It’s pure drama. At the end of the back straight at Vallelunga, nearing 240 kph, the Aventador isn’t the kind of car you want to mess around with. In Corsa mode, each gearshift is the equivalent of launching a precision-guided bomb – aimed to hurt the driver’s neck. At 50 milliseconds a shift, the Aventador isn’t forgiving and after having tried my repertoire of driving skills (back-off shifts, part-throttle shifts, full-bore shifts), I admitted defeat.
Nothing prepares you for what Lamborghini has achieved with the Aventador. It’s the most deceptive supercar on sale today. One moment, it’s the Grim Reaper, with all those slashes and lack of curves, and the next moment it drives like an Audi R8 – easy to drive and live with. But of course, Giorgio Sanna, Lamborghini’s new Valentino Balboni, hasn’t yet told you that you are still stuck in Spada mode, where the gearshifts feel tame and the car is, well, a large German limousine at best.
I kid you not, I spent no more than two of my 14 laps around Vallelunga in Corsa. At that point, the shifts turn violent, the power delivery alters and the ESP partially cuts off. There’s no telling when you’ve crossed 100 kph, but the spec sheet says 2.9 seconds. Every single shift makes your neck cry out for relief, so you do the more sensible thing and shift to Sport, which gives you the best of both worlds. It’s at this point that you realise how much Lamborghini has changed.
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