#4: 2016 Lamborghini Aventador
For some, the Huracan was almost too tame, too “spiritless”, and too precise to wield the coveted Lamborghini badge. If you’re in that camp, rejoice – up next on our list is the 2016 Lamborghini Aventador. Looking more like an American stealth fighter than any supercar, the Aventador comes replete with red cockpit toggles, violently angular strakes and fins, loads of carbon fiber, and a rip-roaring exhaust tone that sounds more appropriate if heard in the skies over Syria or Iraq than on your local interstate.
While the Aventador surely brings the emotional rage and rush that any Lamborghini should bring (some say this is precisely what the Huracan lacked), it backs up its design and façade with real performance, of course: 694 horses and 509 torques come rushing from its 6.5L V12. Known as the L539, this is Lamborghini’s second-ever V12 design in almost 50 years, but it manages to push the Aventador to 217 MPH, making zero to 60 along the way in just 2.4 seconds. A remarkable single-clutch, seven-speed, semiautomatic transmission accomplishes shifts in just 50 milliseconds. Oh, and it manages to corner at 1.05 G’s, making it the second-fastest car on our list around an apex.
Lamborghini Aventador
Of course, this is accomplished in part because of the Aventador’s space-age all-wheel drive system, developed by Haldex Traction – the same folks who supply all that power modulation magic to the Bugatti Chiron and Volkswagen’s R&D team. The result is a supercar that manages to contain almost insurmountable amounts of power inside a smart ECU and steering wheel that’s so easy to use, you could hold a corner and spin all four wheels with one finger. Proof of concept rests in the blacktop of the Nurburgring. The Aventador’s top trim, the SVJ, broke the record for fastest production car to go around the track in 6:44.97 just a few months ago.
