Aventador SVJ

Segment
Coupe

Lamborghini promises to unveil its new Aventador SVJ in Monterey next month. But before it does, it's confirmed that the ragingest of Raging Bulls has claimed a new lap record at the Nürburgring. At 6:44.97, the SuperVeloce Jota lapped the Nordschleife more than two seconds faster than sister-company Porsche's 911 GT2 RS, which has held the the record until now at 6:47.3.

Taming the bull in the China shop that is Germany's "Green Hell" was Lamborghini's test driver Marco Mapelli, who took over the job from the legendary Valentino Balboni. To silence any potential critics, the Italian automaker says it captured it on video, and the telemetry on a VBOX-Racelogic system. And Pirelli was on hand to lend its expertise and the P Zero Trofeo R tires that will be offered as an option over the standard P Zero Corsa rubber.

It's not the first bout in the tit-for-tat sibling rivalry between Zuffenhausen and Sant'Agata. Before the GT2, the record belonged to the Huracan Performante, which in turn took the record away from the Porsche 918 Spyder.

To get there, the Raging Bull marque has been developing a twelve-cylinder supercar even more capable than the current Aventador S and the previous Aventador SV. Those letters stand for Super Veloce (or "super fast"), with the new letter J standing for Jota – a handle which has only been applied to a handful of the most extreme V12 Lamborghinis in the company's history, from the Miura to the Diablo and the one-off Aventador J speedster back in 2012.

Nomenclature aside, the Aventador SVJ boasts a second-generation active-aerodynamics system called Aerodinamica Lamborghini Attiva (ALA) to give it the downforce it needs in the bends and the reduction in drag on straight lines. Motivation is expected to come from the existing 6.5-liter naturally aspirated V12, which produced 690 horsepower in the original Aventador, 730 in the current Aventador S, 740 in the SuperVeloce, and as much as 759 in the Aventador-based Centenario. The jury (with a capital J) is still out on how much muscle the new SVJ will pack, but it'll need a good 789 hp if it stands to keep pace with arch-rival Ferrari's 812 Superfast – on the road, or around the Nordschleife.

"The Aventador SVJ takes the Jota suffix, following the Lamborghini tradition for denoting a car's track-focused talent. This new car is the convergence of Lamborghini technologies to produce a super sports car that transcends current performance benchmarks," said Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali. "Its tenure as the Nürburgring lap time record holder, even before its unveiling during the Monterey Car Week in California in August, endorses Lamborghini's competence in applying superlative design engineering and ground-breaking technologies. The SVJ is a super sports car at the zenith of performance, while also ensuring unrivalled driving pleasure."