Wednesday 20th May 2015

Raging Bull: PH Blog

Another 'ring lap claimed but this one matters, or so says Dan

---

With SEAT claiming 'fastest front-drive hot hatch derived estate car' as a bona fide Nurburgring record the sense that Nordschleife times have jumped the shark is hard to ignore. Many thought as much long ago, both in the media and among manufacturers.

Fastest Golf derivative record in the bag...

When even someone like Porsche's Andreas Preuninger sighs and says 'ring times are more about the bravery of the driver than the quality of the car you know something's up. From hypercars to hybrids everyone now seems to need to validate their existence with a tenuous lap time of sorts.

I can take or leave stuff like the SEAT or Prius but this sub-seven time by the Lamborghini Aventador SV is something actually significant I think.

Why? Certainly for Lamborghini because, seemingly from out of nowhere, it's done what it has always done best. Which is to basically flick vees at the more high-minded members of the supercar community and demonstrate the rebellious spirit the brand has always stood for. This is hardwired into the company legend of course; the snubbed tractor builder so angered at Enzo's arrogance that he decided to build a better car himself and all that.

Yep, it's a 'ring lap record holder too!

Lamborghini could never rival Ferrari's racing pedigree or road car lineage of course. So it just built the most outrageous looking cars it could. Wisely it's maintained this philosophy to this day. McLaren can take its (historic, if not current) F1 rivalry out into the car park and give Ferrari road cars a run for their money. All a Lambo has to do is rock up and be louder, more extrovert and have a bigger wing/engine/exhaust and, for the target audience, it's job done. Do they care about the lack of motorsport pedigree or the fact that, ultimately, Lamborghinis aren't always that good to drive? Do they heck. They just want to see the pumped-up bodybuilder kicking sand in the face of the geeks every now and then. Evidenced by the online commentator to my Huracan onboard video so outraged by my 'chicken arms' he had to deploy the classic 'bro, u even lift?' as if this is a prerequisite for driving a Huracan.

And just as Lamborghini had seemingly accepted the inevitable business case for making its cars more suited to posers than hardcore drivers it sends its big beast out and proves it can - after all - mix it in the big boys' playground. And match their fancy hybrid drivetrains, star racing driver pilots and mega budget development strategies by simply being badass.

The Aventador SV, by modern standards, is crude. It's a big old bus with big normally aspirated V12, Haldex four-wheel drive, a single-clutch automated gearbox, sticky tyres and a load of aero. It has no claims to be a racing car or even related to one. I rode shotgun in a standard Aventador with Lambo's chief hotshoe round a wet Silverstone and it clearly handled like a dog in those conditions. In this context it's just eff-off fast courtesy of having loads of power and an anonymous driver with a set steely enough to pedal it round to a sub-seven time. As evidenced by the smooth and controlled first half of the lap and then realisation he's going to have to get a wriggle on and push a bit harder to achieve his goal. If he wasn't puckering slightly at Brunnchen he really wasn't human...

Job done though. And excitement raised a notch or two ahead of our drive in it at the weekend.

Dan

 

[redroadster]

The main thing is it looks like a super car and sounds like one you can make a car faster than this like the McCLaren but it's not got the same drama ,if you want to drive on a race track buy a racing car it will be faster and better suited to the job for the road a Lamborghini is more than enough.