Like talking smack about a heavyweight titlist — any rumors about the Aventador’s potency these days are sure to be whispered in private.

The Aventador is the heir apparent to a huge well of passion around the previous Countach, Diablo and Murcielago flagships. Those are mid-engine exotics that have stayed wild, stayed loud, and stayed around for four decades of shifting hypercar sands.

But in 2010 and beyond — the market is becoming extremely crowded. The Aventador somehow is no longer the title-holder of a generation’s car poster pin-ups. It is nowhere near as fast as the Bugatti Veyron or even the McLaren F1, its pricing is both obscene at about $600,000 and also vaguely mass-market versus the LaFerrari or McLaren P1 or Porsche 918 Spyder.

The Aventador, for all its wild-eyed V12 passion and dimensions like a flattened Humvee, is in an awkward place at the moment.

All these thoughts, of course, are academic and generally done far away from the actual machine in the flesh and carbon.

In person, the Aventador still has the goods to make anyone shake like a leaf.

Its rarity is certain (outside of Miami and LA, that is, where most are daily driven), its scale and scissor-doors are still the stuff of halo hypercar fantasies.

As such, the Aventador is still a great brand asset to have on hand during the critical client drives of the new Huracan near the Quail in Carmel, California last week.

Many of the guys waiting to take the Huracan for a quick blast around the block have already, in fact, put in their orders. The initial drive here is mainly to sate their appetites for a few more months or weeks until they take delivery.

Having a number of slim female hotties on hand is always a good idea to set the mood. Just like having the Aventador around is certain to create movement in owners’ Y-fronts.

But the whispers are correct: little by little, the Aventador is losing the halo hypercar magic of the Countach and its predecessors.

2015 Lamborghini Aventador