The Carbon Fiber Revolution

Weight reduction is one of the key areas of vehicle development where the car manufacturers never seem to be resting on their laurels.  The multifold increase in the strategies adopted to bring down the weight of the car in order to shave few tenths of a second in the sprint times is justifiable from a few recent stellar designs.

Of late, carbon fiber is categorically considered to be the Holy Grail in the automotive industry. Manufacturers are ready to invest money worth billions in carbon fiber research as they believe there is always bang for the buck for carbon fiber designs especially in the ever competitive sports and supercar markets.

Let’s a consider a case-study to understand it better.

Lamborghini’s upcoming supercar, Sesto Elemento is a paradigm in groundbreaking carbon fiber technology.  Currently we are only seeing Lambos built with bits and pieces of carbon fiber in the chassis which complement the high revving motors to define what is called hair-raising driving experience. Sesto Elemento is the lightest and the fastest Lamborghini yet with stupendous performance figures. The 5.2L V10 engine from the Gallardo is carried over so a solid 570bhp and 540Nm is on cards. The most striking attribute of the Sesto Elemento is the car’s power to weight ratio. As a result of Lamborghini’s magnificent job in weight reduction using carbon figure, the Sesto Elemento weighs less than a tonne! A mind-boggling 999kg means a power to weight ratio of almost 570bhp/tonne, thereby the “nought to 60mph” time of a mere 2.5 seconds will certainly give the likes of Bugatti Veyron, Koenigsegg CCXR and Pagani Zonda a good run for their money. All credits go to the carbon fiber chassis in the wake of which the Sesto Elemento is almost half a tonne lighter than Gallardo.

Lamborghini Sesto Elemento

The fact that this supercar costing a fortune is intended only for track use and will never be road legal is the biggest blow to supercar aficionados. However, that is not the end of everything. The concept that debuted in 2010 Paris Motor show is coming into production as a track car and if it turns out to be a fillip to Lamborghini’s niche sales, then we might even seen a road legal version of Sesto Elemento with potentially an attractive price tag. 

Outlook

Sesto Elemento is clearly a microcosm of how the automotive industry will shape up in the near future, or a couple of years if you like in terms of pioneering weight reduction strategies. In a wider perspective it has to be said that, not only Lamborghini but almost every supercar manufacturer (few other notable carbon fiber chassis supercars include Pagani Zonda R, Lexus LFA, and McLaren MP4-12C) has started adopting the “carbon fiber” route to blow its rivals out and unequivocally we are heading to a future when carbon fiber cars will be ruling the roost!