W196

So um... quick warning before this piece commences: it's really negative, to the point where even I hesitate to put this out in public. I just... haven't put out a review in weeks now and I feel guilty for it, and driving the Aventador made my mood that much worse.

"It feels like Lamborghini doesn't get chosen that often so why not bring out the SV", says Racer. Well, they don't get chosen that often because we all know they're hot garbage.

AVENTADOOR SV　ミウラオマージュedition by mshow1215 livery link (GTS)

It's a Lamborghini! It's their flagship car! It's a lightened, more powerful, winged version of their flagship car! You'd think all that would make the Aventador LP 750-4 Superveloce a car that is amazing enough to make anyone crap hexagonal vents and doors. But, even Lamborghini themselves don't seem to hold the Aventador to such high regard. After all, why is it that their record–setting GT3s, Performantes, and STOs are all Huracáns instead of Aventadors? I mean, sure, the Aventador was the base for several reskins into cars costing thrice its price, such as the god–awful Veneno, but that's hardly much to shout about, is it? It appears to me that, when Lamborghini needs to peacock, they use the Aventador, and when things actually need to be done, they call upon the Huracán. And that is exactly how I would describe the driving experience of the Aventador SV.

Yes, the Aventador SV has a NA V12 boasting over 700HP and revs over 8,000rpm. Noise and straight line speed have never been a problem with Lamborghinis—the problems arise when they have to shut up and stop, because the Aventador will ask of its drivers to be hard on the brakes at distances where most drivers won't even begin to think about approaching said corner, much less be setting their car up for it. To give just a few examples of how freaking long the Aventador requires to adequately slow for a corner and hit its apex, here are some of the things I had to do on race day while running Sport Medium tyres, an upgrade over the Sport Hard tyres that it comes default with in GTS, and the default tyres for the car in GT7:

• Turn 1 of Sardegna A: Brake on the uphill leading to T1, well before the crest of the hill, i.e. before you even come close to seeing the corner you're braking for.

• Turn 1 of DT Seaside: No, I don't mean the left–right chicane; I mean the gentle right kink that leads to said chicane. You need to lift for that to hold a narrower line going into the braking zone for T2.

• Bus stop of DT Seaside: Usually, cars need to brake only for the second set of chicanes for the bus stop at DTS, a.k.a. the "Chicane of Death". In the Aventador, you'll need to brake for the first set, an inconsequentially gentle right–left.

• Tokyo South Inner: you know that high speed right kink in the middle of the tunnel, right before the roof of the tunnel opens up? The Aventador will need to brake for that. You know what doesn't have to brake for that? A freaking Challenger Hellcat weighing 455 kilos more, with its engine up front, and two more doors.

Braking points on a track can certainly be memorised, if you like to drive in the same way us Asian kids are told to study for exams, and can somehow find these charades fun and fulfilling. But if the front tyres of a car can't slow it quick enough, it certainly won't turn the car, either. The Aventador understeers as though it were allergic to apexes of corners and has a self–destructive fetish for the outside barriers of any track. It's not just the front end of the car, either, but the whole car feels glued to its axis under braking, as the rear end feels like a lifeless carcass that cannot be coaxed into showing any signs of life, such as rotating into a corner under braking and corner entry. You might be thinking at this point, "well yeah, most modern supercars are set up with hand–holding understeer in their suspension setup because the people rich enough to afford these prohibitively expensive cars generally speaking don't have the driving skills to keep themselves out of trouble", and you're right about that.

...except the Aventador also oversteers on power in spite of having AWD and a spiteful suspension setup heavily biased towards understeer. I suppose that oversteer out of slow corners can be quite fun, in the same way that having a beautiful nurse tend to you when you contract anal cancer is fun, because the AWD can quickly "cure" the slide with not very tricky throttle modulation. The fatalities arise when you fight the understeer on high speed kinks that aren't even corners to any other car, such as the left kink on the back straight of Sardegna A, where I've had the Aventador step out on me at speeds in excess of 250km/h, and when it snaps at that speed, hoo boy, you better be prepared for some Fun, with a capital F. If this is supposed to be "improved aerodynamics" over the base Aventador, god forbid anyone drive that. Don't think that that's just a problem I have, either, because here's a photo of me losing the rear end on said kink, and RX8 mirroring my exact mishaps just a few metres down the road.

At this point, you might say to me, "Whatever Square you're just a hater because you're poor, can't afford these cars, are born in the wrong place given your passion, and have had your hopes and dreams so thoroughly crushed and every initiative and idea shot down before you in every waking moment of your life and now you're a mentally scarred degenerate who is completely disconnected from society, can't fantasise, or feel happiness anymore, whose resultant cynicism lends itself well to critiquing the one thing you know, cars, without offering any solutions to that which you critique." First of all, ouch, who are you and how do you know so much. Second of all, driving the Aventador put me in a bad mood and made me say things I wish I hadn't. Yes, it's the car's fault. Rob even said it before I did, "this car makes me angry". And third, even when removing my cynicism from the mix, what does it say about the Aventador SV when it:

• Got consistently spanked by a Nissan VGT of all things, which has 42 HP less and weighs 50kg more;

• Struggles to fend off a third gen Ford GT with half its cylinders, ballasted up to match the SV's mass, while having a hundred less HP, lacking AWD, and not even in track mode;

• Couldn't shake off a Grand Touring car, the SLS AMG, boosted up to the 622HP of the Black Edition with none of the other Black Edition enhancements, resulting in the car still having over 100HP less than the Aventador?

And yes, in case you hadn't picked up on it from the photos up to this point, most of us jumped ship from the Aventador on race day, because no one wanted to drive it.

Also, have I pointed out how it costs 1.2 million credits for some reason? As GT7 has more clearly demonstrated, GT credits are a 1:1 replica of the Japanese Yen, divided by 100 in international releases to roughly equal the US dollar, with Kaz even going so far as to consult Hagerty for the sale prices of classic cars. Real world prices of the Aventador SV start at around half a million USD before options according to Autotrader. Unless you're telling me "options" can more than double the price of a half million dollar supercar, the Aventador SV is a straight up rip–off in GTS, though it does cost exactly half a million in GT7 like it should. And for 1.2 million, whomever specced the Aventador PD scanned couldn't even afford the factory option SV decals? What, the 6.5L V12, garish styling, and rear wing are subtle enough, but an SV decal on the SV car is going too far? I usually try to refrain from being this mean in writing I share publicly, but is the owner of this Aventador a complete buffoon? Do they need help?

Lamborghinis don't get chosen often, because no one chooses a Lamborghini; they end up with it. The Aventador SV is a trophy car. It looks pretty, but is useless for being anything other than showing off and being paperweight.