Ferrari F12 v Lamborghini Aventador and Aston Martin V12 Vanquish - Ferrari F12 v Lamborghini Aventador and Aston Martin V12 Vanquish: The supercar challenger
Lamborghini's Aventador is the wildest car here, but how does it stack up?
Just look at it! tail down, nose up, powering through the corner like a ground-hugging supersonic weapon of speed and virility.
The front-engined Ferrari and Aston Martin can’t possibly match the LP700-4 for all-out pace and drama, can they? There’s nothing on earth like a Lamborghini, and there’s no supercar like an Aventador, so the F12 and Vanquish will have to be extraordinary to out-thrill the matt-black car from Sant’Agata.
As you may have guessed, we’re fans of the Aventador. We love that its character is so transparent – it cannot be any other car but a Lamborghini. We love that the engine, the first all-new Lambo V12 in 50 years, retains the characteristic high-rev charge and the signature bellow of Lamborghinis of old. And we love that you can access its performance without fear of sudden, unexpected loss of traction/licence/life.
We also love that despite this, you still need discipline, confidence and skill to operate it at ten tenths. If the F12 is a Formula 1 car from the future, then the Aventador is an F1 car from an era where drivers had big forearms, bigger moustaches, and colossal… you get the idea.
In this test, the Lamborghini will have to draw on all its reserves of character to challenge the Ferrari in particular. The 6.5-litre V12 engine matches the 6.3-litre motor of the F12 for torque, but is 40bhp down on maximum power. Theoretically, the Aventador’s four-wheel-drive system will deliver a traction advantage over the rear-wheel-drive Ferrari, but the F12 has arguably the most sophisticated diff, traction and stability control systems of any car. Ever.
And the Aston? As arguably the ultimate GT, the Vanquish puts forwards an entirely different manifesto to the Lambo. However, evo has driven thousands of miles in Aventadors and they are extremely useable providing your everyday commute doesn’t involve multi-storey car parks or single-track roads. We know of one owner who drives his every day and everywhere. And he adores it.
