We made a video not long ago on the Lamborghini Aventador LP-780-4 Ultimae. What a thing it was, too. It showed that the Aventador wasnโt simply a shock and awe tactic to wow passers-by (which it still absolutely does, by the way) it had developed into a stunningly good driverโs car. I still find it hard to believe how a car of its considerable size, carrying a heavy lump of V12, could shrink around the driver so easily on tight roads and feel so, well, ultimately nimble.
The other thing it delivered was a perspective on natural aspiration vs. forced induction and electrical assistance. Thatโs a perspective on the past vs. the future. On the one hand, the future looks bright. Turbos and electric motors fill holes in torque curves. They are better, technically. But what the Ultimae confirmed – not for the first time – was that technically better isnโt always better, better. Not in the real world.
The Ultimae has 780hp. It does 0-62mph in 2.7 seconds. Itโs as fast as the fastest cars out there. And yet, believe it or not, this was useable power and speed for the road. It felt relevant in a way that the Ferrari 296 GTB does not. You heard so much more from that easy-breathing V12 that itโs simply stunning just to drive around on a light throttle. And if you floored it, it sounded even better, but when you did that with the engine โoff camโ, as it were, you could savour the deep induction raw for decent periods, without the thing lighting up and dropping you directly into the dock.
What Iโve found disheartening about the future โย when driving cars like the 296 GTB โย is these highly efficient speed machines are too good. You simply cannot use full throttle on the road for more than a second or so. And with less sound to savour from evermore stifled, small-capacity V6 engines, the only time they feel amazing is unleashed on a track. Well, thatโs not easily exploitable fun.
So when Stephan Winkelmann, Chairman and CEO of Automobili Lamborghini, said at the Aventadorโs launch in 2011, โthe Aventador is a jump of two generations in terms of design and technology, with an exceptional package of unique, innovative technologies and performance that is simply overwhelmingโ he was wrong. It wasnโt overwhelming.
And so itโs sad to learn (even though we knew it was coming) that the pure, naturally aspirated V12 era has drawn to a close at Automobili Lamborghini. The final Aventador LP 780-4 Ultimae Roadster has gone down the line at SantโAgata. It was a special light blue Ad Personam car, destined for a Swiss market โ ironically, probably one place in Europe where you canโt exploit it, thanks to the Swiss obsession with draconian speed enforcement.
I am not sad simply because this is change. I am sad because this change leaves something behind. 11,465 Aventadors have been delivered to customers worldwide, and, if my experience of driving a small fraction of them is anything to go by, theyโve all brought joy, not just to their owners but to everyone who sees them. Itโs a car that makes children excitable and adults excitable children. Weโve seen 10 one-offs and limited editions and itโs been depicted in films and video games. There will be a replacement, of course, and it will have a V12, but will it be โbetter betterโ with the electrical assistance itโll gain? I hope so, but fear it will just be better, which means worse.
As we move to this hybrid interim and then to a full electric future, it would be nice if manufacturers absorbed the lesson that cars like the Aventador werenโt defined just by speed alone, but by the experience they offered. The spine-tingling experience of sensation. Thatโs what they need to work on as we go forward. Itโs time, perhaps, to start engineering some limitations, or even life-affirming flaws into new cars, and forget about perfection.
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