Lamborghini Aventador (2011 - 2022) review: the V12 supercar you can use everyday

If any breed of car were poised to take centre stage in a more connected, confident and expressive world, filling the pixels and speakers of a generation of dreamers with its sights and sounds, it’s the flagship Lamborghini supercar. The Aventador, Lamborghini’s fifth-generation V12 flagship, arrived at the perfect time in 2011, ready to captivate the Instagram and YouTube feeds, as well as the hearts, minds, and bedroom wall posters of a new generation of supercar enthusiasts. 

Today, it’s a flagship as significant to a younger generation as the Countach was to those growing up in the 1970s and 1980s and for any top tier raging bull, that’s job done. Even if it took time and iteration for Lamborghini to hone it into a driver’s car of the highest merit.

> Best Lamborghinis – the finest Ferrari fighters from Sant’Agata

History

Conception of the Aventador can arguably be traced all the way back to 2005 and the official founding of Lamborghini Centro Stile. Luc Donckerwolke had handled the internal styling of the Murciélago but did so almost alone and under the supervision of VW Group design boss Walter de Silva. He fought for Lamborghini to get its own design department, headed up by Filippo Perini. It was he who penned the Aventador, re-injecting some aggression inspired by the limited-run Reventon, to the design of Lamborghini’s flagship.

Arriving in concert with new V12 models from Pagani and Ferrari, Lamborghini kept the new models flowing. 2013 saw the introduction of the Aventador Roadster, first teased by the one-off Aventador J of 2012. Unlike with the Murci, an SV model was fastforwarded, being introduced in both coupe and Roadster forms in 2015. The base Aventador then got a facelift with the Aventador S in 2017, before the ultimate Aventador, the SVJ, arrived in 2019. Packing the SVJ’s hopped-up V12 but with more subtle styling, the limited-run Aventador Ultimae saw the Aventador out as the best iteration yet before its discontinuation in 2022 and replacement by the new Revuelto.

Numerous specials were produced based on the Aventador. The first was the Veneno in 2013, shortly followed in 2016 by the Centenario (a celebration of Ferucio Lamborghini’s 100th birthday). The Sian of 2019 was a different sort of special, carrying its own technical innovations in the form of a super capacitor hybrid system – totally different to the more conventional system the Revuelto would eventually debut with. The latterday Countach was revealed in 2021, taking the Sian’s electrified underpinnings as its technical basis. A couple of one-offs were spun off from the Aventador too, including the SC20, SC18 Alston, the Invencible and Auténtica.

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Engine, gearbox and technical highlights

The Aventador was a new kind of Lamborghini flagship, with the first all-new V12 since Bizzarrini’s original masterpiece of 1964 and the first to embrace carbonfibre for its construction as well as its bodywork, completing the journey Horacio Pagani began when developing the Countach Evoluzione in the late 1980s. 

It was also the first Lamborghini to not be offered with a proper gated manual transmission, instead being offered only with its paddle-operated Independent Shifting Rod single-clutch ‘box. It was one of many flawed elements of the Aventador’s constitution – one that endured as other kinks were ironed out with every subsequent version over its decade on sale.

The L539 6.5-litre V12 engine came with a different firing order from the old Bizzarrini and featured a shorter stroke, allowing it to rev more freely. Power was 691bhp arriving at a heady 8250rpm with 509lb ft arriving at 5500rpm. In the end, the Aventador Ultimae packed a monstrous 769bhp and 531lb ft.

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That power reached all four wheels via an ISR single-clutch transmission, with Lamborghini reasoning that a dual-clutch transmission would be too heavy – curious, given that in spite of its carbon construction, all Aventadors are still 1500kg+ cars. Connected to that carbon tub were aluminium subframes while an inboard pushrod spring and damper design was used in the suspension. The Aventador also featured active aerodynamics in standard and S specification, with fixed elements and an active system on the SVJ called Aerodynamica Lamborghini Activa, flowing air through the fixed elements as well as over and under them.

The Aventador featured driver modes to tune the attitudes of the engine, transmission, steering, and power distribution, with ‘Strada’ the basic road setting and ‘Sport’ and ‘Track’ increasing intensity. Later Aventadors added ‘ego’, which was Sant’Agatan speak for ‘individual’. The configurability was described as a ‘Eureka moment’ for the Aventador by our testers.

Similarly influential was the addition of four-wheel steering with the Aventador S of 2017, allowing the rear wheels to turn in the opposition to to the fronts by up to 3.0 degrees at low speeds, or in the same direction by up to 1.5 degrees at higher speeds. The switching ‘window’ is between approximately 78 and 84mph, depending on how much yaw is detected at the time. The suspension was retuned and refined to suit, while a new ECU tied the damping, 4WS, sharper steering and AWD together.

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Driving the Lamborghini Aventador

Aventador LP700-4 (2011-2016)

‘Rather like giving a polar bear a hug, turning the stability control off on a V12 Lambo is not something you do lightly, but very quickly it’s obvious this Aventador is different. Gone is the subtle but persistent initial understeer that used to prevail, replaced by a front end that just grips and turns. It’s a revelation that instantly makes the Aventador feel smaller, more positive and more wieldy.

‘There is, however, an obvious knock-on effect of this alacrity at the front: the big weight behind your shoulders is also pitched into corners faster. With the road opening out in front of you through the pillarbox windscreen, so the speed increases. You brake later, turn in harder and you feel the car start to sway a little behind you. It’s subtle, but your heartbeat quickens nonetheless and you rein things in.

