Lamborghini Aventador

Other manufacturers have strong 12-cylinder heritages, but none have been as committed to the cause as Lamborghini. It’s dabbled in V8s over the years, and the Gallardo and new Huracán show there’s nothing wrong with a V10 Lambo, either, but all of Sant’ Agata’s headline offerings have been powered by a V12 Miura, Countach, Diablo, Murcielago, and now the Aventador.

Incredibly, derivations of the same engine powered Lamborghin is for almost 50 years. Famed Italian engineer Giotto Bizzarrini, the man behind the Ferrari 250 GTO, was tasked with building Ferruccio Lamborghini an engine to power his new car. Bizzarrini created a short-stroke, quad-cam 3.5-litre V12 that gave Lamborghini technical superiority, at least, over Ferrari’s equivalent units.

The story famously goes that Bizzarrini was to be paid by the horsepower, so his prototype produced 370bhp at a staggering 9000rpm, with Giotto adamant with a better fuel system it would hit 400bhp at 11,000rpm. How long it would last was another matter, and the 350GT debuted with a still impressive 280bhp (209kW) in 1963.

Over the next four-and-a-half decades, Bizzarrini’s V12 would slowly increase in size; first to 3.9 litres for the Miura, then from 4.0 to 5.2 litres over the Countach’s 16-year lifespan. During that time four valves per cylinder arrived with the 5000QV in 1985, with fuel injection introduced at the same time on US-spec cars.

By the time the Diablo ushered out of production in 2001, Bizzarrini’s V12 had now developed from 3.5 litres and 209kW to 6.0 litres and 429kW. It would soldier on, however, its swansong fittingly coming in the back of the 2010 Murcielago LP670 SV, stretched to an incredible 6.5 litres and 493kW. Nothing is able to last forever, though, and the arrival of the Aventador in 2011 called for an all new heart.

Dubbed L539, Lamborghini’s new V12 retains a 6.5-litre capacity, but is smaller, lighter, yet more powerful than the final Bizzarrini engine with 515kW/690Nm. And remember, this engine will have plenty of headroom built in for future models 600kW Lambo anyone? Its open-deck crankcase is built from aluminium-silicon alloy while the incredibly undersquare bore/stroke ratio (95mm vs 76.4mm) means it revs to the heavens, peak power being produced at an incredible 8250rpm.

With so much power, and weighing only 1575kg (dry weight), the Aventador’s acceleration is shocking in its violence. And then you discover you’ve been short-shifting at 7000rpm and only using 70 per cent of the throttle. The way the tacho lunges through the last 1500rpm firmly establishes the big Lambo as one of the very fastest cars in the world.

All this is accompanied by a V12 bellow, though it’s not hard to hear why so many owners fit straight-through exhausts, as this engine deserves bigger lungs. Corners arrive at a fearsome rate, requiring every bit of muscle the enormous composite brakes can muster to pull the car up in time, at which point the rear end starts to wander as all that engine mounted behind your head makes its presence felt.

With a modern dual-clutch ’box the Aventador would be unstoppable, but sadly the single-clutch ISR robotised manual is heavily compromised. While lighter and more compact, for shift quality and smoothness it feels a generation behind. In flat-out Corsa mode the shifts are wincingly brutal Lamborghini calls this engineered-in thump ‘emotional’, which must be a synonym for painful in Italian. Cruising about in Auto works okay, but every now and then will it gets confused sending a massive shock through the car.

The low-speed ride is also particularly unyielding, meaning commuting in an Aventador isn’t likely to be the most pleasant experience, especially with such weighty steering (no doubt any Countach or Diablo owners just scoffed incredulously), not to mention its more than two-metre width. What is surprising, though, is what a great GT car the Lambo becomes once speeds rise the steering lightens, the ride improves and the whole car seems to relax.

At 110km/h it feels like it’s barely interested, which, of course, it isn’t. It’s built to dispatch massive distances at two or three times that speed, though exercise the performance and the 90-litre fuel tank drains with alarming haste. When the corners arrive there is astounding grip and total traction from the all-wheel drive system, though aware that customers’ driving skills might not be commensurate with their bank balances, it’s heavily restrained by the ESP system, stuttering out of corners like its shoelaces are tied together.

It’s takes a deep breath to disable the ESP system in something this big, fast and expensive, but do so and it’s a car transformed. With no electronic shackles, it picks up cleanly out of corners with such ferocious pace it leaves you breathless. The Aventador is not a car you would ever provoke out of shape on the public road, but even at a slightly reduced pace, you’re still going faster than pretty much anything else around anyway.

If ever there was a car where how it drives is completely beside the point, then the Aventador is it. It looks a million bucks, which makes its $761,500 sticker price (before options) a relative bargain. Nothing attracts attention like a V12 Lamborghini; it is the ultimate rock star car. With Lambo boss Stephen Winkelmann’s noted distaste of hybrids, let alone turbos, it’s the good folk from Sant’Agata who are most likely to keep the naturally-aspirated flag flying in years to come.