The new Aventador SVJ is nothing less than the most potent and advanced car Lamborghini has ever built – in the process turning the ageing supercar into officially the fastest road car to lap the Nurburgring Nordschleife race circuit.
While its recipe of more power and extensive weight-saving may sound familiar, the real secret to its extraordinary performance lies in its manipulation of air flow and sophisticated electronics.
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But first, that wonderful, naturally aspirated V12: it now produces 760bhp thanks to a reduction inside of friction and inertia – enough, claims Lamborghini, to power the SVJ from 0-62mph in just 2.8 seconds before reaching speeds in excess of 217mph.
The clever active aerodynamics consists of two flaps at the front of the car and one on top of the engine lid. With all of them closed the wings work as normal, offering 40 per cent more downforce than the old Aventador SV. With them open, when the car is accelerating or running at speed, the effectiveness of the devices at both ends of the car is dramatically reduced along with, crucially, the drag, meaning more speed. Moreover, this effect on the rear wing can be split left and right, assisting the car on turn in to a corner.
It’s this system, combined with revised tuning for the steering, the four-wheel drive system, the paddle shift gearbox, rear-wheel steer set-up and the adaptive shock absorbers, that gives the SVJ its explosive performance. This, added to the bespoke new Pirelli Corsa (very grippy) and Trofeo R (extremely grippy) tyres, of course.
Carbon fibre has been used extensively throughout the car, too, and there’s a set of new lightweight wheels. The weight figure of 1,525kg (without fluids) stays the same as the SV, on account of the additional new technology Lamborghini has had to package within the Aventador’s outlandish body shape.
Everything about the SVJ is larger than life. Even gaining entry to the car is pure theatre, pulling the door skywards, then sliding into the dark cabin, trimmed with a mixture of leather and man-made suede. The hard bucket seats are still incredibly uncomfortable, and both headroom and visibility are in short supply. In fact, rear visibility is now almost non-existent thanks to the ducting for the active aero at the rear – but then few things are likely to be able to keep pace with the 760bhp SVJ anyway.
The paddle shift gearbox is of the single clutch type, and its awkwardness in shifting gears during normal driving is a throwback to how things were a decade ago. When driving hard the shifts are acceptably quick, although certainly harsh; apparently, Lamborghini’s customers prefer the drama of this orchestrated violence.
The star of the show is inevitably the 6.5-litre V12, which bellows and screams with a ferocity unmatched by any other car on sale and feels in ruder health than ever before. Yet while this level of performance takes some getting used to, the SVJ isn’t actually as intimidating to drive as it might first appear.
Our drive on the Estoril circuit is blighted by a freshly laid surface that offers alarmingly low levels of grip, with the Aventador unable to find any real purchase on the road. That said, it communicates its intentions to the driver clearly, feels surprisingly agile, and responds cleanly to a change of cornering line.
The carbon ceramic brakes are hugely powerful, and as for the gearshift – well, you learn to live with it, adjusting your driving style to suit. Lamborghini also chose to shod all the cars with the milder Corsa tyre, so the combination of a the Trofeo R tyre and a worn-in race track should dramatically improve projected lap times.
We weren’t allowed to drive the car on the public road, but there’s every reason to believe that it’ll be like other Aventador models: oversized, but nevertheless completely enthralling.
- Model: Lamborghini Aventador SVJ
- Price: £360,000
- Engine: 6.5-litre V12
- Transmission: Seven-speed auto, four-wheel drive
- Power: 760bhp/720Nm
- 0-62mph: 2.8 seconds
- Top speed: 217mph+
- Economy/CO2: 14.4mpg/452g/km
- On sale: Now
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