MotorTrend

Lamborghini Aventador Road Trip: A Bull For All Seasons

Turns Out You Can Drive One Year-Round
Writer

For those of us whose monthly expenses are relative to our monthly income, the generally accepted wisdom is when the snow starts falling, the toys get wrapped up in the garage to hibernate until spring. We tend to assume others generally behave as we do, figuring that super-rich guys park their Lamborghinis for the winter. As it happens, many don't, because they don't have to.

Enormous amounts of horsepower and low-grip environments are not natural bedfellows. They tend to lead to a lack of forward progress at best, and a loss of control resulting in expensive results at worst. That might've been true in days past, but today's tire and computer technology have changed the game. Modern winter tires are surprisingly adept at putting power to slippery ground, backed up by sophisticated traction and stability-control software that modulates, distributes, and restricts torque to make sure as much as possible is translated into motion. Having all-wheel drive certainly doesn't hurt.

Thus, even the mighty Lamborghini Aventador is a competent all-weather car, as I had the opportunity to experience on a drive from the factory in Sant'Agata Bolognese, Italy, to Geneva, Switzerland. Shod with Pirelli winter tires (yes, they come in the Aventador's exclusive sizes), the flagship Lamborghini is a surprisingly adept winter chariot.

Much of my drive took place in moderate to heavy rainfall, hardly the worst of weather conditions but ones that would've played havoc with standard summer performance rubber. In the rain and near-freezing temperatures, the Aventador was mostly docile. The winter rubber simply doesn't grip as forcefully as a good summer tire, so applying liberal doses of throttle when exiting a corner resulted in some squirm, but not much to write home about. The only real loss of traction came when applying power while traversing a big puddle, which resulted in only a small side step at the rear end that was quickly dispatched by the stability control.

When we did see snow on the ground, the situation deteriorated only moderately. The Aventador occasionally fought for grip on the snow when starting from a stop and when creeping along over uneven snow-covered pavement, but it was hardly undriveable. Granted, that could get old if you've got a long way to travel in stop-and-go conditions, but at that point, perhaps a hotel room is in order. Should you choose to persevere, a little patience and light throttle got the car moving along fine. Really, it's no different than the logic applied to snow driving in any other car. This one just costs more if you get stupid.

On a long drive, even in adverse weather, the Aventador is a surprisingly compliant road trip car. Yes, the suspension is firm and the fuel consumption is atrocious, but it's not the car that beats you up or wears you out, it's just the gas pump. After a long day of driving, I was no more stiff and sore than after a long trip in any other sports car.

The one great disadvantage of the Aventador as a road-trip car is the luggage space. If you own this car, it wouldn't hurt to buy the matching luggage set, or at least make certain your baggage fits in the frunk before you set off. Few things feel more ridiculous than strapping a large suitcase into the front seat of a $400,000 car.

There's also the small matter of getting anywhere without attracting the eye of the local constabulary. A Lamborghini, as a company executive once told me, is an occasion. Everywhere you go, even in the dead of winter, onlookers in another car will beg you to goose the throttle and show them what it's made of. Surely no officer could fault you for bringing a little joy to people's lives?

In the end, my road trip across northern Italy, southeastern France, and eastern Switzerland in late winter was mostly uneventful. Normally, that's nothing worth reporting, but when accomplished behind the wheel of a car any rational person would consider a terrible winter car, it's a feat to be impressed with indeed.

Scott Evans

Were you one of those kids who taught themselves to identify cars at night by their headlights and taillights? I was. I was also one of those kids with a huge box of Hot Wheels and impressive collection of home-made Lego hot rods. I asked my parents for a Power Wheels Porsche 911 for Christmas for years, though the best I got was a pedal-powered tractor. I drove the wheels off it. I used to tell my friends I’d own a “slug bug” one day. When I was 15, my dad told me he would get me a car on the condition that I had to maintain it. He came back with a rough-around-the-edges 1967 Volkswagen Beetle he’d picked up for something like $600. I drove the wheels off that thing, too, even though it was only slightly faster than the tractor. When I got tired of chasing electrical gremlins (none of which were related to my bitchin’ self-installed stereo, thank you very much), I thought I’d move on to something more sensible. I bought a 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT and got my first speeding ticket in that car during the test drive. Not my first-ever ticket, mind you. That came behind the wheel of a Geo Metro hatchback I delivered pizza in during high school. I never planned to have this job. I was actually an aerospace engineering major in college, but calculus and I had a bad breakup. Considering how much better my English grades were than my calculus grades, I decided to stick to my strengths and write instead. When I made the switch, people kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I told them I’d like to write for a car magazine someday, not expecting it to actually happen. I figured I’d be in newspapers, maybe a magazine if I was lucky. Then this happened, which was slightly awkward because I grew up reading Car & Driver, but convenient since I don’t live in Michigan. Now I just try to make it through the day without adding any more names to the list of people who want to kill me and take my job.

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