Driven: Lamborghini Aventador S blasts in

AUTOMOBILI Lamborghini has previewed the updates to its fleet-footed flagship at an event in Phillip Island, with the company sending three left-hand-drive Aventador S models to Australia as part of its Lamborghini Experienza program.

The Volkswagen Group-owned supercar-maker released details of the Aventador S at the recent Detroit motor show, with the V12-powered scissor-door coupe receiving engine, chassis and aerodynamic updates six years after its release.

Priced from $788,914 before on-road costs, Automobili Lamborghini’s head of Asia Pacific, Andrea Baldi, said that “several” orders for the new version had been placed, with deliveries not expected until early in 2018.

“In a production capacity, we are restricted to build the Aventador that we designed in the beginning (in 2012), and this is restricted to about a thousand cars a year,” he told GoAuto. “Over the six years, we have managed to sell out, and if you order a car now, it will be already delivered next year we have already pre-sold the rest.”

Mr Baldi said the brand’s cheaper Huracan model was the better selling of its two models, but the Aventador S would renew interest in the flagship.

“Overall, Aventador has been a success for Lamborghini, and the Asia Pacific region gets about one-third of our annual allocation (around 300 cars),” he said.

Mr Baldi added that the Huracan had been more successful in terms of penetration, adding: “At the end of the day, though, we have sold every car we have made.” Mr Baldi told GoAuto that the Australian market is important to the Italian supercar builder. It sold 127 cars here in 2016, a number that placed Australia eighth in the world for Lamborghini sales, and with what Mr Baldi called the “longest order bank in the world”.

“We could deliver more cars, but we are at capacity on both of our models (including the V10-powered Huracan),” he said.

Worldwide, Lamborghini sold 3457 cars in 2016, a doubling of its sales since 2011.

Lamborghini's new area manager for Oceania, Andreas Ruggiero, told GoAuto that the S in the Aventador’s name has no particular relevance, pointing to other cars in the history of the company like the Miura S and Islero S as examples.

“All the S names meant nothing particularly,” he said. “It just stands for something that is better.”

The two-seat Aventador S is based around a mid-engined all-wheel-drive carbon-fibre monocoque chassis that uses pushrod-equipped A-arm suspension at all four corners.

For 2017, Lamborghini has redesigned the front end of the car to improve downforce by a factor of 130 per cent and reduce drag by 50 per cent, according to the company, with extra air through the front bar also further cooling the brakes and smoothing airflow down the side of the car into the mid-mounted engine air intakes.

The rear end, meanwhile, has been redesigned in a style that the company says is meant to mimic its famous 1960s sportscar, the Miura. A three-position rear wing adjusts automatically as required, and combines with redesigned underbody elements to improve stability and add downforce.

The Aventador S also sports a new rear-steer system that toes the rear wheels outwards in relation to the direction of the turn at speeds under 80km/h to aid slow speed manoeuvring, before gradually toeing them in at higher speeds to virtually lengthen the wheelbase and improve stability.

The addition of the system also required a complete recalibration of the car’s active dampers and stability and traction control systems, with a central processor – known as the Lamborghini Dynamic Active Vehicle module – added to control all of the car’s chassis functions.

Ceramic brakes are also standard on the Aventador S, while new Pirelli P Zero tyres – riding on 21-inch rear and 20-inch front wheels – were engineered specifically for the car, with reconfigured sidewalls and shoulder construction to deal with the all-wheel steer system.

The 6.5-litre V12 engine has also been tweaked to produce 29kW more than the standard Aventador for a new total of 544kW at 8400rpm, while torque remains static at 690Nm at 5500rpm.

The improvements are the result of retuning the variable valve timing and intake systems, along with a new, lighter exhaust and an increase of 150rpm on the redline figure.

It can hit 100km/h in 2.9 seconds, 200km/h in 8.8s and 300km/h in 24.2s, before topping out at 350km/h.

Lamborghini quotes a combined fuel economy figure of 16.9 litres per 100km, along with a carbon dioxide emission figure of 394g per kilometre.

Inside, the Aventador S’s digital dashboard has been updated, while a fourth driving mode known as ‘ego’ provides owners with up to 24 separate parameters – including steering, damping, gearbox and throttle maps – to tweak their car to their liking.