Eleventh-hour test results give car games bon-fibre Lambo green light
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Lamborghini delayed the confirmation of its Sesto Elemento until the Frankfurt Motor Show so they could be sure the radical carbon-fibre supercar was technically feasible, sources at Lamborghini have confirmed.
The sub-1000kg, V10 supercar has been much hyped since its Paris Motor Show debut in October last year, but it has been an on-again, off-again machine ever since. However, motoring.com.au can now confirm that it was only a month ago that Lamborghini finally got the test results it needed to ensure the car's robustness and guarantee the durability of the 20 Sesti Elementi it will build in 2013.
Officially, at €1.5 million each, the cars won't be homologated for the road but will be for track use only. President Stefan Winkelmann indicated at Frankfurt, however, some cars could be registered -- if a customer wanted to make the changes and possessed a sufficiently robust chequebook.
While it's not Lamborghini's first carbon-fibre production supercar -- that honour now goes to the Aventador -- the Sesto Elemento essentially turned every possible part of the car into carbon-fibre.
Apart from its engine, gearbox and all-wheel drive differentials and driveshafts, almost everything else in the Sesto Elemento will be composite.
The Sesto runs the same 5.2-litre, direction-injection V10 from the Gallardo Superleggera to give 425kW (570hp) running through a six-speed paddle-shift gearbox. Lamborghini claims the ultra light weight of the car will give it a power-to-weight ratio of 1.75kW per kilogram to help it explode to 100km/h in just 2.5 seconds – or the same claimed time as the Bugatti Veyron.
The Sesto Elemento started life as a technical demonstrator to highlight Lamborghini's carbon-fibre technology before the production launch of the Aventador. This was the key reason it has taken a year to confirm its production.
"It was only a month ago that we got all the test results we were looking for," Lamborghini R&D boss, Maurizio Reggiani, told motoring.com.au.
"Everything in it is so new for production and it's so far ahead of everything else that we had to be absolutely sure. And because nobody has done anything like this car before in production, we had to write the book from the start, too.
"We haven't been sitting around meetings without making any decisions. We've just had a lot of things we needed to make sure of first," he said.
The Sesto Elemento is so radical because everything in it (from the seats to the radiator supports) are made from one of Lamborghini's three different carbon-fibre technologies. In fact, the seats are moulded directly into the carbon-fibre chassis tub -- the driver adjusts the pedals and steering wheel to suit his or her position.
Besides the engine, gearbox and driveline, the only major metallic parts in the car are an aluminium rear subframe which carries the engine and ancillaries, and the steering rack.
And in case anybody is confused about the main material in the Sesto Elemento, the literal translation of the name is Sixth Element on the Periodic Table, which is carbon.
Read all the latest news and reveals from the Frankfurt Motor Show here.
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