Active aerodynamics and suspension, traction control, torque vectoring – those are all tactics with which computers have made cars faster. However, they still have to make the most of the point where the rubber meets the road, as Lamborghini has experimented with Active Alignment Control. , which already reduces the lap times of a prototype by several seconds.
Described as an “active wheel mount”, this generation was tested via Car and Driver on a Lamborghini Huracan Evo at Nardo’s curtain driving course in Italy. The appeal of such a formula is obvious: street alignment parameters compromise on-track performance, and vice versa. Extreme adjustments can also have an effect on handling, not to mention tire wear. But why make concessions when you can technify?
The active lineup was explained in the post through Lamborghini’s technical director, Rouven Mohr, who said Audi had already improved with the technology. It uses a new hub style with two swivel flanges driven through 48-volt motors for toe-in and bend configurations. They can replace convergence up to 6. 6 degrees and curvature up to 8, up to 5. 5 degrees of negative curvature, at speeds of up to 60 degrees per second. So everything reacts in the blink of an eye.
Toe-in is often kept at a neutral level of 0 for road vehicles to limit tire wear (this gives Rivian owners headaches), but some are useful for achieving the fastest lap time. Toe-in, with pizza-type tires instead of fried ones, increases stability, while toe-in (the other way around) improves agility. Camber, on the other hand, ensures that your car makes the most of its contact dominance when the frame turns in corners, even if you lose some straight-line stability. If a car can maintain all of those parameters in their ideal configuration in a corner, Lamborghini would claim it can increase cornering force by 25 percent.
As for what it does, Car and Driver said they felt more grip in the slower corners and more stability in the fast corners, which gave their driver the confidence to reduce his lap time to 4. 8 seconds. Even Lamborghini’s factory drivers benefited from this. , gaining 2. 8 seconds in one lap. This would constitute an improvement of around 2 cents over the entire lap, given a lap time of 2:36 set with the same Huracan Technica. It doesn’t look like much in pacon, it still lasts a minute as well.
Lamborghini sees other conceivable benefits of the system, ranging from the option of more balanced tire configurations to softer springs, increasing ride quality. Still, it’s incredibly complex and wants to be optimized along with other functionality improvements, from stability control to active aerodynamics, that the prototype supposedly didn’t have.
It’s unclear when the tech could first be used on a road car, but one candidate could be the Huracan’s successor. It’s expected to debut in 2024 with a twin-turbo V8, with a possible redline of 10,000 rpm and plug-in hybrid power. If the engine’s taking such a huge leap forward, one can’t help imagining the chassis will match its stride.
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