Big, Bad, Ballistic Bull

Lamborghini’s most powerful V12 of all time, coupled with its latest tech and engineering wizardry, make the Aventador SVJ agile and blindingly fast.

THE Nurburgring-Nordschleife. The legendary German circuit where all supercar makers head to with their prized models to try and set a lap record.

In July this year, the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ clocked a time of 6 minutes 44.9 seconds to wrest the record from the mighty Porsche 911 GT2 RS.

The Aventador SVJ (Superveloce Jota) gets its name from the 1970 Lamborghini Miura Jota.

Though that very first Miura Jota was developed from a standard Miura, a handful of Miura SV owners asked Lamborghini to perform that same conversion (which reduced weight by 400kg) on their cars and the “SVJ” moniker was born.

Also worthy of note – “Jota” is Spanish for the letter J, which alludes to the FIA’s Appendix J, the set of regulations governing road cars used for racing.

The Aventador SVJ features the ALA (Aerodinamica Lamborghini Attiva) system, first seen on the Huracan Performante. However, it has been enhanced and is now referred to as ALA 2.0.

It includes newly optimised air inlets and aero channels, and the system has been recalibrated to account for the car’s enhanced lateral accelerations.

ALA 2.0 actively alters aero load to attain low drag or high downforce, depending on dynamic conditions. Electronically actuated motors open or close active flaps in the front splitter and on the engine bonnet that steer the airflow, front and rear.

As a result, the Aventador SVJ is able to achieve a 40 percent increase in aerodynamic downforce when compared to the SV. At 300km/h, the downforce is an astonishing 350kg.

While some may liken ALA 2.0 to the Drag Reduction System on Formula 1 racecars, it has an additional party trick – it is able to reduce downforce over half of the rear wing (either left or right) only.