Lamborghini Aventador SV Roadster
The first open-top Lamborghini to wear the SuperVeloce name.
One of five hundred made worldwide, it carries on a line that runs from the Miura SV through the Diablo SV and the Murciélago SV, this time with the V12 under open sky.
£599,950
Not a power kit. A different car.
It is tempting to take "SV" as shorthand for more horsepower and leave it there. Compared with the standard Aventador Roadster, the changes go further: around fifty kilograms saved, largely through wider use of carbon fibre, a three-position rear wing with a reworked splitter and diffuser for real downforce, and magnetorheological pushrod suspension front and rear.
Going open-top raised a question of its own: how much of that survives without a fixed roof. Nearly all of it. The car's stiffness comes from its carbon fibre monocoque, so the roof can be two lightweight panels that lift out by hand and stow in the front luggage compartment.
The result is less an Aventador with extra options than a separate car on the same platform: sharper chassis settings, a more focused cabin, and a driving character harder-edged and more urgent than the standard Roadster's.
Drawn in angles, not curves
Every Aventador is a study in hexagons and straight edges, a language Lamborghini has held to since the car's debut: the Y-shaped lighting, the sharply folded bonnet, side intakes cut deep enough to work as hard as they look. The SV takes none of it back. If anything, the creases run harder.
It also adds tells of its own: a deeper front end with larger intakes, a rear wing standing clear of the bodywork, and a larger diffuser beneath the exhausts. Each was shaped for airflow first, and the car looks more serious for it.
This example is finished in Grigio Estoque, an Ad Personam colour chosen from outside the standard palette. It sits on Dione forged wheels in matt black, twenty inches at the front and twenty-one at the rear, with SV graphics along its flanks.
With the roof stowed, there is nothing left to soften the engine’s voice.
8,400 rpm, reached without help
The 6.5-litre V12 owes nothing to turbochargers or electric motors. It makes its power the way naturally aspirated engines always have, through revs, pulling cleanly to the redline and delivering 750 hp and 690 Nm on the way. Lamborghini quotes 0-62 mph in 2.9 seconds, 0-124 mph in 8.8 seconds and a top speed beyond 217 mph.
Drive goes to all four wheels, split by an electronically controlled system with a mechanical self-locking differential at the rear. Between the engine and the wheels sits the ISR gearbox, a single-clutch seven-speed unit that makes no attempt at a dual-clutch's seamlessness. Each shift arrives as a distinct mechanical event, felt through the seat and heard over the exhaust.
The one part of this car no photograph can capture.
Hear it
Less, on purpose
The SV cabin gives up things most cars at this price treat as given. Much of the sound insulation was removed, and navigation was no longer fitted as standard. In their place, the structure is left on show: exposed carbon fibre runs through the cabin, into the door panels and the shells of the sport seats.
What is trimmed is trimmed properly: leather and Alcantara in the two-tone SV split, fitted closely to the carbon beneath. Small details make the point, such as the aluminium footplate on the passenger side. Nothing here feels unfinished, only decided.
From here, the car itself.
One owner. Every service recorded.
Registered in 2016 and driven 3,466 miles since.
- 2016Pre-delivery inspection, 18 miles: Lancaster Sevenoaks
- 2017Annual service and 1,500-mile check, 1,513 miles: Lancaster Sevenoaks
- 2018Annual service, 2,045 miles: Lamborghini Chelmsford
- 2019Annual service, 2,561 miles: Lamborghini Chelmsford
- 2021Annual service, 2,797 miles: Lamborghini Chelmsford
- 2024Annual and oil service, 3,218 miles: Lamborghini Chelmsford
The car remains exactly as it was specified: Grigio Estoque over a Nero Cosmus and Grigio Cronus SV-split cabin with Grigio Cronus stitching, Dione forged wheels in matt black, a transparent engine bonnet, and the front lift system for speed bumps and steep driveways.
It is offered through Bell Sport & Classic: one of five hundred SV Roadsters built, and one of around sixty-five supplied new to the UK.
The numbers, in full
This Car
Engine
Performance
Engine details
Transmission & Drivetrain
Chassis & Body
Suspension & Steering
Brakes
Wheels & Tyres
Dimensions & Weight
Safety
All figures as supplied by the manufacturer and selling dealer, subject to buyer verification.
Beyond the specification sheet
Some of it only shows at speed.
See it in motion
The second owner in ten years.
Enquiries go directly to Bell Sport & Classic, and viewings can be arranged at the showroom in Markyate, Hertfordshire.