Private Air New York Magazine
Issue link: https://privateair.uberflip.com/i/431324
www.privateairny.com Private Air New York | Winter 2014/2015 63 DRIVE the bend while the nose snuffles from side-to-side looking for the apex. It's like rubbing your belly and patting your head while downhill skiing, it's just too much for the human brain. But soon we're sliding the car, rather than simply spinning it, building up from a single corner to a slalom. It starts to make sense, in theory… But after half a day of training we leave the nursery slope behind and head straight to the black run. We're back in one of the world's most powerful production cars and heading back on to the sheet ice circuit. e car starts at £242,000, but in this spec it's closer to £300,000 worth. On dry tarmac it hits 60mph in less than 3 seconds and tops out beyond 200mph. Here it feels wide as a truck and twice as clumsy. e first lap out is a whirlwind of twirling arms and ashen white faces as we try and fail to put our newfound knowledge into practice. With the help of a crack team of instructors we slowly improve, though. First the hairpin passes in an extravagant wave of ice shards and opposite lock. en we stop crashing altogether. Suddenly, unbelievably, the whole course, which changes every hour to keep us entertained, is alive with Lamborghinis at preposterous angles and frankly insane speeds. e right-left chicane that I took at walking pace on arrival is now a 70mph flurry of full sideways action. I feel myself tense up, I throw the car in anyway with a stab of throttle that kicks the back out of line. I'm weightless, looking through the side window and almost waiting for the bang as I sail between two snow banks, blipping the throttle and praying for grip. en, as the wall looms large once more I feel it coming back to me, the whole car responding inch by inch. And then, magically, wonderfully, just before the point of no return, it snaps back into line and fires down the straight. ere are simply no words to do justice to that moment of elation. I look at the speedo, they were right. I'm doing more than 80mph, on sheet ice, in a Lamborghini Aventador. And this too, is one of those moments I'll simply never forget.