Yep, the thing launches like a cruise missile, storming past 60 mph in less than 3 seconds. Sure, it’ll run the quarter mile in the 10-second bracket. And if you keep your right foot buried, it’ll take you deeper into 200-mph territory than almost anything this side of a Veyron. Make no mistake, the Lamborghini Aventador is fast–a hair-on-fire, omigod, laugh-out-loud-velocity raptor.
But…the single-clutch automated manual transmission is a joke. In Strada (street) mode, the shifts are slower than a wet weekend in Cleveland; in Corsa (race) mode, they’re like a hit across the back of the head with a shovel; and Sport, the setting in between, isn’t much good, either. It doesn’t matter whether you’re going slow or fast, trying to work with the Aventador’s tranny is an exercise in teeth-grinding frustration. Next to Porsche’s PDK and the new dual-clutch transmissions from Ferrari, it’s hopelessly outclassed.
Though better than the Diablo and early Murcielagos, the Aventador chassis is also nowhere near the top of the class. There’s a ton of grip, but not much subtlety, and the differences among the Strada, Sport, and Corsa chassis settings are oddly non-linear. Regardless of setting, it rides like a Conestoga wagon, transmitting every single lump and bump into the cabin with such clarity you’d swear the thing had solid axles. Am I getting soft in my old age, complaining about the ride in a supercar? Nope. Both the Ferrari 458 and McLaren MP4-12C prove you don’t have to suffer a sore butt and blurred vision for handling artistry.
And then there’s the small issue of the Aventador’s brakes. It hardly seems possible that a car with carbon-ceramic rotors the size of a satellite television dish could run out of brakes after just two hard track laps. But that’s exactly what happened with an Aventador we tested recently.
The Lamborghini Aventador has style in abundance. Sure, it’s edgy and extreme, and there’s still a faint whiff of gold chain and chest hair about it, but that’s why it appeals to little boys of all ages. What the Lamborghini Aventador lacks is the substance to match.
There are big changes coming at Lamborghini. One of Durheimer’s first moves was to order Lamborghini’s engineering team to buy a Ferrari 458. Then he told them: “That is your benchmark.” This one piece of information alone more than suggests the next-generation Gallardo is going to be a significant step up from the current car. “We have to stop thinking of the Gallardo in terms of the Audi R8,” says Durheimer bluntly. “Lamborghini will now concentrate on Ferrari in terms of performance and handling.”
Back when the Miura, the Countach, and the Diablo were the fastest road-going cars in the world, you could forgive Lamborghinis their faults. But now that the Bugatti Veyron indisputably owns that title, Lamborghini needs a new mission. Ferruccio Lamborghini got into the car business because he wanted to build a better Ferrari. Maybe Wolfgang Durheimer will finish the job.
Who cares about the bad side? I just look at the good side of it.
I just what to rail the daylights out of that car!!
Italien Styling has allways been great.But German Enginering is better. And they have some work to do.Quality is still not up to snuff.But Lamborghini has been and will be a Trend Setter.
Although everybody is entitled to their opinion, most people who discuss these things have very little knowledge of the actual groups of people who buy these cars.
Fact of the matter is, Lamborghini’s flagship vehicle should not be in any way similar to any other vehicle on the market.
There are lots of reasons why that should be the case, Lamborghini’s v12 heritage, the character of the vehicle, the purpose and actual use cases of the car, etc. First and foremost though, is that most people who own an Aventador already own all the other cars journalists usually list in these competitions.
The best driver’s cars in the world for instance. First would be the new Porsche 911, which in all honesty would probably have beaten the 458 Italia (probably why Ferrari didn’t want to offer a car). Runner up? Probably the 458 Italia, then you have all kinds of other cars. GT-R, McLaren, etc. And that’s great, for most viewers this is interpreted as a “if I had to choose 1″ guide. However, for actual buyers, this list is viewed more as an order to buy the cars in.
For instance, take any 458 Italia owner. Almost all of them own a Porsche first. Similarly, take any Aventador owner. Almost all of them either also own a 458 Italia, or owned one before they bought the Aventador. At the very least, almost all Aventador owners could also own a 458 Italia if they liked.
So that’s the Aventador customer. It’s the person who already owns a 991, already owns a 458, probably on the list for an F12 Berlinetta, and wants a car that feels even crazier and wild than the rest of the cars in the stable. Sure, the shifting is worse, but the mechanism of shifting (with the ISR transmission) is completely novel to the road car world. If you’re familiar with the hobby of fine watches, you’d understand the draw. Sure you could buy a Casio that would tell better time. It’s by far the better “timekeeper’s timepiece,” but is it art? No Patek Philippe or Jaegar LeCoultre could ever keep time using their swiss movements than even an average quartz watch, yet not only do they sell for tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, but they appreciate after you buy them.
