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Lamborghini Aventador bursts into flames in London traffic

Italian supercars have a well-deserved reputation for sexy styling, fiery souls, and eye-wateringly high performance. They also have a reputation for occasionally bursting into flames with little to no provocation. The latest example of this startling habit happened in London when a bright yellow Lamborghini Aventador caught fire in the middle of rush hour traffic. According to Express, six firefighters and one engine from the London Fire Brigade were dispatched to the intersection of Southwark Street and Blackfriars Bridge in central London on the evening of June 8. When they arrived, they found a bright yellow Lamborghini Aventador burning in the middle of the street surrounded by curious onlookers. Traffic at the busy intersection ground to a halt as police moved people away from the burning car and firefighters worked quickly extinguished it. "This chap was sitting in traffic and I heard the car revving then someone shouted, 'Your car is on fire'," Dan Jenkins, a passerby who filmed the incident, told the Evening Standard. "It started off as a small flame on the side and then it escalated very quickly getting close to the engine. At the start, it looked like the exhaust was flaming like some supercars do." Amanda Compton, another witness, told the Standard, "The driver was revving up the car at traffic lights in a queue, there was a loud bang and the engine caught fire." Thankfully, the driver escaped unhurt, but the Lambo is probably a total loss. This isn't the first Aventador that has burned to the ground after the driver got a little too spirited with the accelerator. In October 2015, another yellow Aventador burned down in Dubai after the driver redlined the big V12 a few too many times in traffic. Related Video: News Source: The Evening Standard, The Mirror, The Express Auto News Weird Car News Lamborghini Coupe Supercars car fire

Harry Metcalfe shows off his Lamborghini Countach

Harry Metcalfe may no longer be editing the Evo magazine he founded, but that doesn't mean he doesn't still have octane pumping through his veins – or that he isn't still producing world-class automotive content. In this latest video released on his YouTube channel Harry's Garage, Metcalfe shows off is 1987 Lamborghini Countach 5000 Quattrovalvole. The precursor of today's Aventador, the Countach was Sant'Agata's longest-serving mid-engined twelve-cylinder supercar, remaining in production from 1974 (after the Miura was discontinued) until 1990 (when the Diablo replaced it), and earned its place of prominence on the walls of so many childhood bedrooms. Metcalfe's was a later model from 1987 – the London Motor Show car from that year, in fact – packing the enlarged 5.2-liter V12 with the four-valve heads, those fantastical air vents and that giant rear wing. Harry even had the legendary Valentino Balboni to sign the interior. The video is a full half-hour long, but even if you've only got a few minutes, it's worth watching just the beginning to hear it starting up.

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: