Review 2017 Lamborghini Aventador S   First Drive
Channel: Auto Today
Date: 29/01/2017

The Italian in the driver’s seat could have fallen from the pages of a men’s fashion magazine. Perfectly tailored suit, meticulously cropped hair, runway gaze everywhere he looks. As he races through Valencia, Spain, he turns another roundabout into a shallow chicane, powers down the straight, and grabs the next gear with fingers wrapped in a leather driving glove. Avicii’s sugary club pop plinks out the soundtrack to a scene so stereotypically Italian—so perfectly Lamborghini.

Except that our driver is hustling a diesel Audi A7. This is just the shuttle from the airport to the hotel.

It’s a fitting warm-up to a car that also is quintessentially Italian. Powered by equal parts emotion and stonking V-12, the Aventador S’s flaws animate its persona just as much as its best qualities. That’s nothing new. The 2017 Lamborghini Aventador S essentially amounts to a mid-cycle refresh of the Aventador LP700-4 that it replaces this spring at a starting price of $424,845. Still, this update is much more than just fascias and interior features. As we lapped Circuit Ricardo Tormo and attacked the writhing roads southwest of the city, Avicii’s infective rhythms continued to bounce through our brain, because Lambo’s biggest bull has learned to dance.

Rear Steer

The newfound dexterity stems from a rear-wheel steering system that can nudge the rear wheels up to 1.5 degrees in the opposite direction of the fronts during low-speed maneuvers. It chops the amount of steering input required from the driver, a fact that’s especially prominent in hairpin curves and in parking-lot maneuvers, where it makes the difference between rolling your wrists and crossing your arms. The rear steering also makes the car slightly more neutral, although it doesn’t eliminate the Aventador’s natural proclivity for understeer. With all-wheel drive and stickier, redesigned Pirelli P Zero rubber, the big Lambo resists power-on oversteer, but lift off the throttle at the cornering limit and the Aventador slowly rotates into a drift. It all adds up to an Aventador that is more sensitive and better attuned to the driver’s inputs. The rear end wriggles under hard braking, the steering issues more immediate commands, and the throttle wants to be tickled just so through the corners.

Backsound credit by bensound.com