Things like the Aventador, with its carbon fiber monocoque, ISR transmission, beastly sound, and dastardly low profile (enabled in part due to abandoning direct injection for the time being), is an art piece. Just as the Ferrari’s and even Porsche’s of yore once were (remember when the 911 turbo was nicknamed the “widowmaker” for its scary handling?). You don’t buy it for what it does, you buy it for what it is.
What Ferrari has done, by tacking on day-to-day conveniences to its car, is dangerously close to commoditizing these art pieces. They are scarily close to becoming the Omega and Rolex of the car world, versus the Patek Philippes and Jaeger LeCoultres (watch hobbiests will know what I mean here). And yet Ferrari’s disguises have fooled journalists so easily. Tight steering, an overly delicate throttle, and a louder exhaust are superficial things in the world of car building. In modern times, it’s nothing but a software update to most cars. At its core though, these features are only making Ferrari and McLaren more like BMWs and Mercedes Benzes. In some ways, Lamborghini is the only mainstream supercar company staying true to form.
I don’t agree with the premise that in order for Lambo to stay true to its supercar roots, it needs to build a poorly handling car.
That doesn’t mean that Lambo needs to build a Ferrari clone, but rather it needs to achieve the balance of the Ferrari but maintain the “chest hair and gold chain” Lambo delivery. I’d love to see the Lambo with a proper dual-clutch transmission, with a standard tranny available as well. I’d love to see Lambo stay with the insane V12. I’d love to see Lambo keep the instantly recognizable styling.
Ferrari makes cars that seem to often be based purely on function over form. Some of the designs have been a little ugly IMO (Enzo in particular was never one of my favorites), but I do love the 458. I think Lambo can stick with the emphasis on style and insanity, but they still need to make a “great” car in all respects. I don’t think a well balanced Lambo with a better transmission necessarily loses its Lambo essensce.
I do agree that they need to keep that danger in mind though.
-T
Just a note, I’m not disagreeing with you, but I didn’t mean to say they had to make a car that handles poorly. Contrary to popular belief, cars that don’t have massive oversteer issues (i.e. pretty much all Aston Martins, Ferraris, etc.) are not “poorly handling.” If you’ve ever driven a 458 Italia hard on the track or street, you’d know that without all of the electronic nannies, the rear end slips out very easily. This makes for great videos, but you’re not going to be making any track records unless the car drives itself for you. The ultimate car is one that doesn’t oversteer or understeer, but just sticks to the road, and realistically that is essentially a car that is balanced right between oversteer and understeer. If you read the reviews, that’s exactly where the Aventador sits.
Now I would say that having a lot of oversteer can be great fun, however what I was saying is that folks who buy an Aventador already have great oversteery cars in their garage, namely the 458 Italia, maybe an Aston DBS. The 991 is a little more balanced, but the Aventador is designed to stay locked to the road, which is exactly what it does.
Some journalists claim this to mean that the Aventador can’t be driven 10/10ths on the track, but if you’ve ever driven a 458 and an Aventador back to back, you realize that a better description is people drive 458′s 10/8ths on the track (as in more aggressively than the car can handle) while you drive the Aventador 10/12ths (less aggressively than the car can handle) and you end up with the same time.
In the hands of a true professional who can handle a car that’s balanced between oversteer and understeer, they’ll eke out better lap times from the Aventador any day over an oversteery equivalent.
Fantastic article, I really enjoyed the last 2 paragraphs, about the next Gallardo and the aim being to better then Ferrari, that’s what Lamborghini was made for!
The writer’s points are solid, so the article is only slightly diminished because one of its “it’s” usages should be ” its.” I’ll let you figure out which one.
Werent lambo sales up 23% in 2011?
Clearly they are doing something right.
the car sounds perfect other then the brakes to me, if I wanted a soft sushy ride i’d by a caddy not a lambo, and it should be stick no autos (or paddle shifters) allowed in my garage, to bad i dont have the 400000 grand
and I have a feeling if you did have the money to spend on a car like this your expectations of the vehicle would be quite different
I don’t know actually. I’ve been to many, many track days, and seen several Ferrari’s, F40′s, GT-Rs, tons of 911s and Vettes, even an occasional Porsche Carrera GT, and Aston Martin. But one car I don’t think I’ve ever seen is a Murcielago, or even a Gallardo. I get the impression that the Lambo owner takes his Ferrari to the track and drives his Lambo when he wants to make a showy entrance. They may never notice the brake issue, or drive it far enough to care about the ride.
I personally would like to see the Lambo compete as a world class car in all categories, rather than simply style and power, but maybe that all most owners care about, because they already have other cars to fulfill the other roles.
-T
Oops, when I wrote F40 above I actually meant Ford GT(40). Ironic considering how the original GT40 was meant to knock Ferrari off the podium.
-T
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