- Doors and Seats
2 doors, 2 seats
- Engine
6.5i, 12 cyl.
- Engine Power
545kW, 690Nm
- Fuel
Petrol (98) 16.9L/100KM
- Manufacturer
4WD
- Transmission
Auto
- Warranty
3 Yr, Unltd KMs
- Ancap Safety
NA
2019 Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster review
The best roadster on the planet, happens to have 12 cylinders and sound like a Senna-era Formula 1 car.
- The best sound on the planet
- Unrivalled levels of presence
- UFO on the road
- absolute uniqueness
- personalisation opportunity
- Infotainment system a hit and miss
- Not a very refined transmission
- fuel usage laughably awesome
There are supercars and then there are Aventadors. Many (including some in our very own office) would proclaim that the Lamborghini Aventador is just too much. Too much show, too much noise, too much attention, and just too much in your face. But for me, and for those that this car appeals to, it’s exactly why the Aventador S is the best supercar you can currently buy in Australia, and it’s even better in roadster form.
Here is the thing with the Aventador S Roadster: there are so many things wrong with it that you can compile a book. But while it’s flawed, it’s about as close to automotive perfection as a car gets. It’s the antithesis to boredom. The pure definition of adrenaline, joy, happiness, and every other word you can use to describe the sensation of unadulterated euphoria.
The Aventador is not a supercar, it’s an unidentified driving object. When it comes around the corner, it looks like something that simply doesn’t belong on the road. It’s so large, yet so small. It screams for attention, and unless you’re driving through a morgue, it will always get it. Whereas Ferrari makes supercars with the likes of the F12 Superfast, Lamborghini makes stealth fighters. There is nothing that has the presence or the boy-racer appeal of an Aventador. It says F-U to societal norms and doesn’t care if that hurts your feelings.
Best of all, the Aventador is a proper Lambo’. It’s the quintessential Italian hypercar. The entire thing, from the carbon-fibre tub to the engine, is handmade by a bunch of mad Italians in Sant'agata Bolognese. We’ve been there and seen it – it’s a labour of love with lots of shouting.
We have no doubt that no two Aventadors are the same. The Huracan, on the other hand, is like a half Italian, half German super soldier cast out of an unchanging mould. It’s smarter, arguably better dressed, and the sort of car you can take out to dinner. You wouldn’t introduce the Aventador to your grandmother, that’s for sure.
Whatever you may think of the Lamborghini Aventador, it’s characteristically cool. We would go so far as to say it defines what it means to be cool. But, of course, that viewpoint is met with extreme opposition, which is why we got an Aston Martin DB11 and parked them next to each other and asked the general public what they thought. You can watch that video here. Interestingly, even those that said the DB11 was ‘cooler’ then got a photo with the Lambo’, such is the appeal.
Our Aventador S Roadster in Verde Themis ($27,500) is a colour theme throwback to an old Muira colour, and in the flesh it remains one of the most beautiful colour schemes we’ve yet seen on any car. At about 30k more for a roadster over a coupe, the Aventador is best had with the roof open.
Jump inside and the Aventador is starting to show its age (first introduced in 2011). It carries the previous, previous-generation Audi infotainment system that we’ve long ago said bye to. The updated fully digital dashboard is at least a bonus, but there seems to be very little connection between the super modern high-resolution dash showing you the speed and other info, and the centre cluster that is clearly a tad behind. In saying all that, give me this system over the super-buggy Ferrari infotainment system every single day.
Once you manage to come to grips with the fact that you’re sitting in a car worth over a million dollars, and your phone is connected and docked (actually, the MY19s have this amazing phone holder that is super handy), you move your right foot to where you think the clutch should be to find the brake, and then lift the safety switch to press the red starter button.
You will, undoubtedly, grab the accelerator accidentally as you go for the brake pedal the first time you start her up. This results in a fantastic rev of the V12 engine, and you can always pretend it was intentional. The pedal positions are so offset, you almost have to shift your entire lower half 20 degrees to the left to make it work. It’s a little strange at first, but you get used to it.
Being a roadster, we would generally now encourage you to press and hold the button to have the roof fold away automatically… Except that you can’t do that in the Aventador S Roadster. You have to manually remove the carbon-fibre roof in a process of delicate dedication that would make anyone nervous. It’s stored very compactly in the front boot (frunk), leaving absolutely no space for anything else. You wouldn’t want to damage the roof during this removal process, as it would cost more than the price of a well-optioned German sedan to replace.
