The 2017 Lamborghini Aventador S Will Make You an Instagram God with 740 Hp Part 1

The 2017 Lamborghini Aventador S Will Make You An Instagram God With 740 HP part 1 A Lamborghini Aventador S is a statement car. It’s a statement that you’ve made it, that you’ve got money to burn, that you want a big, bad, impractical supercar and are willing to throw down $420,000 to make that dream a reality. When I think about blowing nearly half a million bucks on discretionary vehicles, I try imagine how many different experiences I could cram into the limit. I’d get an AirCam, an E39 BMW M5, a Lotus Seven, a dirt bike, a Honda RC30, a paraglider, a Hobie Cat, and either a KTM Super Duke R or a Ducati Multistrada. I haven’t done the math, but all that—some of it new, some of it secondhand—should scrape in way below $400k. Perhaps it’s not fair though, to compare Lamborghini’s newest supercar with a barn full of dirt bikes and moldy boats. But the Lamborghini Aventador owner doesn’t care about experiences, unless that experience is making everyone else around him (or her, but you can admit that your stereotypical Lambo owner is a certain type of dude) know how rich they are. In the olden days, performance cars had lithe, aerodynamic shapes to cheat the wind and capture hearts. When someone did catch a glimpse of you howling by in your sinewy Italian machinery, any gawking would be ephemeral. Today, phone cameras roll and an Aventador driver will find himself the unwitting star of a hundred tiny films. Bend the fender or get ticketed and you’ll find yourself more famous still. It’s all a bit gauche. For those looking for attention, an Aventador is hard to beat. Post a picture of yours at a McDonald’s drive-thru and it’ll do better than Instagram’s other darlings: cliff jumps, girls in bikinis, and Paris. And though a picture of a fluffy kitten might get more “likes,” they won’t be the jealous, longing likes that’ll light up your Lambo post. #theyhateuscausetheyaintus #richkidsofinstagram #aventadors, etc. It’s a sentiment that resonates with a lot of people, apparently; Lamborghini has more than doubled sales in the past five years, from 1,602 to 3,457. And that sales growth is not just from YouTubers and Instagram bros. If you’re too old for social media, an Aventador will transform you into a Cars and Coffee gawkee and spark conversations with well-connected local players. I hope by this point you’re rolling your eyes and thinking “Hashtags be damned! What’s wrong with the world, aren’t Lambos about speed, scissor-doors, and V12 insanity?” That’s the question I hoped to answer during my time with the car in Valencia. Indeed, the new Aventador S seems like it might be undriveably fast. The power has grown—from an already-respectable 700 horsepower—to 740 BHP, downforce is up, and they’ve added snake fangs to its new, pointy snout. When you hear the giant V12 screaming down a straightaway at 8500 RPM or gaze at the 355-section P-Zeros, it’s clear that this is a bona fide supercar. The “S” model is a mid-cycle facelift with more power, four-wheel steering, new dampers, and an attractive new face. At the launch event, I didn’t even bring a smartphone (and everyone made fun of me for it), so I had the chance to experiment instead with all the various settings and stability control programs over a few on-track sessions. Then I spent the afternoon exploring the mountains in an unguided, V12-powered tour of the Spanish countryside. Here’s what I learned. The Aventador S is almost—but not quite—the most powerful Lamborghini available. That title goes to the Aventador SV, a less-sophisticated, 750-BHP brute (only two-wheels that steer) which briefly lost the top spot when the limited-to-40 units 770 BHP Centenario was on sale but wasn’t yet sold out. The SV featured continuously-adjustable magnetorheological dampers to control its pushrod suspension, and the Centenario debuted a first for Lamborghini: four-wheel steering. I reckon it’s all hand-me-down tech from Audi boffins; the Q7 has four-wheel steering and the R8 sits on similar, uh, meteorological dampers. The Aventador S gets both systems. Thanks to the first 4WS Prelude in the 80’s, I’ve always thought of four-wheel steering in terms of improving a car’s turning circle or for enabling smoother lane-changes, but Lamborghini presented their concept as a way to change the handling characteristics by way of a “virtual wheelbase.