Expert opinion
The Lamborghini Aventador is essentially the last of the schoolboy-bedroom-wall Lambos. The spiritual (and literal) successor to the Murcielago, Diablo, Countach and Miura. Quite the family tree. Fortunately, it stands up to its illustrious heritage courtesy of dramatic, angular lines and a screaming (maximum power arrives beyond 8,000rpm), naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12.
That V12 delivers between 700hp and 780hp depending on the particular flavour of Aventador, but none of them has anything so new-school as turbochargers or hybrid power. You do get four-wheel drive, but that seems fair enough for a car with such power. Not all Aventadors are created equal, however. Models such as 2017’s LP740-4 got four-wheel steering, for example, making it much more agile than the earlier cars. And the 750hp SV once held a Nurburgring lap record, don’t forget.
If there’s a weakness in the Aventador’s make-up, it’s undoubtedly the seven-speed single-clutch automated manual gearshift. This felt old-hat, clunky and fragile in 2011 – by the standards of the 2020s, it’s positively steampunk. Get over that small issue, though, and the Aventador is exactly what a Lamborghini supercar should be: an Athena poster made real. And there will never be another quite like it.