Thread: Lamborghini Aventador Roadster first drive review

The Lamborghini Aventador Roadster is a well engineered version of one of the worlds maddest and baddest supercars. And it can do 217mph – with the roof down. The Lamborghini Aventador Roadster is the most extraordinary car in the companys illustrous 50 year history, or so said the firm's charismatic chairman, Stephan Winkelmann, at the cars launch in Miami last weekend. Its a bold claim, given whats been served up previously by the famous old supercar maker from Sant'Agata – the Miura SV and pretty much any version of the Countach are surely contenders. Then again, one look at the mighty Aventador Roadster in the flesh tells you that it is indeed right up there with Lamborghinis most outrageous creations. It looks like the sort of car Batman might drive on his day off, maybe when hes on holiday in Miami Beach…Dont for one moment think of the Roadster as some kind of folly, however, or as a car that hasnt somehow been engineered thoroughly for the job. Unlike the Murcielago Roadster, which was something of an afterthought to be honest, the open-top Aventador is a standalone model in its own right. Its styling is unique, considerable care and attention having been employed to ensure it of a separate, more extrovert personality compared with the coupe. And beneath its reptilian-like skin, while it shares its basic carbonfibre tub platform, 6. 5-litre V12 engine and seven-speed single-clutch gearbox with the coupe, dynamically it is perhaps more impressive than the fixed head, for reasons well come to in a moment. Despite weighing some 50kg more than the coupe, Lamborghini claims the Roadster can set exactly the same time around the number one handling circuit at the Nardo test facility in the hands of all its test drivers. Had the roof simply been removed and various areas of the car not been redesigned to accommodate the one quarter decrease in stiffness, there is no way the Roadster could achieve such basic speed across the ground.