This is what the 'SV' on Lamborghini means

Every Lamborghini badge has a story, but none carry quite the same charge as ‘SV’.

You’ll see them on the Miura, Diablo, Murciélago, and Aventador – always reserved for the fiercest of the pack.

Most people think they stand for ‘Super Veloce,’ Italian for ‘super fast.’

They do now, but that’s not where it began. 

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What the SV really means on a Lamborghini

The first car to wear the SV badge was the Miura SV, and back then, SV didn’t mean Super Veloce. 

It meant ‘Spinto Veloce’.

Translated literally, Spinto Veloce means ‘pushed fast.’ 

Not just quick – pushed beyond its limits.

In Italian, ‘spinto’ also implies being driven or compelled forward, almost like it can’t help itself. 

That’s the exact energy Lamborghini wanted the Miura to embody.

And there’s even an opera connection – a spinto voice is strong enough to rise over an orchestra without strain. 

The Miura SV did the same on the road – pure mechanical music, loud but composed.

As Lamborghini evolved, the letters did too. 

The Diablo SV in 1995 flipped the meaning to ‘Sport Veloce’. 

The Murciélago and Aventador moved on to ‘SuperVeloce’, literally ‘super fast’.

And when the Aventador SVJ arrived, the ‘J’ stood for ‘Jota’ – a nod to Lamborghini test driver Bob Wallace, who once built a hardcore Miura prototype that followed the FIA’s ‘Appendix J’ racing rules.

So the words changed, but the purpose didn’t. 

Whatever it spelled out, ‘SV’ always marked the most extreme Lamborghini.

The one built to go faster, feel sharper, and sound angrier than everything else around it.

Other badges with stories to tell

Lamborghini isn’t the only carmaker whose letters carry hidden DNA.

Take AMG – it’s not just marketing, it’s three names: Aufrecht, Melcher, Großaspach. 

Named after two engineers and a tiny German town that became the soul of Mercedes performance.

Then there’s Audi’s four rings, which everyone assumes stand for Quattro all-wheel drive. 

They don’t.

They’re from a 1932 merger that fused four struggling German automakers – Audi, Horch, DKW, and Wanderer – into one survival pact called Auto Union.

A story about endurance, not traction.

Because behind every badge, there’s more than branding.

There’s a whole history pressed into metal.

From Spinto to SuperVeloce, the letters may have changed, but Lamborghini’s meaning never did.

‘SV’ still stands for the same thing it always has – faster, rarer, louder, and just a little bit operatic.

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