We left the roof in the frunk the entire time and prayed to Zeus for clear skies. The only way to drive the Aventador is to work out whether you want the roof on or off before you head off for the day. Sure, you can put it on or take it off with some patience, but it’s not the sort of thing you want to be doing in public, given small crowds will start to gather to watch the microsurgery.
Lift the nose up (it stays up until you hit 70km/h, then goes back down… So you have to hit the button again and again) and away you go. The Aventador is an intimidating thing to pilot, there is no doubt about it. The pedal offset, the length, the noise, everything harps back to the days when you respected a supercar. Whereby when you grabbed the keys (speaking of which, it is an old-school Audi key), you said a little prayer before jumping in.
Head down any populated street in any city in Australia, and the Lambo’ draws so many looks that it becomes almost a safety hazard. We have seen people run into poles and each other while admiring the Aventador. Turn on the exhaust (Corsa) and it’s yet another level.
The party trick of the Aventador is the engine. The 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 is a monster. Literally. It will eat you and your children alive if it could just escape its offset mounts in the rear. It’s the loudest, most brutal piece of modern machinery you can legally buy. It generates a level of noise that would put any police officer on notice. The fact that it is still legal is a miracle all on its own.
With 544kW of power and 690Nm of torque (up 34kW over the outgoing version), the Aventador S Roadster can go from 0–100km/h in 3.0 seconds and up to 200km/h in just nine seconds. It’s fast. Really, really, fast. Fuel economy? Do you really want to know? When we were hammering it, the consumption was… um... 53L/100km. That’s not the car’s system coming up with some BS figure, we actually had to fill her up three times in two days, and that was the average fuel usage. It’s actually amazing. It literally takes the fuel and uses it to make a flamethrower from its exhausts. It’s Greenpeace’s dream car.
It’s hard to say what you would ever use the Aventador for. It’s not really a track car – though it’s amazingly capable – and it’s not exactly a hill climber either. Really, the Aventador is like a nuclear bomb. You have one so that you never have to use it. It’s the best form of intimidation one can ever have on the road.
The gearbox is perhaps its biggest weakness. It’s much, much better in the S than it has ever been before, with smoother shifts and a much longer-lasting clutch, but it’s still nowhere near as compliant or accommodating as the dual-clutch transmission found in its smaller V10 brother. It’s brutal when it wants to be and clumsy at other times.
Start really pushing down that accelerator and the hairs on the back of your neck come to life. The noise is akin to a Senna-era Formula 1 car. It’s absolutely electrifying. It’s indescribable – a cure for any terminal illness. The audible equivalent to the fountain of youth. No other car you can currently buy in Australia will come anywhere close to its purity.
At this point, we can tell you that it actually drives rather well, with precise steering helped along by the rear wheels that also turn with or against the fronts. We can also tell you that you can indeed drive this car every day and be happy about it.
But none of that is relevant. What you really want to know is that the Aventador is unlike any car you’ve ever driven. It has its own gravitational pull. It chews through fossil fuel so rapidly, it seems desperate to bring on a new ice age. It’s the ultimate form of self-expression in a modern automobile. It's a dream made into a reality, an object that every car lover should aspire to own.
OPTIONAL FACTORY EQUIPMENT
INTERIOR
- Coloured Stitching in Verde Scandal $1,600
- Travel Package $1,400
- Visibility and Light Package $3,000
- New "S" Trim on Leather $8,800
- Interior Carbon Fibre Package $11,600
- Ad Personam Interior Color Request (inlays + stitch) $14,920
- Fully Electric and Heated Seats $8,200
- Parking Sensors and Rear View Camera $9,600
- Rear Bench and Rocker Cover in Leather $1,600
- Pillars and Windscreen Frame in Leather $900
- Branding Package with Lamborghini Shield Embroidered on Leather $2,600
EXTERIOR
- Black Brake Calipers $2,600
- Transparent Engine Bonnet $14,800
- Removal Hard Top in High Gloss Black $3,400
- Rear View Mirrors in Carbon Fibre $4,600
- Paint Color - Verde Themis, Ad Personam Special Request $27,500
- Wheel Rims- 20”/21” Diantus Centre Lock w Black Lock nut $9,700
- Exterior Details in Carbon Fibre $10,600