Lamborghini Aventador meets real life: Chris's view

Forget the Top Gear test track, this is the ultimate test of a supercar as the Telegraph Motoring team pits Lamborghini's biggest, baddest and fastest against a range of real-world challenges. 

On Thursday March 29 2012, Britain went into a petrol panic-buying frenzy. People queued for hours to top up as reports of a tanker strike over the long Easter weekend threatened to bring the country to a standstill. The result, inevitably, was that petrol stations began to run dry.

The next day, I picked up the 6.5-litre, V12 Lamborghini Aventador. I had 24 hours in this most super of supercars, which in my book meant blasting along the M4 from London to Wales. However, the prospect of getting stranded in a bright orange Lamborghini on the outskirts of Swindon with no fuel had led me to reconsider. A more local loop was called for, heading south down the A3 before cutting back east along the A272, a fast, flowing road that would suit the Aventador's considerable footprint.

Beyond the expected Lamborghini theatrics, the Aventador comes with a healthy sprinkling of Audi practicalities. The satnav, for example, has an excellent traffic avoidance system, and the whole car feels as though it'll stand the test of time. In fact, anything less than Ingolstadt levels of fit and finish would most likely have ended up with the Aventador's dash having a lifespan of about three weeks, such is the stiffness that results from a carbon-fibre monocoque chassis, pushrod suspension and ultra-low profile tyres. In true supercar fashion the ride improves the faster you go (honest, officer), but even a few days after handing back the Aventador, I'm struggling to think of a place where you could actually use its performance.

My journey down the A3 is about as surreal as you would expect, with vans pulling out of the way to give me (OK, the car) the thumbs up, camera phones pointed and, at one point, a whole Lotus lost in one of the engine bay's huge cooling slats. And then I reach the Hindhead Tunnel. With the traffic having thinned I couldn't resist the opportunity to select "Corsa" mode, drop the windows a touch, tug at the left-hand paddle until the V12 bellows and the squeeze the long, floor-hinged throttle pedal to the floor to bring all 690bhp out to play. A V12 symphony bounced through the mile-long tunnel as the Aventador leapt from 50-70mph, snapping its way through gears with the violence of a Floyd Mayweather right hook. Fuel might well be in short supply, but there can be no better way to burn up what's left.

Fuel-shortage rating: 2