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Like an iPhone S, the 2017 Lamborghini Aventador S adds speed and features

When most automakers introduce a new generation of vehicle, it represents a dramatic change in performance or design. Don't tell Lamborghini that – while the company calls its new Aventador S a new generation, the reality is that this is Sant'Agata's facelifted flagship, complete with some modest visual tweaks and a couple of new pieces of technology. In fact, it's closer to Apple's product cadence of introducing an S model of the iPhone before an all-new model. Those aesthetic changes include a new fascia that Lamborghini claims is more aerodynamic, while the vertical ducts on the outside of the lower intake optimize airflow around the front tires and those huge front wheels, while channeling more air toward the rear radiators. In back, there's a restyled diffuser, and a neat hexagonal exhaust outlet. Above that, there's a three-position active rear wing. All told, Lamborghini claims front downforce is up 130 percent while "overall efficiency" in high-downforce mode increases 50 percent and low-downforce mode improves 400 percent. New for the Aventador is a trick four-wheel steering system, a first for a series production Lamborghini. The idea with the system is like other four-wheel-steering. At low speeds it turns the rear wheels in the opposite direction of the fronts, tightening the Lambo's giant turning radius. At high speeds, the system works in reverse by turning the rear wheels in the same direction as the fronts and providing improved stability. But none of these style and tech changes are worth a damn without that big lump of fury in the Aventador S' middle. Like previous versions, there's a 6.5-liter V12, but its output is up to an SV-matching 740 ponies – torque is unchanged from the LP700-4 we tested in 2015, at 509 pound-feet. Max engine speed is up from 8,350 rpm to a wild 8,500 rpm. The result? Zero to 62 miles per hour in 2.9 seconds and a top speed of 217. Prices for the 2017 Aventador S start at an eye-watering $421,350 and – we're guessing – can creep up near $500,000 with a few carefully selected carbon-fiber accents and Ad Personam options. Lamborghini is planning to start deliveries in spring 2017. Related Video:

Dad Invites Lamborghini Owners To Son's Birthday Party

The resulting unalloyed joy, as you'll see in the footage below, is priceless. One of my defining moments as a budding car enthusiast came the first time I got to see a Lamborghini up close. I was out in Los Angeles visiting a relative with my mother and sister, and I took the change of scenery as an opportunity to look for more exotic cars than my middle-class Midwestern upbringing would usually encounter. We were on a walk, when off in the distance I saw – and heard – something extraordinary: An early '80s Lamborghini Countach, black with those bronze five-hole wheels, pulling into a parking spot. My mom still takes great joy in periodically retelling the events of that day, and as the story goes, I joyfully took off without warning, chasing the car down the street shouting "Lamborghini!" "Lamborghini!!" in my best eight-year-old Italian accent. I must've still been adorable, because the owner not only let me sit in his car, scissor door open and ridiculous grin on my face, he left me playing around in its interior, nonchalantly telling me to shut the door when I was done. Just like that, he left, disappearing into a shop across the street. I can't tell you how long I sat in the car, or how many photos I demanded my mother take of me with my borrowed Bell and Howell, but I can remember being astounded at how low it was – I could crouch as if sitting on the bumper and still see over it! That was around 30 years ago, and I still have a couple of those dog-eared pictures. Funnily enough, my memorable Lamborghini encounter is pretty similar to that of the young boy featured in this video. At age seven, however, Jacob is clearly ahead of the curve. As the story goes, his father left a message on Lamborghini Los Angeles North's Facebook page, asking if someone with "a kind heart" would help him help make his Lamborghini-fanatic child's birthday wish come true. And "come true" it did, with the dealership helping organize not just a ride-along in an Aventador, but also a small cavalcade of other Lambos, all of which all showed up unannounced at his house on Jacob's birthday. The resulting unalloyed joy, as you'll see in the footage below, is priceless. As car enthusiasts, most of us have been lucky enough to have memorable defining car experiences, those fleeting moments in our personal back catalogs that have come to mean so much more than they first appeared to be.

Lamborghini spotted filming new Aventador SV completely undisguised

There is a great tradition at Lamborghini in turning its mid-engined V12 supercars into Super Veloce ("High Speed") versions. So after the Aventador hit the scene, we knew it would only be a matter of time before it was to receive the SV treatment. And here it is, spied completely undisguised during a video shoot. Now, we first spotted what we thought was the Aventador SV way back in April, 2013 – the same day, incidentally, that the LP720-4 50° Anniversario edition surfaced. That was a long time ago, however, and what we see here looks like a different beast entirely. It's got a completely reshaped front bumper, bigger air intakes, deeper side sills and a fresh set of steamroller alloys. Out back, there's a massive rear wing and below it, a new rear end with a bigger diffuser and – instead of one central exhaust – four individual pipes to let the big twelve-cylinder engine breath. Speaking of which, you can expect the Aventador SV to come with a big power bump. Just how big, we don't know for sure, but we can extrapolate. When the Miura SV hit the scene in the early 1970s, it only packed 15 more horsepower than the existing model. Though the Countach bred a series of variants over its long lifetime, it never got an SV edition. The Diablo SV arrived five years after its donor with an 18-horse bump, later raised by another 19 hp. But after the Murcielago arrived in 2001 with 572 hp and bumped up to 631 hp in 2006, the SV model came in 2009 with 661 hp. Given that the "standard" Aventador has been out since 2011, we're about on schedule for the Super Veloce, and if precedent proves anything, we could be looking at upwards of 750 horses to come riding around the mountain when they come to the Geneva Motor Show in March. Featured Gallery Lamborghini Aventador SV: Spy Shots View 11 Photos Image Credit: Borja Perez/CarPix Spy Photos Lamborghini Coupe Supercars lamborghini aventador sv