2014 LAMBORGHINI Aventador Roadster Review

If you’re driving a Lamborghini Aventador Roadster and you see some guy in uniform with a gun-shaped electronic device pointed at you, don’t worry. It’s probably just another supercar fan who wants to take a picture of the Italian creation.

Try to smile politely anyway and prey that the car doesn’t ruin your moment - yes, the Lamborghini Aventador can take decisions instead of its driver, as it seems to have a mind of its own.

In any of the driving modes, the exhaust decides to change its behavior from time to time. You can hear the valves briefly opening on certain occasions when you really wouldn’t expect it. When you’re in attack mode, the exhaust growls like the soundtrack of the best apocalyptic movie you’ve ever seen.

We’re driving in a more relaxed manner now and we’ve just lowered the rear window. The V12 behind us is making a profound metallic noise that unfortunately becomes tiring pretty quickly. Up you go window.

Time to take the roof off and see what the Aventador Roadster is like. Several minutes later, we had manually removed the twin panels of the roof, placing them where the luggage should’ve been.

Upon completing the aforementioned operation, you’ll be tempted to skip the part where you also have to install the wind stopper. Once you find some patience and take care of this, the Aventador Roadster offers pretty nice wind protection.

Don’t expect the thing to work brilliant as a cruiser though. Yes, this is a brute that’s been house-trained, but you still feel it willing to break free and invade the road. It’s even offering us incentives, hoping to convince us to flog it.

A bit earlier, we were driving along in the Auto gearbox mode, when a spine-tingling downshift came out of nowhere. Oh yes, the Aventador is really good with the fireworks. Follow its lead though and you’ll discover a demanding car.

While it’s not difficult to drive the Lamborghini Aventador Roadster in a moderate manner, this thing requires concentration when in the siege mode.

The two removable top panels work to make the Aventador Roadster more rigid when on. However, it’s extremely hard to tell the difference on the street, let alone feel the stiffness loss compared to the Coupe.

Perhaps the greatest feat of the Aventador is that it makes you feel alive at any speed. This car sends you tons of feedback per second, so it’s enough to drive it at 40 mph and you’ll be fully engaged. In the real world, we drive our cars at these safe speeds and the Aventador manages to feel special even here.

Nevertheless, if you're willing to make the most out of it, the Aventador Roadster offers the same 217 mph (350 km/h) top speed as the Coupe. And don't think that it gets left behind in the o to 62 mph sprint either - at 3.0 seconds, it's just 0.1 seconds slower.

And the steering, oh that steering - it’s mid-corner time now and the Aventador Roadster has figured we’re up to something here. The steering has quickly gained weight and its feeling alone is enough to give us Goosebumps.

On the road, you’ll feel that the Lamborghini Aventador Roadster is eager to follow your commands. This thing grips like nothing else and throws itself at corners with the ferocity of a wild animal.

Take it to the track through, and you’ll notice that it can struggle during the narrow sections. While the road driving doesn’t reveal any trace of understeer, when you take the car to the limit this can show up. What you need to do is put the electronics to sleep and be generous with the throttle. The transition into and out of the oversteer is done smoothly, like a ballet. Some sharp countersteering skills wouldn’t be bad though.

As for the brakes, one rarely gets such trustworthy friends in life. Not only is the stopping power demolishing, but the modulation allows perfect everyday driving.

Alas, once the adrenaline is gone, we have time to notice why the Roadster handles just as good as the Coupe. The suspension in this car is firmer. This Lamborghini uses a push-rod setup, which is absolutely fabulous for the handling. Unfortunately, stiffening up the non-adaptive dampers has clearly had a negative effect on the comfort.

The experience never actually gets painful, but you are constantly reminded of each imperfection in the road. Yep, this is an “Achilles' Heel” moment. The problem could’ve been sold by using adaptive shock absorbers.

The rest of the hardware on the Aventador Roadster works like magic. That 700 HP V12 at the center offers a linear power delivery. This is natural aspiration rocking the world! Despite this linearity, the sheer force of the unit can always surprise you.

Speaking of the unexpected, the ISR automated manual gearbox follows the exhaust’s multiple personality behavior. Left on its own, it sometimes decides to change its ways. You feel every shift and this boosts the Aventador’s character. However, use it in manual, in the Corsa powertrain mode, and you’ll get some explosion-like shifts. In the end, the automated manual is the hate-it-or-love-it kind of transmission. The faint clutch smell that appears during repeated parking maneuvers comes to reinforce this conclusion.