Lamborghini Aventador SVJ – from £2495

The Aventador SVJ has bragging rights over every other car out there. But how on earth do you test something this fast on a public road in Britain? Capable of achieving 0-62mph in 2.8 seconds and a top speed of 217mph, the SVJ looks as menacing as a great white shark on its lunch break.

Certainly, the SVJ is the most powerful Lamborghini to leave the company’s Sant’Agata production facility near Bologna. It is likely to be a swan song for the company’s old-school V12 engine too. That’s because a technologically advanced, greener hybrid is set to be unveiled as supercar makers turn their attention to battery power.

To mark what could be a defining moment, then, Lamborghini tuned and modified the outgoing V12 to extract every last ounce of power.

The changes included titanium valves, a redesigned cylinder head and a lighter flywheel — the sort of stuff that makes motoring geeks salivate. These help to boost power and reduce the weight of the low-slung SVJ by more than 50kg to a trim 1,525kg – not that much heavier than a bog-standard Ford Focus.

Consequently, the SVJ revs noisily to beyond 8,500rpm and offers a wider band of torque, transferred to the road through a permanent four-wheel-drive system that has been modified for more rear-axle bias, thus improving the handling.