Sesto Elemento: When Lamborghini wanted to lose weight.

Introduction

The Lamborghini Sesto Elemento is one of the lightest, fastest and most advanced cars Lamborghini has ever produced, and today, we are about to find out exactly what made this car so special.

Part One: History

In 2010 the Sesto Elemento at the Paris Motor Show unveiled.

The reaction to the Sesto Elemento was incredible at best, Top Gear called it a \”supercar rehab) and Motor Trend highlighted Lamborghini\’s carbon fibre technology.

Lamborghini roots

The Sesto Elemento is based on the already incredible Lamborghini Gallardo this means that both cars use the same highly rated 5.2L V10 engine later used on the Lamborghini Huracan.

With a highly improved V10 and a carbon fibre body, the Sesto Elemnto has incredible power and performance among many hyper and supercars.

On the surface, these are the specs

A 5.2L V10 engine producing 570 HP at 8,000 rpm

540 Nm of torque

0-62 (100KM/H) MPH in 2.5 Seconds

Top speed of 240 MPH (387 KM/H) EST

6-speed E-Gear semi-automatic transmission.

All-Wheel-Drive

Now enough with the surface details and let\’s dive much deeper.

Part Two: Name

To truly understand the Sesto Elemnto, we first need to understand its name and just like the koenigsegg One:1 it has a good reason behind its name.

The \”sesto\” means sixth\” in Italian and \”elemento\” simply means element.

The sixth element in the periodic table is—yep, you guessed it—carbon, which happens to be what this car is entirly made of.

This shows the dedication and effort Lamborghini put into this car to be worthy of its name.

Part Three: The Heart Of the bull

As I\’ve mentioned above the Sesto shares the same engine as the LP 570-4 Gallardo and the Huracan. 

Lamborghini kept the naturally apsirated engine as it is with the same 570 HP and 540 Nm of torque.

Nonetheless the engine is a masterpiece as the block was made from Cast aluminium alloy with integrated silicon for lightness and thermal stability.

In addition, it has a forged steel crankshaft, forged aluminium pistons and Fracture-split forged steel conrods for precise fit and strength.

Sound of the bull

For those of you who are wondering how the Sesto Elemento sounds, well, take a listen yourself!

But to make the car go faster lamborghini focused on more on the body than the heart.

The Sesto\’s exhuast is made of a special matrial called Pyrosic. Pyrosic is basically an exceptional glass-ceramic composite with high heat resistance developed by Pyromeral Systems.

It is relatively new to the automotive world and was first used in Formula 1 and then on the Sesto Elemnto.

Other than the exceptional materials, the exhaust\’s design is not less impressive.

Lamborghini intergrated two exhaust outlets into the rear wing supports, this great placement has two roles. First, it will help with disspansing the heat and second it makes the car look aggressive as it actually is.

For those who are asking what are those hexagonal vents, well these vents are for cooling the massive 5.2L V10 and improves the car\’s look.

Part Four: Body of a cheetah

What turly made the Sesto elemento great is its lightweight body and Formula 1 inspiration.

For starters, the Sesto Elemento was the first car in the world to be made entirely out of forged carbon fiber.

Formula One mostly inspired this since Lamborghini used carbon fibre monocoque chassis for the Sesto Elemento. Other than that, Lamborghini partnered with Boing, yes the company that builds planes to develop forged carbon fibre.

What\’s great about forged carbon fiber is that it is lighter and faster to manufacture, yet still incredibly strong compared to woven carbon sheets used in F1.

Lamborghini used carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) throughout the entire car, including body panels, suspension mounts, interior, prop shaft, and even wheels. Lamborghini went absolutely crazy with this car.

The Sesto Elemento uses more carbon fiber composite than the 2024 Mclaren F1 MCL38 car, Which, according to Mclaren, carbon fiber composite is only used for the monocoque chassis and bodywork.

I mean, that\’s crazy imagine owning a car that has more carbon fiber composite than a FORMULA1 CAR!

Anyway, after using almost all of the carbon at Lamborghini HQ the final result was incredible.

The Sesto Elemento only weighed 999 kg. Yes, you read that right—999 kg. This means it is only around 100kg heavier than an F1 car.

This is by far the lightest car Lamborghini has ever produced and lightweight means speed. oh boy, was this car fast, but later, its time to see the inside of the car.

Aerodynamics

To make the Sesto fast around corners, Lamborghini needed to make great aerodynamics features and they did.

Lamborghini created three distinct aerodynamic features which are, First, The Venturi Tunnel. This tunnel is located under the rear end and what it dose is that it creates a low-pressure zone that would increase downforce, and enhance and grip at high speeds.

