What's the news?
Remember the incredible Lamborghini Aventador SVJ from Pebble Beach last year? You should do, it was only revealed little more than six months ago. Anyway, it has been announced that it will be joined by an open-top sibling, called the Aventador SVJ.
Revealed on the same stand at the Geneva Motor Show as the equally exceptional Huracan Evo Spyder, the Aventador SVJ Roadster uses the same bonkers 6.5-litre V12 as its hard-topped relation, meaning 770hp at 8,500rpm and 720Nm at 6,750rpm. With a 50kg gain on the SVJ Roadster for a 1,575kg overall kerb weight, the performance stats are ever-so-slightly blunted but they're still pretty terrific: 0-100km/h runs at 2.9 seconds (+0.1s on the SVJ Coupe) and it'll thunder from 0-200km/h in 8.8 seconds (+0.2s on the SVJ Coupe), with a top speed in excess of 350km/h - that's the same as quoted for the hard-top model. The SVJ Roadster also decelerates almost as fast as it piles on pace, with a 100-0km/h distance of just 31 metres.
Part of the reason for the Roadster's mere 50kg of additional porkiness is because it doesn't have a full folding roof mechanism. Instead, it has a panel made from high-pressure carbon fibre, removable via quick-release levels in the cabin and able to be stored under the nose panel. Just 800 units of the Aventador SVJ Roadster will be built, with the open-top model using the same chassis hardware as the coupe to keep everything on the straight and narrow. Pricing for Europe is €387,007 per unit, although local taxes here in Ireland would make it even more expensive than this.
Anything else?
"The Aventador SVJ Roadster inherits all the power, performance and groundbreaking aerodynamic technologies of the coupe, but with its own iconic presence and prowess," said Stefano Domenicali, Lambo's chairman and CEO. "It is as fundamentally exciting to drive as the Aventador SVJ but with an added exclusivity: the option of the open air. With the same extraordinary performance roof on or off, the Aventador SVJ Roadster incorporates the dynamism of the coupe with the unique spirit of a Lamborghini roadster."