Lamborghini has today
released a second "teaser" image of the new concept
sports car it will debut at the Paris Motor Show that
will offer a close-up look at how the Sant'Agata
Bolognese firm perceives the future, notably in advances
in the use of carbon fibre. As well as the image
Lamborghini released the following text, its "manifesto
for the future", attributed to CEO Stefan Winkelmann:
"Lamborghini stands for
extreme and uncompromising super sports cars of the best
Italian tradition. Tradition as a value however, lives
at Lamborghini alongside innovation. We are redefining
the future of our super sports cars around the two main
reasons to buy: design and performance.
"Design has been and
always will be reason number one, and we will make sure
a Lamborghini will always be recognisable through its
significant stylistic features.
"Regarding performance, until few years ago priorities
were, in this order: top speed, acceleration and
handling. In recent years this has been changing.
Together with design, handling and acceleration are
becoming more important. Speed is not as important
anymore, because all super sports cars are exceeding
300km/h (186 mph) and this is a speed that you cannot
reach even on a racetrack, let alone normal roads. We
think it is time to make a shift and talk more about
handling and acceleration.
"The key factor in terms of better handling and
acceleration, meaning more immediate pleasure in
driving, is the power-to-weight ratio. This is not so
much about top speed and so the future will not be so
focused on increasing the power, even because CO2
emissions do play a role for supersportscars too. That
means the key is in reducing the weight. A crucial part
of this is to understand how to reduce the weight. From
the middle of the Eighties, the average weight of our
cars has increased by 500 kg because of active and
passive safety, comfort and emissions reduction issues,
and this is something that we have to change. Since we
cannot reduce safety or comfort in our cars, we have to
reduce the weight by using new materials.
"The magic word for this is 'carbon fibre'. We started
working with carbon fiber in Sant’Agata Bolognese over
thirty years ago and today, with our two laboratories in
Sant’Agata Bolognese and in Seattle, We are mastering a
broad range of technologies which put us in a leadership
position for low-volume production. Every new
Lamborghini will make the best use of carbon fibre to
reduce weight."
