No matter how much lush green grass and pretty flowers you put over them, it’s hard to completely hide your roots. Maybe you’ve moved to a big city in the north, but can’t twist your tongue out of a southern drawl. Or perhaps you still occasionally satisfy a childhood love of fried pies and macaroni and cheese when you’re not dining at the high-end restaurants you now frequent as an adult.
Lamborghini is no different.
Road & Track’s head-to-head comparison of the 700-horsepower Aventador and Ferrari’s F12berlinetta exposed its rough, tractor factory origins. “The gearbox is a vicious thing, one clutch and an infinite amount of refinement short of the Ferrari’s.” Its fixed-rate suspension is unforgiving on roads with more than one dimension. However, “the seat-wheel-pedal relationship is a revelation” in ergonomics compared to that of Lamborghini’s former top bull, the Murcielago.
Maranello’s offering seems to have fared better than its Sant’Agata rival in disguising its heritage, which goes back to an era of fiercely analog race cars that had to be muscled into submission by their drivers. Chris Chilton states, “This thing picks up revs as if it had a nickel for a flywheel, and it slices through the seven gears of its dual-clutch transmission as if they were made of air.” Steering is lightly weighted, but communicative and sharp. Dampers can be adjusted with the push of a button. Ferrari’s GT car does nod to its ancestors with a 730-horse 6.3-liter 12-cylinder that “delivers monster power everywhere and a shriek that feels like it could flay the skin from your bones.”
Although Chilton picks the $323,338 F12 over the Aventador, which costs a staggering $404,195, he does say, “No matter how you slice it, they each offer astonishing performance and sound incredible.”
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
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