Through Lamborghini's rich history, they have made many of the greatest automobiles the world has ever seen. Whether it is the world's first supercar, the Miura, or the V12 Icon of the '90s, the Diablo, they all have the easy ability to turn heads. However, not many can achieve this quite like the Murcielago and Aventador, the modern classics of the 21st century.
Since the early 2000s, Lamborghini has released some incredible sports cars that have been hugely successful, whether it be the Gallardo, Huracan, or even the Urus SUV, but this company isn't the automotive legend everyone knows today because they built V10s or V8s. For Lamborghini, the top cars have always been the V12s, and the two they've made with this engine in the last 20 years have been the pinnacle of that.
Both the Aventador and Murcielago make strong cases of being the greatest V12 Lamborghini of all time. However, there can ultimately only be one, and with all that each of these works of art have to offer, there is quite the debate of which is the ultimate V12 Lamborghini.
Monstorous V12s
Both the Lamborghini Aventador and Murcielago feature the company's iconic V12 like many of their best creations throughout their history. Both make monstrous power and especially loud sound. However, they do differ quite a bit. Both have 6.5-liter engines, but the Murcielago offers a much higher pitched sound, sometimes being compared to the incredible noises to come out of old Formula 1 cars.
The Aventador similarly sounds amazing; as it is hard to make a V12 sound bad, however, it isn't nearly as high pitched and has a much deeper sound. With some modifications, however, such as Gintani's F1 exhaust system, you can make some variants of the Aventador sound similarly as good. Basically, they both sound amazing, and the choice on which sound is the best is truly based on personal opinion.
The sound an engine makes isn't the only thing important to note about these two V12s, however. The purpose of an engine is to make power, and these two do that better than almost anything. The Murcielago, which was in production for nine years from 2001 until 2010, made between 572 and 661 HP in various models over that time.
The newer V12, the Aventador, came in after, starting production in 2011, and many of the variants are still being built today. Through its models, varying from the Pirelli Edition to more recent builds like the SVJ 63, the Aventador has had between 690 and 770 HP. Over ten years of production, they have gained nearly 100 HP, over a seventh of the total power the original model had.
Daily Driver?
While Lamborghinis have never been thought of as practical or daily drivable, as that isn't what they're built for, it's always something nice to have in a car. Just looking at either of these two bulls, you can tell that neither the Murcielago nor the Aventador are practical in any form of the name.
They are mid-engined, 2-seater, V12s, and are extremely low to the ground, the complete opposite of practical. However, one of these does have the overall ability to be a daily driver, if you can deal with minimal trunk space and a lot of gas money. The Murcielago was built with an E-Gear and single-clutch system. Back when the car was in production, the E-Gear system wasn't hugely developed, so after not too many miles for most cars, the car might have to go into service, often costing tens of thousands, as the entire engine has to be taken out in order to work on the Murcielago.
One Murcielago owner who has had their fair share of problems with the car, DailyDrivenExotics, has shown this exact thing being done time and time again to their V12 monster. A different automotive YouTuber has shown that the Aventador is a completely different situation. After just a year, Savage Garage put almost 15,000 miles on their SVJ and plans to eventually reach 100,000. 15,000 is more than most cars like the Aventador or Murcielago will see in a lifetime.
A large part of the higher reliability is ultimately time. After the nine years the Murcielago was in production, they weren't going to just use the same, damage-prone system as before, so now in the Aventador, there is a much more reliable 7-speed ISR automated manual and a single clutch system, which gets more aggressive shifts in comparison to the smoother dual-clutch system found in cars like the Huracan.
All of this essentially means that while neither of these cars is reliable in any way, shape, or form, you could, in theory, drive the Aventador fairly often, a feat you likely couldn't do with the Lamborghini Murcielago.
Record Breaker
Basically, all exotic cars will have crazy numbers in all categories and could outperform almost any car on the planet in more ways than one. The list of cars that have this level of ability and performance is very small, but there's an even smaller list for the ones that are so good at what they do that they can be the best in the world at something. Lamborghini, as a company, has owned records in their long history at certain points. An example of this was when the Diablo held the top speed record for a production car in the '90s.
Well, both the Murcielago and Aventador have had world records in their own right. Back when the Murcielago was in production, it set a record for furthest distance traveled within an hour, at just under 190 miles, along with some similar records for different distances and amounts of time. Most people would look at a Murcielago and think it's probably the fastest car in the world, but no. While it did have a top speed of 214 MPH, which is extremely fast, it wasn't, by any means a record.
In relation to a top speed record, the Lamborghini Aventador actually set one to an extent. The Nürburgring is one of the most famous race tracks in the world, not just for its wild design, but also because anybody, no matter what car, bus, truck, or any other automobile a person can think of, is allowed to do laps on it. It is also a track of bragging rights, as the world's top car manufacturers are constantly attempting to break each others' production car lap records, which continue to get faster as time goes on.
The top three production car lap times are currently held by the Porsche GT2RS in first, with the Mercedes-Benz AMG GT Black Series in second, and the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, once the king of the Nürburgring, and now the third all-time best. However, it does have to be pointed out that the only two cars in front of the Aventador are not naturally aspirated and had to use things like turbos to achieve their high speeds, while the SVJ is pure V12 power.
This essentially means that the Lamborghini Aventador is the world's fastest naturally aspirated production car around the Nürburgring, and as auto manufacturers are turning to powertrains such as electric and turbos, it has a good chance to stay in that position forever. The Lamborghini Murcielago may have an old distance record, but does that really compare to the Aventador's blistering speed around one of the world's most famous race tracks?
Turning Heads
If you are spending hundreds of thousands on an impractical car that will cost you a house worth of repair bills, chances are you want it to be as wild and flashy as possible. Some people would buy a car like the Murcielago or Aventador simply for the experience, but many would want to be seen if they drove one of these, and they both do an amazing job at it.
Sticking to Lamborghini's trend of making cars that are over the top crazy, both V12s look absolutely insane, and both have insane scissor doors that go upward. However, while a purist may go for the iconic Murcielago, its older styling and technology simply can't compare to the sharp edges and angles of the Aventador for the average eye. Everything on the Aventador screams, "look at me," and while the Murcielago is an amazing-looking car that is much crazier than most, the Aventador, whether it is an S, SVJ, or any other variant, is on a whole different level.
Both of these modern classics are amazing cars that will someday be in museums all around the world, as they are both full of things that make them amazing but are also flawed in some ways, just as every automobile is. On the side of the Aventador, it is clearly the more drivable car of the two if you actually wanted to take either car out every day, and it could arguably be considered the cooler super sports car, with its wild design and insane record.
However, the Murcielago is a legendary V12 that screams as good as any in automotive history and could arguably be called the better driving purist car. All of this ultimately brings out the truth, which is that while the Aventador is an incredibly fun vehicle, between the two, the Lamborghini Murcielago is the better car to drive, and the Aventador allows you to have fun with your sports car more often without risk of damage.