2014 LAMBORGHINI Aventador Roadster Review

You can’t even call yourself honest if you admit that people buy Lamborghinis based on their looks. You’re just stating the obvious. Sure, the... ahem... big heart is also a pre-requisite, but it’s not the V12 that signs the cheques. Whenever Lamborghini has to come up with a new hat-less model, they’re a bit terrified by the fact that removing the roof will ruin the lines of the car a bit.

Well, they learned to face their fears and the result is something that’s perhaps even more spectacular than the Aventador Coupe. Touche!

Up to its window line, the Aventador Roadster treats us with the same styling as its fixed roof relative. However, from here on the transformation process makes the car look sharper. We mean this in a literal sense - just look at the side windows' chamfered edges and you’ll understand. It seems that guillotines are back in fashion.

On top of all things, sits a two-piece carbon composite roof. When it’s up, it doesn’t just provide protection from the elements, but also stiffens the structure of this Bull. In its quest to recover the lost rigidity of the Roadster, the roof works with a set of carbon fiber reinforcements placed around the car’s structure. The targeted areas were the side sills, as well as the transmission tunnel and rear firewall.

The end result is still roughly one third less rigid than that of the Aventador Coupe. However, you’d probably need racing driver skills to notice this.

Now that we’re done with the good news, it’s time to talk about the nasty part, the roof operation. The Aventador Roadster's manual roof operation.

Sure, at under 13 pounds (6 KG) each, the two panels aren’t to difficult to operate. However, we didn’t quite feel special when unlatching and maneuvering stuff around as if we were playing in some offroader.

What’s more, you really wouldn’t want to drive around with scratches on your roof. This means you’ll have to be extra careful, especially when placing the panels on the car.

As for when you stow the panels in the nose of the supercar, you’ll be a bit annoyed at first. That’s because you’ll have to follow numbered instructions precisely. You do get used to this and forget about it soon though.

We did find relief after everything was placed inside though - we laughed or sun shades off when we realized that the stored roof virtually occupies the entire luggage compartment. If you still have patience resources, you’ll be able to also manually mount the Aventador Roadster's wind stopper at the end of the windshield.

Of course, the Aventador roof ballet experience is a sweet treat compared to what you had to do in the past. We’re talking about the cloth top of the Murcielago Roadster. Getting that tent erected was the equivalent of duck-taping an umbrella above your head.

Once we get past the roof section, this thing starts working its Lamborghini charms on us. The engine cover now has a backbone. Everybody knows that a sexy shape is made even sexier when its contours are only barely visible and this is what they’ve used here. The Aventador Roadster is quite a big tease. It’s superb and it knows it.