Motoring Middle East: Car news, Reviews and Buying guides

One is an amazing Lamborghini, the other is the best new supercar – both are winners, but which would we have?

By Shahzad Sheikh

We’re white heat on the street, these two just can’t be beat;
we’re rapidly warping space-time, just being behind the wheel feels like a crime;
we’re two flashing streaks of lightning, the power we’re putting down is frightening.

Moved to poetry, I can’t wait to tell you this story;
the time we borrowed a pair of white knights, and instantly became part of Dubai’s extraordinary sights.

Okay, okay, I’ll quit with the cheesy rhyming now. But being in Lamborghini heaven does strange things to you.

It’s a rare thing indeed to be able to borrow not one, but two Lamborghinis. But here we are – with a matte pearl white Aventador Roadster and the brand new Huracan in gloss bright white. Sorry to dig out a cliché, but we just had to wear shades!

So what are we doing? Is this a twin test, a comparison, a decisive discourse on which of these is the best consumer purchase? Nah, it’s just a chance to revel in nearly 1300 horsepower delivered in the most spectacular ground-hugging missiles currently available. We took them both, just because we could, and now we’re just basking in the glory.

But when the keys are handed back, the reverie subsides and the ego is wound back down from glamorous celeb to metro-riding mortal, finally one can reflect on the surreal sensations of these supercar twins. And perhaps at that point, it is possible to filter through the outlandish and outrageous, peer through the blinding light of sublime infatuation, and bring to bear pragmatic logic on that which defies the very notion.

So here we go.

Watch our video walkaround

Lamborghini Aventador Roadster

I drove the Aventador coupe at its launch on the Vallelunga race track near Rome nearly four years ago now. I instantly fell hopelessly in love. To me it was the first proper successor to the totally nonsensical, utterly unabashed and hopelessly desirable Lamborghini Countach – still the ultimate bedroom poster car and arguably the king of supercars.

Sure the Diablo and Murcielago were both fantastic and jaw-dropping, but the Aventador’s razor sharp creases, its bold hexagonal shapes, its absurd girth, sleek profile and jaw-dropping style was a scene-stealing return to form for Lamborghini. A Ferrari seduces you, but with the Aventador, even as you’re stunned into silence, it smacks you in the face, pulls the floor out from under you, pins you down and then screws with your mind.

The visual onslaught is relentless, intoxicating, inexplicably compelling. Even today, despite the Aventador being relatively common in our city of fantasy and fanfare, it is still a show-stopper. Everywhere I drove it, people stared, pointed and selfied the shit out of it.

When I stopped near my home with the roof off and swung the doors up, a small crowd formed. I let the smart phone clicking commence and stood around for nearly half an hour before the appetite for pictures was finally sated and the smiling, happy people floated away having touched greatness. What a superstar.

And that’s what you feel like in this car, an absolute demigod descended to Earth astride your modern magical carpet of carbon fibre composites. And you bring the thunder of Thor with you, especially when you unleash the 690bhp V12 and wreak fury and fierce vengeance on anyone, or anything, that thinks it can be a pretender to the crown of vicious velocity, worn so confidently by this merciless matador of momentum.

This thing is astoundingly fast, reaching 100kph from rest in a blistering 2.9 seconds and not letting up through the violent rifle-bolt upshifts of the seven-speed semi-auto, until it knocks on the door of 350kph, or death – whichever comes first should you dare to venture there and get it wrong.

But it’s not merely a straight-line super-streak, the race-car inboard suspension, all-wheel drive and active aero sucks this thing to the ground, vanquishes understeer and responds to the helm like a raging bull seething with energy. The Italian exuberance may be tamed by the German exactitude of its Audi caretakers, but the DNA is definitely from the wild side of Sant’Agata Bolognese.

There are downsides of course, and not just a few. It’s completely irrelevant and impractical in the real world, it looks like it landed from outer space, and frankly that’s where it belongs. It’s hard to see out of, too wide to take anywhere normal, and too precious to leave parked on the street.

The stereo can’t compete with the mechanical music, it gulps gas like the end of the world, and despite being the friendliest and easiest of its lineage to push hard towards its limit (you have to drive this thing on the track if ever you get a chance), its ability is totally pointless. This is because the instant you put your foot down, within moments you’re doing such illicit speeds, with such loud theatre, that you’d promptly just drive yourself to the nearest police station immediately afterwards, throw your licence at them and go look yourself in the cells.

Lamborghini Huracan

The Lamborghini Gallardo was a milestone car in the history of the Ferrari-baiting upstart marque ‘from just down the road’. Through its decade-long run, it was the most successful Lambo ever with over 14,000 sold. It’s easy to understand why, it was damn near perfect on so many levels (see our buying guide here).

There was enough Audi in it to make it slightly more reliable than your typical Lambo to this point, it was compact enough to be used in a world shared with Camrys and Wranglers, still sharp enough to give you a paper cut from 10 metres away, utterly exhilarating to drive, indelibly idiosyncratic and still very much dripping with essence of Lamborghini – you know the unhinged, devil-may-care variety of defiant machismo.

So it was always going to be a tremendously hard-act to follow. Not an enviable task for the all-new Huracan that stepped into the breach last year. You almost feel sorry for it.

