Lamborghini unveils rolling chassis of the Aventador

Now there has been much hype about the upcoming supercar from the house of Lamborghini – and it is quite justified. First of all, it will be replacing the extremely potent and the much loved Murcielago – a car that put ‘super’ in supercar.  But if you though those were rather large shoes to fill, consider this –this is the first all-new Lamborghini since the Gallardo which was launched in 2003. And if that wasn’t enough, it not only is the first all-new V12 engined Lamborghini since 2001, it’s powered by the first all-new V12 engine Lamborghini has made since the Miura’s 3.9-litre V12 from 1966.

With so much riding on the Aventator, it better be a rather special car. But going by everything that the Sant’Agata Bolognese based supercar maker has shown about it, it certainly seems that it will be. First to arrive were the ubiquitous spy shots, then Lamborghini made the official pictures and specs of the mighty new 6.5-litre 700-horsepower engine along with its super-fast, yet super-light, ISR transmission available for all to see. And just in the final few days before the Aventador is officially unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show on the 1st of March, glimpses of the car’s unique rolling chassis was made public.

At the heart of this chassis is Lamborghini’s all carbon fibre monocoque. The loadbearing structure of the car is engineered as a “single shell” that functions physically as one component, thus taking full advantage of the extreme rigidity of CFRP. Formula 1 race cars have been built using CFRP monocoques for many years – and have proven their crash worthiness time and again. The same applies to road-going sports cars featuring monocoque technology – the carbon fiber occupant cell functions like an extremely safe roll cage. And the best part is, this entire monocoque passenger cell weighs only 147.5 kg! Even combined with the aluminium sub-frames in the front and back for mounting the engine and suspension components, the whole structure still weighs a scant 229.5kg. But the real advantage of the carbon fibre construction is the phenomenal torsional rigidity it offers – an unbelievable 35,000 Newton meters per degree of twist. This guarantees a superb feeling of solidity, and more importantly, extremely exact wheel control with excellent steering precision and sensitive feedback. Sadly though, one real tragedy of the new chassis is the cross member of rear subframe, which blocks the view of the gorgeous new engine.

Lamborghini’s new chassis also features a highly sophisticated, racing derived pushrod suspension system – the first on any series production car. The spring and damper elements of this suspension system are not located on the wheel mounts, but connected inboard to the bodyshell structure. They are transversely positioned - under the windscreen in the front and close to the engine in the rear with pushrods and rockers transmitting the forces from the wheel mounts to the spring and damper elements. This combination of the double wishbone and pushrod arrangement allows for wheel control and damper remain separate from each other – thereby improving handling without too much of a detriment in terms of ride comfort. Let’s not forget the massive brakes at all for corners of the car – massive 400mm carbon ceramic discs with six pot calipers at the front and 380mm at the back with four pot calipers. And for a car that is said to accelerate from zero to 100km/h in 2.9 seconds, such massive anchors are an absolute essential.

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The Aventador certainly looking good so far in its technical aspects, and judging by the spy photos, should do well in the aesthetics department as well. In any case, it’s only a couple of days till the official reveal at Geneva – and we’re positively giddy with excitement.