LAND SHARK

THE LAMBORGHINI AVENTADOR LP780-4 ULTIMAE REPRESENTS THE ZENITH OF LAMBORGHINI'S SOLUS-ICE V12, WE DRIVE IT

- KYLE FORTUNE

MORE THAN AN hour negotiating the busy, urban roads of Italy's industrial heartland leaves me with a nagging doubt that our drive in what will be the last Aventador Lamborghini builds will be fruitless. There's rain sheeting down and looking up it doesn't appear like it's going to change any time soon. Photographer, Wolfango, ahead in an Urus, its retina straining hue usefully visible in the conditions, has promised me he knows a road. The Aventador Ultimae I'm following in looks a paragon of restraint in comparison. Finished in matt Grigio Acheso and Grigio Teca with Rosso Mimir accents, it's not only relatively stealthy, but underlines how even something as mundane as two-tone grey with red can sound contrastingly incredible in Italian.

That's the launch scheme for this, the Ultimae coupe, or, correctly, the Aventador LP 780-4 Ultimae Coupe. It's one of 350 Lamborghini will build, along with 250 Roadsters, these being the last hurrah for Lamborghini's V12 flagship model before it finally bows out. It's been a long time coming, but when Lamborghini launched the Aventador back in 2011 it claimed it had jumped a couple of generations, so that a lengthy production run is forgivable. Its specification remains hugely compelling, too, the stiff carbon fibre monocoque being the base which aluminium frames are hung off, with fully independent suspension and a big, naturally-aspirated 6.5-litre V12 situated 'Longitudinale Posteriore' in the rear. That's the 'LP' of the name, the 780 relating to the horsepower and the '4' being four-wheel drive.