What transmission does the Aventador have?

Why does the Lamborghini Aventador not have a DCT?

Many gearheads and spec nuts have wondered why does the Lamborghini Aventador not have a DCT? We will get down to the bottom of why this is while also telling you what a DCT is, how it works, and if you can ever expect the Aventador to get a DCT in the future.

What is a DCT?

Before we can answer the question of why the Aventador doesn’t have a DCT, we should first fill you in on what a DCT actually is. DCT stands for dual clutch transmission, but it’s more complicated than that. A DCT is really like two transmissions packaged together.

If you think of a DCT as two transmissions, then transmission one has all the odd gears (1,3,5, etc.) and transmission two has all the even gears (2,4,6, etc.). When transmission one is in first gear, transmission two is already in second gear, but its clutch is disengaged.

When shifting from first to second gear, transmission one disengages its clutch and transmission two engages its clutch. If you are still accelerating, then transmission one will shift into third while still disengaged to anticipate that shift. If you’re no longer accelerating or if you’re just coasting, transmission one may stay in first to anticipate a downshift.

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Advantages and disadvantages of a DCT

The big advantage should be pretty obvious. A DCT can shift extremely fast, and when you are dealing with the insane speeds of the modern supercar, a hundredth of a second is important. It does have one drawback though. A DCT is perhaps the heaviest transmission type available for performance cars. Still, the Lamborghini Huracan uses a DCT in all its variants. So why doesn’t the Aventador have one?

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Will the Aventador ever have a DCT?

When the Aventador was first being devised, a DCT option was explored, but at the time the tech was fairly new, prone to breaking, extremely heavy, and not capable of dealing with the horsepower of a Lamborghini V12.

As such, the Lamborghini Aventador uses an automatic-manual hybrid that utilizes independent shift rods for shift speeds that rival DCT transmissions. The Aventador, as with most supercars, was essentially designed around its drivetrain. Because of this, changing its platform to a DCT would require nearly a full redesign from the ground up.

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Don’t expect the Aventador to ever get a DCT. You can take the fact that the recently redesigned Aventador S and even the extreme Aventador SVJ still use the independent shift rod transmission as further evidence. The replacement for the Aventador will be a whole new ballgame though.