SUPER VELOCE

On the road in Joshua Tree in the incomparable Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Roadster

- Nicolas Stecher

I’m flattening out a paper map of Southern California over a wooden table at the Crossroads Cafe in Joshua Tree. Eschew-ing my iPhone, Google and Waze, the old-world relic of cartography leaves little doubt the quickest way home is to head south and jump on Interstate 10—a thin blue line shooting due west from Morongo directly back to Venice Beach. As I sip coffee and consider my options, something glimmers from the corner of my eye. There on the curb outside the Crossroads’ window, the eggshell blue paint of the Aventador SVJ Roadster (for Super Veloce) tugs at my attention like an unwelcome solicitor. Its geometric surfaces shine in the light like facets of a diamond; the desert morning air is crisp, but the Road ster’s top is off, beckoning me into its cozy jetfighter cabin.

Resistance is futile. To hell with the 10—I’m taking the long way home. I pop up the scissor door and slide into the black-and-orange Al cantara-wrapped cabin, the race seats wrapping me in a maternal embrace. Pressing Lambo’s iconic ICBM-style start engine button, the naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 whoofs to life and fills the tumbleweed-quiet Joshua Tree streets with threatening barks. Passersby stare; giddy kids wave. I pull the right magnesium paddle shifter and slip the SVJ into drive, slowly easing it through the deserted western town; the SVJ Roadster doesn’t like the lollygagging one bit, lurching clunkily on the low-gear shifts like pulling the reins of a bull.