But with this car Lamborghini has taken a slightly different tack. From the last ten years they now know the customer profile very well indeed. These are not the playboys who need a weekend special to go out big willy style, fully flared up and extroverted to ten, scooping up the biatches, dishing out the dirhams and sparkling like a Hollywood red carpet on Oscar’s night.

The Huracan is a car for those that need extravagance and salacious statement but on a daily basis, and with zero compromise. Essentially a sensible supercar for daily use, something tamed, tempered and tantrum-free, an Earth-bound projectile with more than a hint of usability.

That’s not to belittle in anyway the baby Lambo’s astonishingly abilities. A 5.2-litre V10 puts out 602bhp, and whilst its 0-100kph time is claimed to be three-tenths slower than the Aventador at 3.2 seconds, for most drivers it might actually be quicker, as the seamless eye-blink-fast changes of the amazing 7-speed dual clutch transmission, snap through ratios like a chef chopping onions, and make up for unpractised pilots.

It’s over 150kg lighter and will stay close to its big brother till around the 325kph mark, whilst the all-wheel drive sees it slicing apexes with a neatness and delicacy that the brutal Aventador can’t dream of. Yes there’s more understeer, stemmed in notches by moving up through Sport mode and into the (actually seditiously safe) Corsa mode. And you can push through it, so whilst it’s not as sharp on turn-in as the Aventador, it’s ultimately more agile and confidence-inspiring.

Like the Aventador, you can attain exorbitant speeds very quickly and easily, and it is even easier to drive hard, considerably easier in fact, with a more compliant and settled ride. And yet you can leave the Huracan in auto and normal mode and trundle around town doing your daily chores.

It’s relatively easier to park and manoeuvre in the city, the cameras help, although the doors do need a bit of space to open. And whilst it’s still super sleek and stunning to behold, it doesn’t ham it up like the Aventador, it’s not a magnet for attention in the same way, and you don’t feel as fearful leaving it unattended in a car park.

The interior is even more stylised, and yet more comfortable and modern. The squared toggle switches are exquisite, the starter cover flap (whilst redundant because you can just reach through it) is beautifully milled as is the radical reverse lever.

And Lamborghini has done away with the need for a big central screen by fully incorporating the infotainment display into the large digital and configurable instrument panel. My only complaint is the silly flick switch on the steering wheel spoke instead of an indicator stalk – as with the ridiculous buttons on a Ferrari 458 Italia, it’s rather a case of: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, just give me a stalk!

One a superb supercar, the other a legendary Lambo

Despite both being from the House of the Raging Bull, these are two very different beasts, but remarkably no less inspiring or desirable as a result. Frankly it was very difficult to give either of them back.

You could say though, that the Aventador is an old-skool big hitter – an intimidating heavyweight boxer who will punish you for gaps in your defence, stand his ground and never go down. The Huracan is a lithe and agile kick boxer by comparison, equally as effective though.

The Aventador is extravagance and theatre, whilst being a highly strung diva; the Huracan is petite curvaceous gorgeousness that you could take home to mum. Yes I do realise I executed a gender change for these cars in the space of just two paragraphs, but then these are fusions of extremes and contrasts, and of contradictions and nonconformity.

The Huracan is poise, practicality and purpose, whilst the Aventador is more pose, perversion, and punch line. The Huracan you can live with and drive regularly – just about. The Aventador you cannot – unless you really are as extreme and unhinged as the car itself, in which case, God bless you… and preserve you.

And I say that with the greatest of sincerity, because ultimately when it comes down to cars like this, it’s about emotion and the elusive X-Factor. And if you got it, you absolutely must flaunt it. Shrinking violets need not apply.

I absolutely adore the Huracan, and driving it converted any doubts I might have had about the car. In fact I would go so far as to say I’d have it over a Ferrari 458, and definitely over a McLaren 650S – if I wanted a daily driver supercar. If.

On the other hand, the Huracan is a tad too Audised for my liking when it comes to something from this mental marque – which bodes well for the next generation R8 of course (it’s obviously going to be brilliant) – but not so much for Lamborghini fans who get dewy eyed over the maddest machinery from the 70s and 80s.

The Aventador is an evolution of the best of Lamborghini in my view, but I suspect represents the past. The Huracan is the best supercar you can buy today, and is undoubtedly the future. Choose your weapon carefully. As for me, I’ll just go fetch my medallion and chest rug and head for the scissor doors to nirvana and blast off to the sound of a V12 rock chorus!

Lamborghini Aventador – The Specs

Price:
Coupe LP 700-4: AED1.48m ($403k)
Roadster LP 700-4: AED1.7m ($463k)
Engine: 6.5-litre V12, 690bhp @ 8250rpm, 508lb ft @ 5500rpm
Transmission: 7-speed semi-automatic
Performance: 0-100kph 2.9 seconds, Top Speed 350kph, 16L/100km
Weight: 1625kg

Lamborghini Huracan – The Specs

Price:
Coupe LP 610-4: AED990,000 ($270k)
Engine: 5.2-litre V10, 602bhp @ 8250rpm, 413lb ft @ 6500rpm
Transmission: 7-speed dual clutch automatic
Performance: 0-100kph 3.2 seconds, Top Speed 325kph, 12.5L/100km
Weight: 1422kg

Let us know what you thought of our Lamborghini Huracan and Aventador Review in the comments below