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Watch the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ break the Nurburgring lap record

The revolution will be televised. Lamborghini has posted the video of the Aventador SVJ breaking the Nurburgring lap record. With factory-backed race driver Marco Mapelli behind the wheel and a host of Pirelli engineers in support, the kaleidoscope-colored coupe posted a time of 6:44.97. Apparently the only difference between the production-spec SVJ and the record-setter is the tires: The retail SVJ will come with Pirelli P Zero Corsa rubber, the lap-flyer got shod with what we expect to be optional P Zero Trofeo R hoops. That's a little more than two seconds faster than the 6:47.3 set by the Porsche 911 GT2 RS — that car having taken the lap record from the Lamborghini Huracan Performante. Since Lamborghini hasn't revealed the Aventador SVJ, and won't until Monterey Car Week in August, we still don't have details on the special-edition car's specs. It is clear, however, that the SVJ is lighter and gets more grunt from its 6.5-liter V12 than the 3,836-pound, 740-horsepower Aventador S. We can look forward to a long list of carbon fiber and whiz-bang materials applications, plus info on the carmaker's tweaked ALA 2.0 active aerodynamics system ported over from the Huracan. For now, though, the unofficial teasers and the official teasers have been proved. We have high-definition video of what the SVJ is capable of on the German track in the right professional hands, and VBOX telemetry information to go with it. Enjoy. Related Video:

Lamborghini say no to turbos in supercars, for now

Lamborghini is preparing to launch what will not only be its first crossover (discounting the LM002 that was a proper truck), but also looks to be its first turbocharged model as well. But will the upcoming new Urus open the door for more artificially boosted Lambos in the future? That was the question on our minds when Autoblog caught up with Stephan Winkelmann at the opening of the new Trigeneration Plant in Sant'Agata Bolognese. "Naturally aspirated engines are still the best engines which are on the market for super sports cars, in terms of acceleration, in terms of sound," said Lamborghini's chief executive during a roundtable discussion at the factory. "And unless there is [something] better, we are going to keep them." "Naturally aspirated engines are still the best. Unless there is something better, we are going to keep them." "We are constantly looking for alternatives. We are constantly seeing what we can do to make them better," said Winkelmann. "And there will maybe a day when we are introducing turbos, when the turbos are equalizing or being better than naturally aspirated engines." That moment just hasn't come yet, in Lamborghini's estimation. This in sharp contrast to rivals like Ferrari and McLaren (to say nothing of its sister company Porsche) which are wholeheartedly embracing turbocharged engines, as well as hybrid propulsion. Any engine, turbocharged or otherwise, used to propel the Urus would not be so easily slotted into one of its mid-engined supercars, either. "Usually an SUV engine has a different stroke, so usually those engines have to be adapted if you want" to use them in mid-engined supercars, said Winkelmann. "Then they're at the front so you have to turn them, and if this is going to make sense, I don't know. At this time there are no plans to do that, but in general, these engines are not suitable" for models like the Huracan or Aventador. "There would be a day when we think that turbo can be better than naturally aspirated. And that day, we will step into it."

Lamborghini Aventador successor to use supercapacitors instead of batteries?

While we continue trying to zero in on the next-generation Lamborghini flagship and its specs, Lamborghini CTO Maurizio Reggiani spoke to Road & Track to offer glimpses and set a few things straight. Discussing the coming LB48H supercar, Reggiani said the use of supercapacitors in that limited-run supercar will be a "first jump" into a robust hybrid application for supercapacitors, and that Lamborghini "will prove that in a super sports car, it's possible to have this technology." We've known the LB48H would use supercapacitors, but we didn't — and frankly still don't — know how. Based on Reggiani's comment, and likely the fact that Lamborghini uses a special supercar to hint at what's coming in tech and design, RT takes Reggiani's comments to mean that the Aventador successor will "store its electric power electrostatically instead of electrochemically, as you would with a lithium-ion battery." A caveat to this comes in another of Reggiani's remarks. He said the brand hasn't given any indication when an Aventador successor will reach the market, and before that happens, the brand is deciding whether to do another special edition flagship. "There's the possibility to have a kind of final Aventador family member," he said, because the brand probably won't get another chance to make a non-hybrid V12 after the scissor doors come down on the Aventador. Sales of the 6.5-liter V12 monster are still on the rise, remember. The current Aventador already uses a supercapacitor for the starter battery, to run the stop-start system. And the Italian carmaker has been working with MIT for years on such technology previewed in the Terzo Millennio concept, and rolled out for prime time in the LB48H. It's hard to see supercapacitors alone serving the next flagship, though, because company CEO Stefano Domenicali has said that "we need to respect legislation. In certain places, you will need electrification to go into the city." Supercapacitors can boost the kind of fast-acting peak performance buyers expect of a V12 Lamborghini. But their specific energy is roughly one-tenth that of a lithium-ion battery, or less; to provide the kind of range needed for all-electric trips into a city, the flagship would need a trailer hitch to haul a Urus carrying the supercapacitor array. Lamborghini has already said the best-case scenario for the Aventador successor is a 330- to 440-pound weight gain because of the hybrid system.