The long-awaited debut of the Lamborghini Murcielago successor appears to be coming sooner than later after it was reported that Lamborghini has filed for a trademark in the US for the name "Lamborghini Aventador", leading to questions as to whether this could be the official name of the Lamborghini Jota. Though nothing has been confirmed yet, there seems to be enough reason to believe that the Aventador could very well take the mantle from the Murcielago as Lamborghini’s next hypercar.

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A select group of customers were on hand to see the new bull-buster, and, based on what’s been seen, the Aventador looks to have taken a lot of its styling cues from the Lamborghini Reventon. How much of it is Revenston-inspired still remains to be seen. What we do know is that the ‘Aventador’ name will stick around given the lengths Lamborghini went through in obtaining a trademark for the name. So is it safe to say that the Murcielago successor will officially be named the Aventador? We’ll put our eggs in that basket and say yes.

UPDATE 12/16/10: We were doing our usual Facebook surfing earlier today when we chanced upon the fan page of the Lamborghini Club of Los Angeles. To our surprise, we came across a photo of the Aventador LP700-4 that the page says is the "ONLY real front end photo of the Lamborghini Aventador released so far". Check out the below for the photo's; it won’t be too hard to find.


Exterior and Interior
Like we mentioned, word has it that the Aventador is going to have a lot of styling cues derived from the Reventon. Based from some of the spy shots we’ve seen of the car doing test runs, one feature that looks to be Reventon-esque are the intakes.

One other notable thing we learned about the new supercar is that it’s going to be lighter than its predecessor, the Murcielago, especially after Lamborghini CEO Stephen Winkelmann has made it known that the company intends to shed off pounds off of Lamborghinis, including on the Aventador, which is rumored to be using a carbon fiber monocoque chassis that drops the supercar’s weight by 500 lbs from the Murcielago while also increasing its rigidity by over 70%. Despite the lighter models, Lamborghini is still using some famous aspects of past Lamborghini models on the Aventador, including the use of the iconic scissor doors that have come to define Lamborghinis from the rest of the exotic car market.


Performance
As for performance specifications, Lamborghini has announced that the Aventador will come with a new 6.5-liter V12 engine that produces 700 horsepower and 479 lb/ft of torque with a 0-60 mph time of just 2.9 seconds while blasting off a top speed of 217 mph and a redline of 8,250 RPM.

The Aventador’s engine is mated to an all-new “Lamborghini ISR” – the ISR stands for Independent Shifting Rod - seven-speed single clutch automated manual gearbox that combines quick shift time with manual shifting, which proves to be quite useful when a car has a low weight and compact dimensions.

The ISR gearbox allows the Aventador to shift gears almost simultaneously. It comes with two modes and 50 millisecond shifts that works in such fashion that when one of the shifting rods is moving out of one gear, the second rod is already shifting on to the next. Another important aspect of the new Lamborghini transmission fits perfectly with the company’s new goal of making its supercars more lightweight: the ISR transmission weighs in at only 79 kilos – about 174 pounds – significantly lighter than any other DSG transmission out on the market.

Lamborghini president and CEO Stephan Winkelmann explains that the new Lamborghini powertrain is a revolutionary new technology that will set apart the Aventador – and all its future models - from it;s supercar contemporaries. “This new power unit is not only the crowning glory of our product range, it is also part of our enormous investment in the future of the Lamborghini brand,” he said.

“With this new V12, we are heralding a technological leap that encompasses all areas of the company and our future model lineup. With a unique package of innovations, Lamborghini will redefine the future of the super sports car. This 700hp engine, together with an all-new concept gearbox, will be the strong heart of the Murciélago successor next year.”


Pricing
No word yet on when the car is going to make its long-awaited debut, although we figure that it would be a best guess to expect the Aventador to be introduced sometime early next year. Rest assured, though, we’ll be updating you for any new details regarding the supposed successor to the Murcielago, the Aventador LP700-4.

Competition
If and when the Lamborghini Aventador is released – teaser images have pointed to a 2012 launch date – it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s going to go head-to-head with a number of other new exotics, with the most notable of which being the Ferrari 599 GTO. Numbers aren’t too far from each other with the Aventador’s 700 horsepower, 2.9-second 0-60 mph time, and 217 mph top speed going up against the 599 GTO’s 670 horsepower, 3.3-second 0-60 mph time, and 208 mph top speed time.

With the specs of these two Italian thoroughbreds closely similar to each other, it should make for a nice comparison test between the two. Sure, we’re going to have to wait until Lamborghini officially introduces the Aventador for that to happen, but we’re pretty confident that at some point, it’s going to.

Lamborghinis and Ferraris will always be interlinked with each other so bragging rights between the 599 GTO and the soon-to-be-released Aventador LP700-4 should still make for a very interesting comparison test.