Lamborghini Huracán Performante Spyder Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Roadster

MEMBER’S CARS: LAMBORGHINI HURACÁN PERFORMANTE SPYDER, AVENTADOR SVJ ROADSTER We head out for a top-down, sunset drive with SCD member Mir to talk about two surprisingly different Lamborghinis.

Ever since I was born, me and my family have always been passionate about cars. We would always go to car shows at the NEC in Birmingham and supercar showrooms on a Saturday after lunch to window shop. My family would always buy me models of cars ranging from McLaren SLRs to those matchbox miniatures, although after a week of having them in my room, the wing mirrors would be broken! To all have the same passion for something is great! Generally we all like the same things — watching football, playing golf and driving cars!

Our first event was a breakfast meet at Graypaul Ferrari in Nottingham. It was February 2016 and we took our first brand new supercar, the firstgen Lamborghini Aventador LP700. I believe we had been members for a couple months prior. Breakfast meets are always great, especially when meeting at a nearby location and convoying to the showroom! My favourite event to date, though, was the 2017 secret meet. It was our first secret meet, the weather was perfect and it was perfectly run. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to attend the Donington one yet, but I am signed up for this year and I’ve heard great things about it! Not only does SCD put you in a great network of likeminded people, they also provide opportunities that wouldn’t be possible otherwise, like showcasing our Aventador in London at the Gumball 3000 rally in 2016, filming with YouTubers to create content for brands and creating a ‘Nightrun’ video in our home city of Leicester — that was a great one!

I think most will agree there is a lot of theatre about their cars, and it’s a historic brand with a great reputation. The aesthetic is the main attraction though as all the cars have a great design. Our first Lamborghini and also our first brand new supercar was the original Aventador LP700. It was one of the first to leave the showroom at Lamborghini Leicester when we collected it in April 2014. We specced it a year prior in factory painted matte white with orange calipers and orange Alcantara interior. Since then, we’ve purchased the Aventador SV in Rosso Bia, Huracán Performante Spyder in Viola Parsifae and Aventador SVJ Roadster in Grigio Telesto, all from Lamborghini Leicester. We like to stick to local dealers like Lamborghini and Bentley Leicester as well as Graypaul Ferrari Nottingham. We have built a great relationship and it’s always handy for servicing or even having a coffee and catching up with the team.

Initially, we first saw the Spyder at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2018, and our first thoughts were that it was amazing. The forged carbon looked so good and we had heard great things about the car from friends who had owned the coupes. We placed the order the following week after the show and quickly finalised the spec. I’ve always liked the idea of Lamborghinis being in bright colours. We had seen a lot of greens, oranges and yellows on the cars but I had rarely seen a purple, and if I had, it was slightly darker than the Parsifae that we ended up choosing. I had only seen the colour on a car in the US, but never in the flesh. We collected the car on Christmas Eve 2018 and I immediately loved it — the colour was so bright and deep. I even took it for a blast on Christmas Day! The colour is Voila Parsifae with 20” Narvi Forged wheels in bronze. We had the calipers painted in Voila Parsifae to match the colour of the car and the lettering on the calipers is bronze to match the accents. The badge at the back is in bronze instead of chrome, as is the badge on the side. The interior is black Alcantara with bronze stitching. Everything ties in perfectly and there’s not much else I’d like to have done.

10/10! To me, it has the perfect sound. It’s hard to describe but I haven’t heard a car anything like it. It flames occasionally and the exhaust pipes glow orange, so whoever has the pleasure driving behind me at night will see the glowing pipes. It doesn’t need to be any quicker for the road and I have no criticism for the gearbox. Gearshifts are instant and the downshifts in Corsa mode are brutally loud. The four-wheel drive makes this car feel unbelievably safe, it hasn’t lost traction or stepped out on me once. Because of the size, it can go around and fit in any multi-storey car park, parallel parking is super easy and going around tight corners with kerbs is straightforward too, although I think the reversing camera and suspension lift is a must tick option for these cars nowadays.

We have two coupe Aventador models, the original I mentioned that we collected in 2014 and then the SV we added in June 2016, so the SVJ seemed like the right choice. There are a limited number of cars, but we have a good relationship with Lamborghini Leicester and we were offered the SVJ Roadster in July 2019. It was the final piece to our Aventador puzzle and we took delivery in January 2020. I’ve always liked Grigio Telesto and we always like to spec cars differently to others on the road. I’ve only seen it a couple times and, at that point, we had never owned a grey sports or supercar. Naturally, the Aventador models are very aggressive, and picking Grigio Telesto solidified that persona, especially with the satin PPF on top. It has the race wheels with red centre caps to match the SVJ Sticker and the carbon bucket seats with grey accents inside. When getting the PPF done, I thought it would be a good idea to add some pinstriping without going too far. We had satin PPF applied with red pinstriping along the skirts, rear diffuser and wing mirrors, and also had the headlights smoked to make it even more aggressive. Customisation can be endless, but we didn’t want to go over the top with it.

Well, it’s the loudest car we own by a distance, but being in the cabin doesn’t do the noise any justice. It’s when you’re following the car or when it drives past you, then you get to understand how loud the car actually is! Along with the noise, the power is neck-breaking, and the gearshifts are just brutal in Corsa — you really get to feel the single-clutch transmission! The Ego mode is great. It’s a function where you get to select the drivetrain, steering and suspension of the car independently — mine is set to sport drivetrain, soft steering and soft suspension. It isn’t as usable as the Perf. There are no storage compartments and there’s nowhere to put your phone or your keys. Being a roadster, you have to remove the roof and put it in the boot which you get used to, just make sure it’s not raining as it could take you a while to put back on! The fourwheel steering really does make this long, wide car easy to drive around any city streets though, and definitely helps when trying to park. Comparing it against the first-gen Aventador, the comfort seats in that car really make a difference. They’re a lot more pleasant but don’t give it that racy feeling, hence why we picked the carbon bucket seats in the SV and SVJ, so there’s a noticeable difference when getting in the car. Immediately, it’s a different feeling, especially when looking through the rear-view mirror and seeing the different shape of that rear wing — Lamborghini have done well making each version subtly different. Comparing to SV, the exhaust is the big one because, for me, the SV sounds better. It is relatively quiet in Strada, but in Sport or Corsa, the valves open up and the tone it produces is unreal. You can hear the idle from a distance and it’s such an iconic sound.

It depends on where I’m going. With the Performante, I don’t need to worry about anything. It can fit into all spaces and go into a multi-storey if needs be, whereas the SVJ is effectively street parking only, and even then you have to be careful as it’s really wide and long. For long distance, the Performante is more comfortable and practical but the cabin space is restricted — I’m 6ft and my head is an inch away from hitting the roof. We took it on a road trip through Europe though and it was perfect. I am tempted to take the SVJ, but with the mechanical roof, no storage compartments inside and carbon seats, I’m not sure! It would be a tough one to choose over the Performante for a longdistance road trip, but for sheer audacity and turning heads, you cannot beat the SVJ. If I had to keep just one, it would be the Performante because it does everything so well. It looks great, sounds great and is really practical. The valved exhaust keeps my neighbours happy and when driving at night through a residential area it’s unnoticeable.

Yes, they’ll be with us for a while because the Performante is my favourite and the SVJ is part of the trio of Aventadors within the garage. There’s nothing on the list to join them right now either. We’ll continue to keep our heads down, working hard so we can enjoy the things we love and maybe in the future we can progress onto even more desirable cars. For now, I haven’t taken either car on track but I would love to, so I’ll have to sign up for an SCD track day soon!