Geneva 2012: Lambo Aventador J

Pity car manufacturers. Their brightest minds spend days, months and years suffering long nights, fractured relationships and caffeine abuse to produce automotive wares. Then they wait patiently for a big motor show to display said wares to garner your attention.

And then wild child Lamborghini rocks up with a ruddy big 700bhp open-topped super coupe. Meet the new Aventador J, Internet. Meet your new bedroom decoration.

It is, in Lambo's own words, a "radically open automobile", and they're not wrong. The Lamborghini Aventador J - so named because of the FIA's ‘Appendix J' referencing the tech spec of race cars - dispenses with the roof and windscreen of the hypercar for a unique driving experience.

Gallery: the Lamborghini Aventador J

It's based on the standard Aventador LP700-4, replete with that 6.5-litre 700bhp V12 and permanent four-wheel-drive. Top Gear's Supercar of the Year, no less. But for the ‘J', the carbon fibre monocoque was significantly altered to adjust for the lack of anything above the doors. It's made of woven carbon fibres soaked with epoxy resin that apparently stabilises the structure but keeps the material soft - almost like a high-tech fabric.

And thus, it can be made into any shape. In fact, Lamborghini tells us there could be a high-end clothing line made of the stuff. Watch this space...

There are two safety bars behind the seats, which themselves are made of forged composite with carbon fibre fabric inserts, and because the Lambo ‘J' is sans roof, air conditioning and windscreen, it's lighter than the 1,575kg Aventador coupe. So expect an improvement on the standard Aventador's 0-62mph time of 2.9 seconds.

The front is narrower than the coupe, it comes with special fit 20in and 21in aluminium wheels, thinner doors opening upwards (joy!) and special front and rear bumpers. Inside, this driving cynosure manifests through the noticeable absence of sat nav, audio, and air-conditioning; all you get are two programmable TFT screens behind the wheel. And all you need is a racing helmet and some driving aptitude. 

Lamborghini has only built one Aventador J. The one you see here. After the show, it will shimmy off into the sunset into the hands of one extremely lucky and rather brave soul who will pilot the street-legal monster. Street legal, for goodness sake.

What do you make of Lambo's very own X-Bow?