Lamborghini Aventador SV review – lighter, more powerful, more hardcore - Performance and 0-60 time

Equipped with a standard launch control system, the four-wheel drive Aventador SV will hit 62mph in 2.8 seconds. That’s what a 6.5-litre V12 with 740bhp and 509lb ft of torque will do to 1525kg of Lamborghini. The four fat, sticky tyres feed the gargantuan power into the road surface with barely any slip and the car slingshots off the line, paddle-shift gearbox banging in each new cog with real ferocity. 

Being normally aspirated the big V12 lacks the table-top torque curve of a turbocharged engine – such as the Porsche 911 Turbo’s flat-six – and also the wrecking ball shove in the back from low engine speeds, but from the mid-range onwards the SV piles on speed at a ludicrous rate. The acceleration seems to continue unabated right up to the 8500rpm redline, and then into the next gear.

While it mightn’t have the 911 Turbo’s wall of torque from just over idle, the SV does have a soundtrack to match the wild, fearsome styling. In Sport or Corsa mode the exhaust becomes more vocal, spewing forth an ear splitting cacophony in the upper reaches and cracking and bellowing on the overrun. 

The Aventador SV’s top speed is 218mph.