I-ever-going-fast moment, every straightaway, no matter how short, a reason to hold your breath. You brace yourself against the seat and still the g-forces toss you about. You move the seat as far forward as you can and it’s still hard to reach the paddle-shifters once the tach swings past 7,000 rpm. Indeed, no matter how much you prepare yourself for the V12’s Holy-Mother-of-God acceleration, damned if it doesn’t surprise you every time you catch third gear at 8,500 rpm.

2016 Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce

The 2016 Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce. “Superveloce” means “Super Speed” in Italian, and, well, that’s a pretty fitting name for this car.
David Booth, Driving

But what makes the Aventador stand out amongst supercars — indeed, why it’s my favourite supercar — is that surprise doesn’t turn into catastrophe. In fact, like all the best cars — super or not — the big Lambo has a way of making you a better driver than you really are. Where other mid-engined supercars — and I’m thinking British here as well as Italian — punish you severely when your enthusiasm gets the better of your talent, the big Lambo, frightening speed or no, is a big old let’s-talk-it-out Teddy Bear when things get dicey. Ham-handed mashes of throttle and over-enthusiastic wrenchings of steering wheel are forgiven with equal grace; if you’re going to do something stupid in a 750 horsepower supercar, do it in an Aventador.

The reason for that controllability, says Maurizio Reggiani, is the LP750’s new computer-controlled Haldex all-wheel-drive system. Oh, things like the new Magneto Rheological Suspension, Lamborghini’s computer-controlled, variable-ratio LDS power steering and a 170% increase in aerodynamic down force certainly help. But being able to determine which wheel gets exactly how much torque, says Lamborghini’s chief engineer, is not only why the 750 is so comparatively easy to drive but also the reason that the Superveloce is an incredible 25 seconds faster round the ‘Ring than the current LP700. “The SV not only takes into account how fast you’re going, but how fast you’re turning the steering wheel,” says Regianni, claiming that it’s the smartest all-wheel-drive system in the biz.

The 2016 Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce has an incredible 750 horsepower, but the car still makes you look like a hero.

The 2016 Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce has an incredible 750 horsepower, but the car still makes you look like a hero.
David Booth, Driving

There are a few surprises, however. Lamborghini, decided, for instance, to direct more power (up to 90%) to the rear wheels in its street-oriented “Sport” mode than in the 750’s track-ready “Corsa” selection (80%). The reasoning, admits Regianni, can be initially counter-intuitive, even we autojournalists having been conditioned to think that rear-wheel-drive is always the faster way round a racetrack. Lamborghini’s reasoning, on the other hand, makes sense once you get past initial prejudice. At the limits of traction on a racetrack, the company contends, no one, not even race car drivers, really want 750 horses with tail-wagging tendencies. For those momentary bursts of (relatively) low-speed scofflawing on the street, however, there’s nothing more fun than a whole bunch of power-sliding oversteer. All I know is that I trust Lamborghini’s torque management implicitly; never have the untalented been able to go so fast with so little drama.

You’ll also like: Ouch! The story of how I curbed a Lamborghini Aventador 

At least in the chassis department. Back in the engine bay, the Superveloce is all about the drama. Unlike the soul-sucking turbo engines — even Ferrari is succumbing to their fuel-conserving allure — currently in vogue in the supercar world, Lamborghini is sticking resolutely to its naturally aspirated 12-cylinder guns. Indeed, it’s doubling down, the SV’s 6.5-litre version of the Lambo’s iconic 60-degree V12 now spinning its 12 pistons higher and harder. Maximum power is produced at 8,400 and, while somehow meeting noise regulations, the revised Aventador sounds more barking than ever. In the SV, the hounds are let completely loose, all that rapid-fire internal combusting as close as we mortals will ever get to knowing what supercar-ing was like when Ferruccio Lamborghini and Enzo Ferrari ruled the world.

The 2016 Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce is very forgiving when driven to its limits.

The 2016 Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce is very forgiving when driven to its limits.
Handout, Lamborghini

Adding to the engine-bay drama is the Superveloce’s seven-speed, paddle-shifted manumatic transmission. Most of the time it doles out gears in the most civilized of manners, not much different from, say, an Audi (little wonder since Lamborghini is owned by the German luxury automaker). But toggle it into Corsa mode and the upshifting becomes Formula One abrupt, the ISR transmission banging out upshifts in rapid-fire 50 millisecond bursts that barely let the big V12 catch its breath. In this age of piped-in artificial exhaust sound and torque-converted transmissions, the Aventador SV remains welcome antidote to rampant banality.

The 2016 Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce is surprisingly not terrifying to drive.

The 2016 Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce is surprisingly not terrifying to drive.
Handout, Lamborghini

Indeed, what makes the LP750 so great is how deftly Lamborghini doles out the spectacle. Impassioned the SV may be, but the drama is meted out in sensible portions. The symphonic engine and the rapid-fire transmission, because they elicit no penalty, are wound tight as can be. But the chassis, where drama has potentially metal — and bone — busting consequences is tailored for ruthless efficiency. Sense meets sensibility in one sultry ($528,927) Italian supercar package.

And that whole 6:59.73 thing? That’s just a little theatre to save a few bucks on the marketing campaign.

 

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Tuesday, May 26th 2015 at 7:53AM
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