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Lamborghini Is Forging Ahead with Forged Carbon Fiber

blog.caranddriver.com

71–80 of 108 posts

Re: Lamborghini Is Forging Ahead with Forged Carbon Fiber

#71
post #2

Has Lamborghini ever made a car that had actual technical merit as a racecar? I'm general, supercars are vastly overpriced for what you get. You can easily crush most for a fraction of the price with a dedicated track car. But simultaneously, no supercars are remotely practical on the road, and in fact are not even fun to drive on the street because of speed limits. Some supercars have been a good investment, such as…

If you are a male, attracting females is a lot easier if you own a supercar. It signals that you are very wealthy.

Re: Lamborghini Is Forging Ahead with Forged Carbon Fiber

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're a company making Veblen goods, the last thing you want is to make something that's worth all that money. Then it's not a Veblen good any more!

If you're after performance, a shifter cart, well... especially a super kart will beat 99% of anything Ferrari and Lamborghini have produced, on almost any track. Superkarts even hold the outright lap records on some tracks, over F1 cars even. Shifter carts are reasonably cheap and they're a hell of a lot of fun and adrenaline. If you truly like racing, that's where a lot of the F1 guys start their careers. Not the s…

They are really hard to drive. A quarter inch of steering input goes a long way on those things. I will never drive another one. Its mental.

Re: Lamborghini Is Forging Ahead with Forged Carbon Fiber

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Has Lamborghini ever made a car that had actual technical merit as a racecar? There's a GT3 version of the Huracan, that's all I've seen. http://squadracorse.lamborghini.com/en/cars/huracan-gt3/over...

There were 5 of them that competed in this year's 24 Hours of Daytona, and Lambo is looking at an LMP1 car for Le Mans next year.

That's right! I watched a lot of Le Mans this year but I was mostly focused on GTE Pro and GTA Am when I found out DHH was racing.

I hope Ford does a LMP1 next year, too.

Re: Lamborghini Is Forging Ahead with Forged Carbon Fiber

#74

I would predict that this manufacture method, with many small cut-up pieces of carbon, is going to produce relatively weak parts in comparison to equivalent twill prepreg, thus you'll need more carbon to reach the same strength and it will be heavier. Carbon is good in tension because you're pulling a whole bunch of atomically perfect lightweight strings, but when you have chopped up fragments like this you're really…

It's just marketing. The buyers know about as much materials science as the average office worker and will not have a clue about what the real applications of carbon fiber are like. They simply associate carbon fiber with 'modern, good, expensive, strong'.

Most likely they would not be able to appreciate your comment.

At a sailmaker where I worked in NL we worked on laying carbon fiber manually and laminating it to make sails that had almost no stretch for race applications, your comment is spot on and exactly why this whole exercise is pointless. It's all about getting long strands of fiber along stress lines and to make them denser where the stress is highest, a pour like described in the article negates a whole pile of the advantages that carbon fiber has. But it's a lot more efficient than laying long fibers and it still uses the same material so it will be sold.

Re: Lamborghini Is Forging Ahead with Forged Carbon Fiber

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which bike are you looking at? The 1299 Panigale S is $25,500. The Superleggerra 1199 (only 500 made) was 70k+.

I don't know how we got to talking about this, but Honda makes a road legal MotoGP replica* bike for $184k. *Minus the pneumatic valves and probably a few other things.

Oh, I was specifically asking about Ducati since that's what was mentioned.

The replica bike you mentioned is a huge disappointment for one reason: "Europe and Australia are offered a 160 hp version, the American market gets roughly 100 hp and in Japan, it's an even paltrier 70 hp." Unless you live in Europe, you have to spend another $10,000+ to get it back up to spec.

I'd rather get a Desmosedici, I think.