‘Inevitably the speed picks up again and a couple of turns later you carry a bit more speed into an appealing right-hander and the back definitely moves this time, so that you have to dial in a quarter-turn of opposite lock to catch it. But amazingly, it’s not terrifying and you find that you aren’t even close to rolling down a hillside. This is good. No, this is better than good. This is brilliant.’ – Henry Catchpole, evo issue 182, May 2013

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Aventador S (2017-2021)

‘On the move the first thing you notice about the S is how much less steering input is required, how direct this makes the front end feel, and how much more feel, proper feel, there is through the rim. Then you notice how much cleaner the throttle response is. Every millimetre of travel on the pedal makes a difference this time, and you instantly feel more in control of the car as a result. You drive it rather than the other way round. Lamborghini, it seems, has finally got what this driving thing is all about.

‘And the key word is ‘detail’. The old car never lacked much when it came to generating headline numbers, nor was it short on pure brute force or aural drama. From the outside looking in, it seemed to have everything going for it. But from behind the wheel it was a clumsy car to drive in some respects.

‘With the S, it’s the four-wheel-steering system that’s responsible for the leap forwards and it’s seamless. All you’re aware of from behind the wheel is much sharper front-end bite with maybe a hint of neutral oversteer that never develops into full-blown oversteer on turn in – a massive step in the right direction for the Aventador. And then at high speed it feels pretty much glued at both ends, with far less steering input required to get it to turn-in, plus a lovely sense of control on the throttle mid-corner.

‘And because the car is so much better balanced under power across all speeds, this has allowed the engineers to send much more torque to the rear axle at any given time. Which has the effect of making the S feel like a rear-wheel-drive car most of the time, and a very well set up rear-wheel-drive car at that.’ – Steve Sutcliffe, 2017

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Aventador Ultimae (2022)

‘First surprise is just how wieldy this Aventador feels. Yes, it’s wide enough that you involuntarily breathe in when a car comes the other way, but in terms of pure placeability you can pretty much smack the Ultimae’s nose into any apex with pinpoint accuracy. There’s a megaton of grip, with traction to match, but this would be wasted if you didn’t have the confidence to exploit it. 

‘Of course it takes a while to really lean on the lateral grip, likewise squeeze into the available traction, but with every turn you begin to sense that this is a car that demands respect but does nothing to intimidate. Key to this is the steering, which is quick yet calm, with response that’s both proportionate and consistent with your inputs. Thanks to the nicely judged rear-wheel steer you never feel you need to introduce more energy into the initial rotation with a speedier than usual steering input, yet nor do you find yourself nibbling away at the corner because you’ve got more response than you wanted. 

‘It’s unlikely you’ll ever work beyond the grip of the front or rear axle more than momentarily, at least on the road, but if you do manage to heel it into a corner with enough pace it feels remarkably neutral. With its low-mounted dry-sump motor, the Aventador put paid to the somewhat pendulous physics of a Diablo or Murciélago being worked hard through a series of corners.

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‘The reach and intensity of the Ultimae’s powertrain has to be felt – and heard! – to be believed. On roads like these it takes concerted effort and a hard swallow to chase the red line in third gear. Often your brain is telling you ‘that’s enough’ when a glance at the tacho reveals you’ve got another 2000rpm to use. The noughties might have called wanting its upshifts back, but in some ways each brutal pause-punch offers a split second in which to gather your faculties and steal a breath. It would be easier to forgive if only it didn’t make the car stumble at the crucial moment.

‘Though it marks a moment in automotive history many of us hoped would never come, there’s nothing melancholy about the Ultimae. It’s a celebration of a breed of car that has enlivened our lives for generations. As such it embodies the unique wonderstuff from which Lamborghini has always fashioned its uniquely special machines.’ – Richard Meaden, 2022

Lamborghini Aventador values and buying guide

‘Supercar’ doesn’t necessarily mean excruciating expenses with the Aventador – being under Audi’s wing since 1998 has really transformed the cars’ quality and longevity, and as evo contributor Simon George’s Murciélago has also shown (albeit with some expensive work along the way), modern Lamborghinis are capable of doing multiples of the kind of mileage most supercars will ever see in their entire lifetimes.

The L539 V12 is incredibly robust if well maintained. Gearboxes can be more problematic, and have been subject to a handful of software updates and better transmission fluid options; later cars were better out of the box, if you’ll pardon the pun. More mechanically sympathetic owners also help stave off potential issues, so it’s good to know an Aventador’s history.

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Servicing, naturally, can be expensive – five to six grand for a major service at a main dealer, and two grand for an interim service, though specialists significantly undercut the big franchises.

Prices today start at around £150k for an early Aventador, though caution is advised. Unsympathetic driving making lots of noise and questionable modifications are just a couple of the ways many early owners went about peacocking in their Aventadors. The Aventador S – the least Aventador worth buying if you’re a keen driver – can be had for between £200k and £250k, while the later SV, SVJ and Ultimae are much more expensive and sought-after.

The Aventador was never available with a manual transmission and so that delineating factor that makes a manual example of its predecessor, the Murciélago, worth double that of an e-gear equivalent, isn’t there. There are also far more Aventadors out there – an astonishing 11,465 were made, compared to just over 4000 Murcis. So if residuals are a worry, go for rarity – there are just 1800 SVJs between the coupe and Roadster, and even fewer SVs and Ultimaes.

Regardless of your choice of Aventador, immaculate service history and an inspection are essential, the latter to uncover whether a car has been repaired, and if so, if it’s been repaired well. Check under the front bumper, too – the car has a nose lift, but the front end is still vulnerable. Pick a good one, though, and there are few more appropriately dramatic shapes in which to house one of the great V12 engines.