 2014 Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Coupe starter button cover. Click image to enlarge |
As Lamborghini is now owned by Volkswagen there are a few Audi bits sprinkled around that lend a modicum of familiarity. I find this mildly comforting. The diamond-stitched upholstery and headliner are right out of an Audi R8.
What you won’t find in an R8 is the starter button with a bright red flip-up cover that looks as though it was sourced from a Cold War missile bunker. Press it and the results can be nearly as devastating.
The starter spins with a frenzied fury and the big lug catches, settling into an idle that sends an ominous quiver through the structure.
I gingerly pull the right shift paddle to engage first gear and make my way out into the world – and one that looks markedly different when viewed from inside a ballistic sci-fi prop. Not a few hundred meters from leaving the dealership there’s a speed bump. Jeeezuz, this must be some kind of joke. Is this where the impecunious auto writers tears off the optional $6720 carbon-fibre front splitter, rolls out of the scissor door in the fetal position and starts drooling on the pavement?
No. A button on the dash has the nose rising by four cm just to avoid such a scenario. Grazie.
   2014 Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Coupe, paddle shifter, media display. Click image to enlarge |
Power gets to all four of the Aventador’s wheels (19-inch front, 20-inch rear) through an abrupt seven-speed single-clutch automated manual transmission. In the world of normal cars, this type of gearbox is pretty much passé. I think the Smart ForTwo is about the only other vehicle with such a tranny, and when threading through traffic, the Aventador’s lurching progress is eerily similar to that of the Smart.
But Lambo sticks with this setup because it is tough, compact, light and… well, the Aventador was not made to thread through traffic. When really hammering on, the brutality of the transmission perfectly matches the brutality of the rest of the car.
Ah, but that comes later. A stint on the 401 shows the Aventador to be a reasonable cruiser. Yes, there’s a lot of noise in the cabin – that huge twelve-pot with all its valves and gears and voracious sucking of air gives the impression of a small factory behind your head. It will run on six cylinders under light load, reducing its fuel consumption from hysterical to merely humorous.
Lambo’s V12 flagship offers three levels of antisocial extremism – Strada, Sport and Corsa – selectable by buttons on the console. In Strada mode, the Aventador makes an attempt at normalcy by muting the exhaust sound, lowering the shift points and giving a few more milliseconds between shifts.
  2014 Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Coupe. Click image to enlarge |
Once off the 401 and on some open country roads, I’m feeling a bit braver. Time to select Sport.
Suddenly the Lambo is happier. The exhaust note goes from subdued to oh-my-gawd, the tranny runs in a gear more appropriate for instant acceleration and the yawning gaps between shifts tighten up.
