Lamborghini’s Going To Go Crazy With Carbon Fiber

Lamborghini Sesto Elemento (Credit: Lamborghini)

Everyone knows carbon fiber is lightweight and can be incredibly strong. The big trend in the automotive industry is to make all sorts of things out of the stuff, like Ford creating carbon-fiber wheels for the Shelby GT350 and GT supercar.

Lamborghini’s taking things to a whole new level, giving a deeper meaning to the term “lightweighting.” Per Automotive News, we’ve learned that the Italians are launching a new Advanced Composite Structures Laboratory, which will be housed in the United States. The whole goal of the new lab is to successfully create carbon-fiber and carbon engine components.

You could be seeing the fruits of Lamborghini’s labors soon. Maurizio Reggiani, the company’s R&D chief, said he thinks development of the new engine components will be done in a year to a year and a half. Making the parts would be quick, thanks to a new process where curing the carbon fiber takes minutes instead of hours.

While lightweight engine components help shed some of a car’s curb weight, there are other performance advantages. For now, Lamborghini isn’t saying too much about future applications of the technology. Expect to see some concept vehicles before a production version. The likely candidate for the new lightweight engine is the Aventador’s successor.