- Lamborghini shows off its new carbon-fiber front crash structure for the upcoming successor to the Aventador.
- The new car will be stiffer and lighter than the Aventador.
- An important change is that there’s no more pushrod suspension but instead, upright springs at each corner.
The recently retired Aventador was the first Lamborghini road car to use a carbon-fiber structure. Now the Italian supercar maker has shown us the lighter and stronger “monofuselage” that will sit at the heart of the Aventador’s successor, the as yet unnamed model known only by its LB744 engineering code.
Stay Wedgy
While we need to wait a while longer to see the whole car, images of the new structure make clear that it sticks to the combination of a low roof and the wedgy proportions of its famous predecessors. We would be very surprised if it didn’t. The images also give the chance to see how the new hybridized V-12 and front electric motors will fit into the platform.
The LB744’s chassis will be both lighter and stiffer than the Aventador’s. The structure combines parts made out of hugely strong forged composite—a technology that was pioneered by Lamborghini and the Callaway golf equipment company—as well as carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic parts. The most obvious difference over the Aventador is a new carbon front impact structure ahead of the passenger compartment that is both lighter and tougher than the Aventador’s crash frame.
Behind the tub, the LB744 continues to use a aluminum structure to mount its engine, transmission, and rear suspension components. The images also reveal that the new car is going to move away from the Aventador’s supremely elegant pushrod suspension, using more conventional upright springs for the double wishbone suspension at each corner. They also show it rides on Bridgestone Potenza tires.
While we don’t have a weight figure for the Monofuselage yet, Lamborghini’s claim of a torsional rigidity of 29,502 pound-feet/degree represents an improvement of 25 percent over the Aventador, and is 100 percent better than the 14,751 pound-feet/degree the company quoted for the Murciélago. Although the LB744’s core structure is lighter than the Aventador’s, we anticipate overall weight will increase due to the mass brought by the hybridized powertrain’s three electric motors and 3.8-kWh battery pack.
The images also show off the straked design of the new car’s roof, which should help to improve headroom compared to the tight-fitting Aventador. We will see the finished car in full, and learn its new name, at the end of the month.
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European Editor
Mike Duff has been writing about the auto industry for two decades and calls the UK home, although he normally lives life on the road. He loves old cars and adventure in unlikely places, with career highlights including driving to Chernobyl in a Lada.
