First drive: 2016 Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 SuperVeloce Roadster in the UAE

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. This is the new Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 SuperVeloce Roadster. Is it very very fast? Yes it is. Is it a good handler? Yes, if you’re brave enough to push Dhs 2.5 million of carbon-fibre car around a corner. Does it look good? Clearly. Does it have a very long name? Yes it does. Now with that out of the way, what is it like to drive a Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 SuperVeloce Roadster on the streets of Dubai for half a day? More adventurous than you think.

The reason this Aventador SV Roadster costs more than the regular one is that it’s limited to 500 units. It also comes with “enhancements” such as extensive use of carbon-fibre panels inside and out, lightweight wheels, door handles replaced by leather pull-straps, slippery metal floor “mats” instead of carpet, and a missing radio, all in a bid to save a whopping 50 kg. Oddly enough, all the stitched-leather cabin surfaces are still there.

Features such as the manually-adjustable rear wing, the carbon-fibre body kit and the loud blue paint all make it a massive crowd-puller. In fact, our parked car had a constant stream of people taking selfies, and we spent an hour just mingling like celebs before we could even walk away from the car. Heck, even the cops were taking photos, right before they started bothering us for the Italian number-plates.

When we finally managed to get away from the paparazzi, we drove off rather quickly without fiddling around too much. And that’s the good thing — the ergonomics are practical enough that you can slip into the car under that scissor door without spraining your back (unlike with the McLaren), the forward visibility is clear for the most part so can drive without tension, and the basic controls are reasonably obvious if you’re familiar with Italian exotics, such as the need to set the parking brake with the gear in neutral when parked, as the single-clutch automanual gearbox does not have a ‘park’ option. We also loved the fact that it never scraped its bottom on the tallest speed humps, as the front suspension can be automatically raised at the push of a button.

Of course, it’s a Lamborghini so it cannot all be practical. Rear visibility is severely limited, and there are no cameras or parking sensors. You have to back that V12-laden rear up purely by experienced guesswork using the mirrors. Oh, and there are no glove-boxes, cup-holders or even a place to plop your phone down, unless you want to throw it in the small boot up front.

Out on the open road, it’s immensely satisfying to drive, with an intoxicating race-car roar no matter whether you’re in “strada”, “sport” or “corsa” mode. Powered by a 740 hp 6.5-litre monster with a 8500 rpm redline, the car is so fast that all you can really do on public roads is pump-and-release the throttle to get occasional bursts of illegal speeds. We had the car for less than a day so we really had no scope to go any further out of the city.

It’s not that you’d actually want to go for a long drive though — the ride borders on harsh, the constant noise can potentially get annoying after a while, and the full-blown racing seats are very firm. And yet, it’s still civilised enough for a supercar, as the powerful ceramic brakes are surprisingly linear in their stopping action, the gearbox behaves respectably at low speeds and the steering is sharp but not overly so. We were expecting a lot more unpredictable jerkiness from the controls, but that wasn’t the case at all. The only thing we had to watch out for was the “hop” on bumpy corners due to the stiff suspension, and even that’s uneventful as long as you hold the steering wheel in line.

With all-wheel-drive and extra-wide tyres, 255-width up front and 355-width in the back, there is no possible way you could ever run out of grip — we couldn’t get even a hint of tyre squeal from this car, even though we’ve managed to push the much-vaunted Nissan GT-R to its grip limits before. That’s the difference between a bargain supercar and a Lamborghini SV.

Some say supercars nowadays are not exciting any more, in looks or in drive. We’re not quite sure what they’re talking about. They’re just as drool-worthy as they’ve ever been, only now they have some semblance of actual usability so they’re now more than just garage queens for the rich or borrowed toys for poor journalists to live out fantasies.

For prices and updates, visit the Lamborghini buyer guide.

Photos by Mashfique Hussain Chowdhury.