Dan Trent: Aventador SV – Lambo' back on form

See, accepted wisdom goes Lamborghinis are very good at certain things. Namely making noise, turning heads and… well, that's about it really. The Aventador is a case in point. Amazing looks, incredible engineering, ultimately not all that to drive. Not that most owners care, given the way it nails those rather superficial objectives.

And that is the moral high ground rivals like Ferrari and McLaren always cling to. Sure, Lamborghinis may get the camera phones clicking. But, like whichever Kardashian is this week's cover star, it's all about the spectacle of fame without any actual talent to back it up. Ferrari has its decades of blue-blooded racing history to draw on, McLaren more recent F1 heritage on which the rigour and purity of its road cars draw their credibility. Lamborghinis? They're just the noisy protest of a disgruntled tractor builder snubbed by Mr Ferrari, right?

And then Lamborghini made some tweaks to the 'truck' that is the Aventador, found itself a narrow window of free track time before the Nurburgring banned timed manufacturer laps in the wake of a tragic incident where Jann Mardenborough's flying GT-R killed a spectator and sent out factory driver Marco Mapelli for one shot at glory. 

That suitably heroic 6-minute and 59-second lap came within a couple of seconds of equalling that of the Porsche 918 Spyder, a time set after two days of intensive benchmarking with a team of three elite drivers headed by Walter Rohrl. For all the occasionally patronising attitude shown to its Italian supercar brand by the Audi and VW paymasters – and by extension Porsche – this was a hearty up yours.  Especially given the Lamborghini, with a list price a third of the 918's, came within a whisker of beating Porsche's hybrid wizardry with little more than a big Italian V12 and a flamboyant bit of driving from a very brave test driver. From Ferruccio's flicked vees to Enzo to Mapelli's bonkers lap this, to me, is the spirit of Lamborghini. The SV embodies this. And that's why – if I were in the position – I'd pay the premium over a regular LP700-4 for one.

With its functional aero, brutalist styling and raw driving style the SV is Lamborghini's values made physical in my book. I drove one on the launch event behind a hard charging instructor in a 'regular' Aventador and enjoyed bulldozing him along the track, no matter how hard he pushed. He didn't expect a mere hack to be able to do that. Such is the substance underpinning the SV's technical superiority even a ham-fisted hack like myself was able to unleash his inner Mapelli. Here was a Lamborghini that delivered on the wild looks with proper dynamic substance.  

Obviously, it'd have to be a coupe and not a roadster. Orange with the SV graphics on the flanks will do nicely thanks. After all, if you're going to do it you may as well do it properly. Last of the true bad boy supercars? If the SV turns out to be just that the extra £100K seems well worth paying. 

Images courtesy of Pistonheads