Lamborghini’s New Transverse DCT Is an Engineering Marvel
Lamborghini revealed drivetrain details for its upcoming plug-in hybrid V-12 flagship on Tuesday, giving us an thought of what to anticipate below the pores and skin of the Aventador’s 1001-hp successor, codenamed LB744.
The most important information is the addition of an all-new transverse eight-speed dual-clutch transmission mounted behind the engine, a primary for a V-12-powered Lamborghini. The gearbox’s design is extra groundbreaking than you would possibly assume, as we found-out first hand speaking to its engineers.
The Italian supercar maker went transverse with the LB744’s transmission for 2 causes, the primary being weight.
“We determined to do a transverse as a result of we are able to push the middle of gravity actually [to] the entrance,” Davide Bizzarri, head of movement at Lamborghini, informed Highway & Monitor at a preview occasion in Italy.
The second cause is packaging. If Lamborghini had gone with a extra conventional, longitudinally mounted transmission out again, the size of the LB744 would have been prolonged. With the compact transverse casing, engineers may additionally match a working diffuser with out having to spoil the automobile’s proportions.
The place the DCT actually will get attention-grabbing is the way it incorporates the electrical motor.
“Within the common case, you’ll put the e-motor between the engine output and the enter of the gearbox,” Lamborghini CTO Roven Mohr informed Highway & Monitor. “We determined to not go on this course. We’ve it in a unique place in a sort of facet shaft, and this place permits us in a really compact format to, on one hand, decouple the e-motor from the wheels, or from the engine.”
In different phrases, the Sant’Agata carmaker positioned the electrical motor on prime of the gearbox, impartial of the driveline. It has its personal shaft inside the transmission, with its personal fork and synchronizers. Relying on the drive mode or driving circumstances it might probably join with the wheels or the V-12 independently.
Permitting the e-motor to attach on to the wheels, independently of the engine, means the LB744 can keep its all-wheel-drive even in pure electrical mode. Conversely, the e-motor can connect with the V-12 with out having to additionally join itself to the wheels. Which means it might probably cost the battery utilizing the combustion engine with out the automobile in movement. Then there’s the traction management facet of all of it. Here is what Mohr informed us:
If as an example the motive force pushes the throttle and the engine produces extra energy than is de facto doable to switch to the wheels as a result of it is slippery, since you’re already on the traction restrict, then you need to use the e-motor to recuperate this extra energy that the combustion engine supplies. In an ordinary automobile, you’ll merely minimize [the engine] off. You utilize this to switch the power from the motor [to] the battery. It is a sort of intermediate power storage.
So as an alternative of chopping spark or utilizing the brakes to use traction management, Lamborghini has found a approach to make use of the electrical motor’s regenerative capabilities to not solely hold the automobile from ending up in a ditch, however utilizing the additional power from the V-12 that may in any other case be wasted and put it again into the battery. Genius.
There is a extra sensible facet of permitting the e-motor to spin the transmission impartial of the V-12, too. Whereas most producers are placing all their religion within the entrance wheels relating to full-electric mode and reverse, Lamborghini has a unique strategy.
“We put the capability to do reverse to the entrance axle however we had been actually scared, particularly when [the car is] parked downhill,” Bizzarri informed Highway & Monitor. “It is actually not good as a result of the entrance tires are smaller. So [with this setup] you might have the complete functionality of four-wheel-drive. Additionally if you reverse, we’ve this [e-motor] working in reverse.”
