There are few driving experiences as visceral as driving a Lamborghini. They are cars built not for a sensible purpose, but to thrill and show off the ambitions of automotive engineers. Along the way, they’ll send your heart up your throat.
To introduce automotive enthusiasts, would-be buyers, aspiring racers and current supercar owners, Lamborghini invites select groups of car lovers to attend its Esperienza events across the country.
The Lamborghini Esperienza brings drivers to racetracks and motorsports parks at convenient points around the U.S. There, a small fleet of Lambos await a day of training and (eventually) laps at speed around the circuit.
Once familiarized with the program and the vehicles, drivers begin their day in the driver’s seat with a Lamborghini driving instructor at their side. Each teacher is or was a successful professional racer and has forgotten more about speed than you’ll ever know. The experts are patient and informative, never putting on pressure or demeaning anyone for inexperience or errors. They’re on hand to educate, encourage and improve their pupils. (And they’re responsible for making sure the amateur drivers are skilled enough to get a $400,000, 700 horsepower bit of kit back in one piece.)
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Once I popped the roof off my 2014 Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster for the day (as I was too tall with a helmet to drive the car safely), I got on well with my coach since this job of mine affords me track training in the line of duty — making sure I had a little more experience than the rookies heading out with iron grips on the wheel and eyes wider than a Gallardo’s rims.
Still, while I’m a good amateur driver, there’s a gulf between what I can do and what a pro manages with ease. I paid attention and learned a little bit more about track racing (as I do every time I do any event like this).
I can only imagine the (non)crash course the rookies received had their speed-loving brains spinning for hours.
I caught up to the tour at the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, Ill. It’s built for residents and vacationers who would rather live on a race track than a golf course. Rather than play 18 holes, they’d rather keep their track cars in their condos and do laps all day. It’s not a bad life, when I consider it.
The Illinois track is perfect for mastering the basics of the Aventador. With enough corners to experience the precision and balance of these machines, the circuit offered up straightaways that allowed me to put my toe down flat out in the car — without enough time to max out the 217 mph maximum speed.
I’ll have more to say about the properly insane Aventador in the coming days. For now, I can say the sensory experience of pushing such a car down a racetrack is a freeing mixture of mental juggling, surging adrenaline and physical challenges. While loaded with enough driver’s aids to keep everything on the road, the Aventador kept me in touch with the road surface. I took in every bump and rumble, even as the brute muscled its way from lap to lap.
When it was all over, I’d learned a lot. But, what I took to heart the most was the sadness of realizing I wouldn’t be back behind the wheel of that dark blue bull the next day.
There are still a few stops left on this year’s tour. You can check out dates, cost and availability here. If there are open slots this year or next, and if you can afford it, make the investment of time and money. The sensation of being in razor width’s control of such power is impossible to duplicate anywhere else — and difficult to describe unless you’ve been inside a Lamborghini.
