Coming to a 2035 Corvette Near You? Lamborghini Debuts Active Alignment Technology

The democratization of speed has been the Chevrolet Corvette’s primary function since its inception, and in years starting with a “2,” that’s never been more true. With General Motors’ engineering might and economics of scale behind it, America’s Favorite Sports Car is a consistent bet to be the first mass-market vehicle to hit specific speed benchmarks or offer a given technology.

The C5 pioneered the Magnetic Ride Control that can now be found on everything from Ferraris to fast Fords. The 2001-04 Z06 brought McLaren F1-style titanium exhaust to Average Joes around the nation and wrapped its production with the first major carbon fiber body component ever offered by a domestic automaker. While the 405-horse C5Z was reaching these milestones, Maranello wowed the world with the 650-HP Enzo hypercar, complete with ceramic brakes. That unobtanium piece of exotica served as a target for the 2009 ZR1 which would share the Enzo’s brakes, come within 12 ponies of its peak power, and topped 200 mph for around $100k. This trend has continued to the point where Chevrolet now offers a Porsche 918 Spyder lite in the same portfolio as a ‘Vette that’s veered so close to (and arguably overtaken) its supercar yardstick that you can’t even bring up the C8 Z06 without first mentioning the sublime Ferrari 458 Italia/Speciale that inspired it – think Kobe/Jordan.

All of that is to say that anyone wanting a sneak peek of the Chevrolet showroom 5-10 years from now needn’t look any further than the current state of the $500,000 – $1,000,000 market. In recent weeks, there’s been a lot of chatter around the interwebs concerning the impending C8 ZR1 finally getting active aerodynamics, à la the McLaren P1. We’ve been following GM’s flirtations with that tech since 2019, and we already crossed DCTs, Carbon wheels, and Cup 2 Rs off of our wish list, so we’re ready for the next thing. This could come in the form of four-wheel steering like Porsche’s GT department uses to “shrink” the chassis of its most hard-core track cars, but as GM already played around with and subsequently abandoned “Quadrasteer” in the 2000s, we don’t know if an internal-combustion ‘Vette will be Crabwalking anytime soon.

But, what about this: Lamborghini pulled the cover off of a tremendously interesting Huracán mule this week. Instead of needing its alignment adjusted for max-attack situations, this Lambo can actively regulate the toe and camber angle of all four of its tires… on the fly! That’s right, to keep the maximum amount of rubber in contact with the road in all situations, the Raging Bull’s new Active Wheel Carrier (AWC) is able to adapt suspension geometry up to 60 times per second! By maximizing contact patches, “journalists testing the car improved their lap times by 4.8 seconds, and Lamborghini’s own test drivers saw a 2.8-second reduction in lap times when AWC was on,” per Hagerty and the Overdrive YouTube Channel. While the mechanism behind AWC looks like a potential long-term service liability, its results speak for themselves and should, at minimum, make its way to the Corvette Team’s exploratory folder for future Crossed Flags applications.

Source:
OVERDRIVE YouTube Channel

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