Aventador by lb works - guide - lamborghini aventador roadster
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We have seen the work from Kato-san, or Wataru Kato, owner of Liberty Walk – LB Performance in Japan … his very special style is well-known in the Japanese tuning scene as the classic “Zokusha” where owners of older Japanese cars add wide wheel arches and drop them to the ground to create a more impressive looking car without spending too much money on it.

The latter might not really fall in line with the things Kato-san is doing, the part of the wider add-on fenders is true, but LB Works uses some of the most exotic Italian made cars as a basis, and these kits don’t come cheap either at prices around the US $30,000 mark, and that’s without the special Airrex suspension (about US $10,000), Armytrix Racing titanium Valvetronic exhaust system (also about $10,000) and a set of matching wheels in a staggered 20-21 inch setup, preferably made by Forgiato if you ask Kato-san (probably another $5,000 for the wheels and about $3,000 for the Pirelli P Zero tires).

So a quick math gets us at a grand total of about $58,000 for the entire LB Works aero kit with exhaust, suspension, wheels and tires … but without the donor car, which in this case is a $400,000 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, and the required paint and fitment … and trust me, fitting an LB Works wide finder kit onto an Aventador isn’t for the faint hearted … it involves actually cutting into all four wheel arches with an angle grinder.

But first, back to the start of this project, LB Performance released their intial aero kit a while ago already, back in 2013 at the TAS, Tokyo Auto Show, they unveiled the Aventador by LB Performance with her typical brushed aluminum wrap and thanks to the Airrex airride suspension system showing the low down Shakotan stance.

As amazing as this Aventador looked we all knew Kato-san still had something much more interesting in mind, think about his amazing looking Murciélago … or the Liberty Walk LB-R Limited Works 20 Murciélago as they call it, only 20 would be built, and she sold out a while ago … so we were all waiting for Kato-san to perform his magic on the new Aventador …

At the 2014 edition of the world famous SEMA show in the United States the Forgiato stand showed the totally over the top, ultra wide and extremely low riding LB Works Aventador, as far as we know this isn’t a limited edition, and with that massive rear wing it is without the doubt the most impressive car to leave their workshop in Japan.

Naturally Kato-san gets together with his designer in the initial stages and thinks about what style and width of ‘extensions’ would look best on the car, a Lamborghini Aventador in this case, once they get the look and feel just right Miura-san over at TRA Kyoto turns their ideas into a 3D image. Once aproved by Kato-san this design is sent over to a massive CNC machine that creates the moulds for the LB Works aero kit.

In fact the four ‘over-fenders’ as they are called are made from FRP which is a composite material made of a polymer matrix reinforced with fibers, however the front spoiler, side sills and rear diffuser can be ordered in FRP … or optionally in carbon fiber, the latter being about 25% more expensive, and let’s not forget that magnificent GT rear wing.

The first LB Works Lamborghini Aventador was naturally built in the actual workshop in Hagoya, Japan, by Kato-san and his team being the hands-on guy he is, in fact when this stunning baby blue metallic LB Works Aventador had to shipped to the United States to be featured at SEMA … she was only finished the night before … it takes some serious time from start to finish to create an LB Works Aventador.

Let’s start at the front, the entire original front bumper is replaced with an LB Works unit, that’s the easy part, you also add a more pronounced, far forward and very low additional fin underneath this bumper, together with two vertical fins on both air intakes. The styish side sills with their special upright just in front of the rear wheels are bolted onto the original Aventador side sills, again not too difficult in the end.

At the rear things get a lot more complicated, the lower rear diffuser from LB Works has some serious vertical fins that need to be mounted onto the original Lamborghini unit, complete with additional horizontal stabilization wings while the entire rear fascia on the Aventador needs some serious reinforcements to be able to support the massive GT rear wing that looks like it was taken straight from an Aventador GT1 race car.

Now comes the most frightnening part of fitting the LB Works aero kit … the wide fenders, which are in fact bolted onto the original fenders, but not before you have to remove a small strip from the front fenders and a rather large section from the rear ones so the wheels have enough space when mounting the Airrex airride suspension instead of the standard springs from Ohlins. Cutting the necessary sections away involves carefull measuring and gathering enough nerve to actually take an angle grinder and go to work.

Up front the ‘over-fenders’ are a two part item that add 30cm to the Aventador, one section is bolted onto the front bumper while the second section goes above the wheel and in front of the door, some really exact fitting is needed so you don’t mess up those trademark upward opening doors, once fitted at exactly the right spot you’ll have to drill holes into the fender, apply a rubber strip between the add-ons and the original fender and bolt everything down.

Once you’ve recovered from fitting the front ones, you’ll have to do it all over again at the rear, where these LB Works fenders add a massive 70mm and turn the already impressive Lamborghini Aventador into the beast Kato-san intended to build. If you look closely at these additional fenders you will however notice the attention to detail LB Works put into designing them … the follow the original lines of the Aventador and look like they’ve been intended to be there all along … Kato-san once again shows just how much of a genius he is when it comes to this style of aero tuning.

Time to get a set of wheels for the LB Works Aventador, and even before the first car was being built Kato-san contacted Forgiato to create a custom made set for his Lamborghini, because of the wider fenders these wheels needed some never before seen offset to fill the wheel arches to the brim … up front the 9×20 inch wheels come with a -7 offset while those deeply concave Maglia ECL wheels measure 13×21 inch with a -20 offset … add some Italian made Pirelli P Zero tires in 255/30ZR20 and 355/25ZR21 respectively and you know you have a winning combination to fill those brutal wheel arches.

Such a track inspired look requires performance and sound to match, so Kato-san went for an Armytrix titanium Valvetronic exhaust system, not only does it look great with those four square tips at the center of the Aventador, but a weight of only 8kg means you save a lot of weight over the original one, add a remote control valve system (an OBDII module) with three modes of ‘loudness’ and the fun can begin. Armytrix uses Aero grade titanium to construct these exhausts which include cat-bypass pipes … in addition to the amazing sound this offers a 35hp power increase.

I think this specific Kato-san LB Works styling with the typical wide fenders will fall into the ‘you love it or you hate it’ category, and looking at the number of Aventador that have been converted into full LB Works models a lot of people with the necessary cash love the look … a quick search indicates at least 7 Aventador have received the entire LB Works aero kit, 2 of them being a Roadster.

  1. Blue metallic Aventador owned by Kato-san himself
  2. Matte white Aventador shown at the 2015 Tokyo Auto Show
  3. Orange metallic was the shade on the first LB Works Aventador in Indonesia
  4. A Tron inspired wrap over an Arancio Argos Aventador become the first LB Works one in the United Kingdom
  5. A black LB Works Aventador with LP720-4 style front and rear bumpers is located in Canada
  6. A white LB Works Aventador Roadster rolls on red wheels
  7. Recently published brushed steel LB Works Roadster is located in the United States

I’m almost certain there are more than 7 LB Works Aventador in the world by now, so the Kato-san style does have some avid fans out there … the least you can say is that these wide Bulls are different and look like no other you’ll ever encounter on the open road.