I am attempting to figure out just how numerous Aventadors I have driven due to the fact Lamborghini released the Batmobile-wanting freaksled back in 2012. It can be a first-globe challenge of the very first purchase, I am informed. At the bare bare minimum, I have been driving the wheel of a dozen of them, and which is counting the outrageous-trousers $2-million-additionally Centenario. I know I drove at least two of the original Aventador LP700-4s. Each were rather terrible to travel, finish with a transmission that appreciated to overheat in reverse. I drove the exact exact 50th Anniversary Roadster about equally Miami and Wildwood, New Jersey (really don’t check with). I goofed around with two illustrations of the everything’s-been-set Aventador SVs, a single of my all-time-preferred cars. I feel I drove an SV Roadster, also. Some form of Roadster in that vein, anyway. I obtained to engage in with two illustrations of the midcycle Aventador S, which, like the Centenario, arrived packing all-wheel steering. I have put in time with at minimum two (previous) Nürburgring King SVJs, however maybe there was a 3rd? And I just put 400 miles on the final Aventador, the LP780 4 Ultimae. Very well, final right up until the Ultimae Roadster comes. Anyhow, I imagine I’m at a baker’s dozen, and potentially 14 of them.
Am I bragging? Naturally! But I’m also seeking to create that I’m something of a issue issue qualified when it arrives to Lambo’s snarling V-12 selection-topper. If I had to summarize the Aventador in just a several words and phrases, I would say it was a charming previous struggle ax. The car or truck is chock-whole of automotive evolutionary dead ends, objects the car or truck earth will under no circumstances see again, like the car’s preposterous seven-speed ISR transmission. ISR stands for “unbiased shifting rods,” so rather of getting two clutches like pretty much each and every other tremendous/hypercar in existence, the ISR retains odd gears on 1 shaft, even gears on the other, and then very hot-swaps the rods again and forth every single gear modify. Benefit? When you have the Aventador in Corsa (monitor manner) and the engine is buzzing at all over 8,500 rpm, the shifts—both up and down—are fast-hearth and intense, like someone receiving shivved on your favorite jail demonstrate. The draw back? Most of the rest of the time the shifts are languid to the stage the automobile feels drunk. Absolutely strange. Hateable a ten years in the past, oddly endearing these days.
I do locate it amusing how things soften around time. Potentially I’m executing the most softening, but I bear in mind being completely crestfallen when, in the course of a photoshoot with the initially Aventador I ever drove, the transmission overheated (as I mentioned) even though backing up a slight incline. “Worst Lamborghini at any time,” I’m sure I assumed to myself in my greatest Simpsons Comic E book Dude internal voice. Coincidentally, previous MotorTrend photographer Michael Shaffer (the one particular who had me reversing the point in the to start with place) occurred to be in town although I experienced possession of the Ultimae. I allow him have a go, and in 100 ft he announced, “I would forgotten how unusual this transmission is! The vehicle stops transferring ahead in between gears!” You need to have to place it in at the very least Sport manner, I discussed, clicking the suitable arrow when. Even so, that seriously does not help factors much. Back in the working day, other single-clutch automated manual transmission cars and trucks existed (Lexus LFA, Aston Martin V12 Vantage S, Good ForTwo), and I despised them all. And still … both Lamborghini drastically enhanced the ISR (it did not) or time softened the blows.
When you publish for a living (hello, Mother!), you normally attempt to be primary. Which is why it can be so unpleasant and frustrating that my stupid buddy/colleague Kyle Fortune so correctly summarized the Ultimae driving experience: “All the matters that built the Aventador a little bit shit back when it was new make it attention-grabbing and fulfilling today.” Nailed it. The bastard carries on, contacting it “a carbon-tubbed enigma that is bettered by several, but as it bows out reminds us what’s fantastic if you really take pleasure in driving.” The reality of the above strike me when my good friend Misha Mansoor (higher than) parked his McLaren 765LT Spider upcoming to the matte gray raging bull. The two cars make far too substantially ability (755 hp for the 765LT, 769 for the Ultimae), and both equally are made up nearly fully of carbon fiber. “Identical-exact same,” as my kid utilised to say in advance of he could completely communicate. Yet someway the Lamborghini manages to weigh 1,000 lbs . extra than the McLaren. All-wheel drive and 4 additional cylinders is section of it (but no turbos or intercoolers), but dang, which is significant. Try to remember when I known as the detail a fight ax? Have you at any time swung a huge ax? A lot of energy, indeed, but oh so hefty. Also, as it turns out, quite lovable.
Speaking of have-you-evers, have you ever observed the remake of Battlestar Galactica? If you have not, the evil Cylons efficiently attack humanity largely due to the fact the modern warships are so networked with each other that a one, uncomplicated laptop or computer virus can disable the full Earth fleet and its accompanying defenses. Nevertheless, an old warhorse like the Galactica characteristics personal computers that won’t be able to all speak to every other, so the virus does not operate. The Cylons are forced to try to ruin it the previous-fashioned way, with lasers and nukes. The exhibit goes on like that for 5 seasons. My level is twofold. 1, just simply because something’s new isn’t going to routinely make it better. And two, in some cases cars that aren’t noticed as reducing-edge still provide a excellent, even good, purpose. At times they are, in reality, fully amazing. The Aventador Greatest is one such vehicle. I mean supercar. Or is that hypercar? The traces are blurred.
What’s the Aventador Ultimae like to travel? Entirely friggin’ great. You can find a theater to a V-12 Lamborghini that’s fundamentally absent from the relaxation of the automotive area. Yeah, Ferrari makes the 812 Superfast with its fantabulous V-12 and practically ideal twin-clutch transmission. But the doorways open like the doorways on your Honda, reported V-12 is not positioned behind your head, and the Ferrari does not glimpse like it was pulled straight from the centre of a 14-12 months-old’s brain. Then there’s the physicality of the car. It’s about 80 inches large, which can make it broader than a complete-measurement American pickup truck. That is nuts! The Ultimae snarls, snaps, crackles, and pops as before long as you are over 3,000 rpm. Even with every thing, and potentially because it is really an SVJ with the fancy aero pieces plucked off, the last evolution of the Aventador is a brutal pleasure to drive. I felt like I might been boxing a heavyweight all the way up the mountain just after a single particularly intense canyon blast. And I experienced, in the very best probable feeling of the metaphor. I’m sucking wind and smiling just pondering about it.
My rumor mill tells me the authentic identify for the Ultimae was to be the Aventador SJ, and that one of the 1st things Stephan Winklemann did when he retook the whip at Lamborghini was to bin the SJ name in favor of Ultimae. That’s Latin for “past.” That Winklemann’s a good cookie. Several folks I confirmed the Ultimae to during my five times of stewardship commented that it is really effectively an, “SVJ Touring,” in reference to the point that like a GT3 Touring, the Ultimae is just an SVJ with the wing ripped off. I suppose that’s genuine, nevertheless genuinely, it really is an oversimplification. There is something distinctive about this past hurrah, one thing well worth considering about—worth relishing and truly worth remembering. The Ultimae is the previous, and it is going out, not just on top, but surely on a high be aware. Logically, confident, you can poke a ton of holes in the Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae. But emotionally? If you never love this superb old monster, you could be useless inside of. Check out your pulse.