Future materials in Ferrari future....

Ok, a former co-worker's son specializes in polymer / layered silicate nanocomposites with improved mechanical, thermal, fire and / or barrier properties, replica molding and soft lithography, pre-ceramic polymers and new polymer and hybrid synthesis. Wow, this sounds promising.

 

I was just reading about a colaboration between Lambo & Callaway Golf re new way to create CF parts called Forged Composites. Instead of laying down mats & pouring resin which takes a lot of time they put 1/2 " fiber strands into a resin slurry then pour it into a mold like Fglass. Takes much much less time & is cheaper but not as strong as regular CF

The trick is to get all the little fibers pointed in the right directions which is what they r working on now

 

Yeah, carbon fiber top end road bikes. If Trek can build the ultimate racing bike available to the gen public at < 15lbs then why not design a feather-light Ferrari? Lots of high-end bikes push the edge all the time & turn up racing Tour De France.
My GT "thermoplastic" STS was the top end bike in the day. Gotta love the "alien".
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The article said that Lambo used forged composites to build the cockpit of the Sesta concept car. It took a matter of minutes when doing it the regular way would have taken hours.

Maybe if they can somehow put an electrical charge in the resin or fibers they can get the fibers to all go in the same direction

 

what they really need to develop is anti radar technology. i'm tired of these $300 speeding tickets.

 

Thats what the track is for

 

I think it was in EVO several issues ago, I'll find it & post it when I get home

 

Well, one thing we know for sure is that weight savings is the new battle ground. The two straightest lines to better performance are A) more power B) reduced weight. In terms of power, Ferrari has done just an unbelievably superb job of extracting power from that marvelous little V8. Clearly, they are reaching a point of diminishing returns.

But, weight? That's another matter.

The fact that the new California weighs in at a porchetta-like 3,850 lbs is, frankly, an embarrassment (hell, my nine year-old Spyder weighs about the same.) Even the Italia, at 3,300 lbs., is about 100 lbs. heavier than the outgoing 430. That's not the direction Ferrari needs to be heading.

Lamborghini, with the Sesto Elemento, has fired a threatening salvo just over the heads of Ferrari's engineers. The SE, in contrast to the Italia, weighs in at an astonishingly light 2,200 lbs.--more than one-half ton less than Ferrari's latest-greatest.

That ultra-light curb weight of the SE mated to Lamborghini's requisite all-wheel drive is said to propel it from naught to 62MPH in 2.5 seconds. Uh, that's not too far from the performance of an F1 car...

Hello.
Maranello?
Are you listening?

 

we are having this very discussion in the 458 scuderia vs McLaren sports car thread. Ferrari has leveraged the next 5+ years with Aluminium technology, their biz model vs performance targets, while McL and Lambo are investing heavily in composite technology for their near future products. will be fascinating to see how things turn out...

 

Alum is good for racing applications bcus ALMS & LeMans series dont allow CF tubs in the class F races in

But if Lambo/Callaway/Boeing & othera are able to drop the price of making CF that could change things

 

Article I saw was actually in current POPULAR MECHANICS

 

Excellent point, William.

We need to remember that it is not always the best product that makes it into production. It is the product that can garner enough support to be manufactured in sufficient quantities to make it economically feasible.

In that regard, Lambo's decision to partner with Boeing on the new composites is genius. Boeing, vis a vis its relationship with the DOD, has far deeper pockets than Fiat.

And it calls into question Ferrari's reliance on F1 to be its primary "research lab" and the problematic, restrictive rules that come with F1 racing.

Lambo has no such rules with which to contend. It can pursue any technology it wants in any configuration it wants. And now that Lambo is part of a much larger automotive group, it has economies of scale to spread that tech over many brands and many products.