Re: Lamborghini Is Forging Ahead with Forged Carbon Fiber

#76
post #30
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing to understand is that a lot of new wealth is not in Western nations and some, regardless of where they live, have access to where they can play with their toys. Throw in exclusivity which some makers exploit by having limited run versions. While the prices are silly, one can ask why would anyone pay more than 20k for car when that can buy you safety and comfort for four? Just like my impulse purchases can b…

Exactly. Luxury good manufacturers have recognized this trend a while ago, that the nouveau riche from non-western countries have a tendency to purchase all these toys in a me-too competition with their counterparts in the west. Its a shame since I would expect them to have better sense than that to have accumulated that much wealth. Then again, its their money so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Depends what you think the purpose of having wealth is. Why can't it just be the means to the end of having more toys?

Especially when the wealth is inherited or kleptocratic.

Re: Lamborghini Is Forging Ahead with Forged Carbon Fiber

#77
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One number I've heard cited is that one track mile equals three street miles. So an engine that you might expect to last perhaps 300k miles before it was a bit tired would only last 100k track miles. Actual racecar engines are rebuilt very frequently (same for dirtbike motors, etc). "sports cars" (Miata, Corvette, whatever) are going to be like any other street car in terms of longevity, but something like a Ferrari…

>One number I've heard cited is that one track mile equals three street miles That is most certainly wrong, depending on how you drive on the street, unless you're the guy/lady in the 5,000lb SUV flooring it and slamming on the breaks between every stop light then maybe. I have some experience with track cars, even a long time ago was involved in Allison Legacy racing--those cars use an engine straight out of a Mazda…

To provide a counter point a friend raced a worked 2L ford escort which was rebuilt every year or 2 and trailered to and from the track. It was not driven often. It was 200bhp. That poor little motor was wringing every bit of power it could, and the bills let you know it.

Re: Lamborghini Is Forging Ahead with Forged Carbon Fiber

#78
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern modern ones are a bit cramped but are as practical as any other sports car (that is, not particularly.) There is a Lamborghini series (super trofeo) but not much beyond that. I rarely even see them at track days. Quattro drive (or whatever it is called now) is not really awesome for road racing. It causes too much understeer. That said, I heard the Huracan is much better than previous cars. (I own and have tra…

Its hard to beat a 911 gt3 cup. Well, the miata might but it fares better than any supercar. They are affordable and don't cost that much to operate. Its a Porsche so the thing is reliable. Its hard to top the spec miata if you are doing club racing. I think the Porsche can offer somehow similar enjoyment while being faster. If you are feeling lucky then try out rallying. A miata will also work but its quite a differ…

A gt3cup is expensive to maintain. IIRC 100k/yr for engine and trans rebuilds.

(I have a GT4 car from another mfg and it is much less onerous)

Re: Lamborghini Is Forging Ahead with Forged Carbon Fiber

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's funny about supercars is you rarely see them on the track. It's the folks out there with their spec Miatas having all the fun. I've passed more 100k+ Vipers, M5s and Ferraris on track day in a first-gen 130bhp Miata than I can remember. Working on a Chump car ( http://www.chumpcar.com/ ) build with my brothers now. I've met people racing in that series who've owned every supercar imaginable. But when it's a be…

If you take your car on the track there's a very high probability it will get seriously fucked up. Unless you're cruising around casually you're going to be taking chances, and when you take chances you'll eventually go off the road, grind into something, or worse. Fixing your Porsche is expensive. Fixing your Ferrari is stupidly expensive. If you want to have fun on the track take out a car you can afford to wreck.…

That said, you will find yourself backwards in a 911 at some point and wonder why. There is something to be said for front engine cars for non-pros.

Re: Lamborghini Is Forging Ahead with Forged Carbon Fiber

#80
post #2

Has Lamborghini ever made a car that had actual technical merit as a racecar? I'm general, supercars are vastly overpriced for what you get. You can easily crush most for a fraction of the price with a dedicated track car. But simultaneously, no supercars are remotely practical on the road, and in fact are not even fun to drive on the street because of speed limits. Some supercars have been a good investment, such as…

If you are a male, attracting females is a lot easier if you own a supercar. It signals that you are very wealthy.

Maybe this is a case of sour grapes, but I shudder at the thought of what kind of females one attracts with a supercar...
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