What is the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ?
Before we talk about what the Aventador SVJ is, I’ll first explain what the Aventador is. Throughout the years Lamborghini has always had a flagship V12 coupe, from 2011 to 2022 the Aventador was that coupe. For most of the younger generation the Aventador became the face of Lamborghini. Personally, out of all of Lamborghini’s V12 coupes, I like the Aventador and Murcielago best. The Murcielago looks quite elegant, almost like a work of art, while the Aventador looks beastly.
As was customary with the other V12 coupes, the Aventador came in a few different versions (more or less akin to trim levels), and the Aventador SVJ is the most performance-oriented and expensive version of the Aventador. The Aventador was already a fearsome car, and the Aventador SVJ took things even further. In my personal opinion, the Aventador SVJ is one of the best-looking cars I have ever seen.
Performance, Specs & Pricing
The Aventador SVJ has more power, less weight and better handling than the standard Aventador. It is powered by a massive 6.5L V12 producing 770 horsepower and 531 lb-ft of torque. This motor is mated to as 7 speed automatic transmission that shifts fairly quickly (as you’d expect for a car of this caliber) but can feel quite clunky when you’re just driving around town. This motor and transmission are coupled with an amazing all-wheel-drive system, (read more about drivetrains here) that allows the SVJ to move from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour (60 miles per hour) in just 2.8 seconds. This straight-line acceleration can match purpose built drag cars, which is very impressive when you consider that the SVJ was never built for drag racing. In fact, the SVJ has a Nürburgring lap time of 6:44.97 minutes, in 2018 it set a new record for production cars with this time.
The Aventador SVJ is available in both a coupe and roadster, and it typically goes four about $660,000 USD (~ $950,000 CAD). So, for my Canadians, this is essentially a million-dollar car, and some may ask, is it worth it? That’s really for you to decide. In the section below I’ll explain what makes this car special, and whether that makes it worth a million dollars is up to you.
What makes it so special?
There are quite a few things that make the Aventador SVJ special, I will do my best in this section to summarize some of them.
The first is that its engine is unique to Lamborghini, meaning that it isn’t shared with any other company. Many of Lamborghini’s engines are shared with other manufacturers in the VW Group, but not this one, which I think helps make this car special. Over the Aventador Coupe S, it has titanium intake valves, a new intake system, new exhaust and 29 more horsepower. It is also the last Lamborghini V12 produced without electric assistance. It ends a long line of great purely V12 coupes, namely the: Miura, Countach, Diablo and Murcielago. It is a great final hurrah of the pure V12s, and a fitting send off as well. This car was also extremely limited, there were only 900 coupes, and 800 roadsters produced, which has caused their value to of course skyrocket.
Another item that makes this car special is the heritage of its name. SVJ stands for Super Veloce Jota, which translates to Super Fast Jota in English. Super Fast obviously means that the car is actually super fast, and Jota is a nod to the Lamborghini Miura Jota. The Miura Jota was a Miura that Bob Wallace, a test driver and tinkerer at Lamborghini, custom built himself. It was lighter, stiffer and faster than a Miura S, and really showed the world was Lamborghini was capable of. It could move from 0 – 100 kilometres per hour (60 miles per hour) in just 3.5 seconds, in the 1970s, if that doesn’t impress you, I don’t know what will. The Miura Jota inspired the creation of the SVJ line and limited production Lamborghini’s, giving the SVJ a truly special heritage.
The final two things that make this car special have already been stated in this article. The first is the performance, I feel that I need to say this again for its significance to set in. When this car came out, it set a new record at the Nürburgring for production car lap times, it beat everything. Almost no automotive reviewers were able to push this car to its true limits, and I’m willing to bet that it’s not because they didn’t have the skill, I think they didn’t have the balls. At it’s limits, this car would be moving at terrifying speeds, only a select few people would even be able to have the courage to drive a car that fast, let alone a million-dollar, limited production Lamborghini. And this car looks menacing, I put it right up there with Pagani and Koenigsegg when it comes to looks. The exhaust is higher up than usual Lamborghini’s, so the driver can hear it more. The entire design of this car was focused on showing that it is an animal just waiting to be released. It doesn’t even stop at the design, multiple reviewers attest that the car wants to be floored, it even feels like it speeds up on off-throttle downshifts because of how eager it is to go fast.
If this hasn’t convinced you that this is a special car, I don’t know what will. The Aventador SVJ will always have a place in my dream garage.
Sources: MotorTrend, Car and Driver, Forrest’s Auto Reviews, Reddit, Lamborghini, deRivaz & Ives, Top Gear, duPont REGISTRY News, Lamborghini San Francisco