Second, Lamborghini has sculpted the Sesto\’s sides into sharp wedge-like forms, improving the car\’s aerodynamics by minimising air resistance and directing airflow around its body.

Third, the rear wing has improved the car\’s aerodynamics drastically since it\’s integrated with the diffuser and central air deflector, this improved the car\’s stability especially at high speeds.

Talking about stability at high speeds, the Sesto Elemento is equipped with high-performance carbon-ceramic ventilated disc brakes. These carbon brakes are absolutely great at handling high temperatures, which is very important at intense track sessions, if anyone is crazy enough to push their limited 20-unit car to its absolute limits.

Part Five: No air conditioning!

As you can see in the picture above, Lamborghini went with a very minimalist approach to the Sesto\’s interior. It basically has no air conditioning (good luck driving it in the summer), no dashboard, and no infotainment system, so no music or Apple/android car play. Although not sure that anyone would use these features in track-only limited car like this.

In addition, the Sesto Elemento doesn\’t have normal seats with frames and what not, rather Lamborghini decided to just get some foam padding and stick it on top of the carbon fiber and called it a day. they can, of course, do that to lose weight as you have guessed already.

The best of the interior is the absolutely beautiful look of the exposed carbon fiber. It\’s just insane and truly shows the dedication Lamborghini has put into this beautiful machine. Can\’t imagine how it feels to drive such a car around a racing track.

Talking about the racing track let\’s jump to this car\’s insane performance.

PART SIX: Unleash the bull

With a 5.2-litre naturally aspirated V10 that\’s pushing an impressive 570 hp at only 999 kg, the Sesto Elemento had set some serious records.

The Sesto Elemento can do 0-60 in just 2.5 Seconds. This is as fast as a Koenigsegg Jesko, minus the weight and Power, but there is no official answer to its top speed due to its rarity, but Lamborghini claims that \”it far exceeds the top speed of 300 km/h.\”  and according to Wikipedia the Sesto Elemento has a top speed of 240MPH.

If this is true, then the Sesto Elemento could be the fastest car Lamborghini has ever produced up until now, but since there is nothing official than until now the Lamborghini Aventador LP 780-4 Ultimae is the fastest Lamborghini with a top speed of 221 MPH.

Lap records

Let\’s leave the top speed argument behind and focus on an official record, and that is Top Gear Track lap times. According to Top Gear, the Sesto Elemento was driven by the stig has set a time of 1:14.00 around their track which was 0.2 faster than the La Ferrari. This is what happens when you mess with a tractor company.

A quick fun fact on the topic of Lamborghini vs Ferrari, the Sesto Elemento was created to rival the Ferrari Millechili. A concept car, Ferrari was created with a target weight of only 1000kg, then Lamborghini decided to go 1kg lighter just to prove why you shouldn\’t mess with the tractor company.

Competitors

In the world of high-performance and adrenaline-fueled supercars, everyone wants to be the fastest, and this leads to competitors, and the Sesto Elemento had a couple worthy ones.

Name	Unveiling	Horsepower	0-60 (MPH) seconds	Top speed (MPH)	Rarity (Units)	Price (official price)
Lamborghini Sesto Elemento	2010	562	2.5	217 – 240 (estimated)	20	$2.92 million
Ferrari Millechili (Concept)	2007	600	3.5S (est)	225 (claimed)	1 concept model	Not for sale
McLaren P1	2013	903	2.8	217	375	$1.3 million
Porsche 918 Spyder	2013	887	2.6	211	918	$845,000
Bugatti Veyron Super Sport	2010	1,200	2.5	268	450	$2.6 million
Pagani Huayra	2011	791	3.0	230	100	$1.4 million
Aston Martin One-77	2009	750	3.5	220	77	£1.15 million
Koenigsegg Agera RS	2015	1,160	2.8	277.9	25	$2.5 million
Lotus Evija (all electric)	2019	2,012	2.8	218	130	$2.3 million

Changing the world

Many people might see the Sesto Elemento and think it\’s just like any other fast and expensive supercar, but that couldn\’t be further from the truth.

The Sesto has revolutionised the usage of CFRP in the automotive world, and it was one of the very few cars that had the support of aerospace companies like Boeing.

Lamborghini also proved that you don\’t need a lot of power to create a fast car; rather than weight is weight that truly determines the car\’s performance. In Sesto\’s case, the engine was never touched; rather, all the focus was on the body, and this was proven right when, while the Gallardo went 0-60 in 3.7 seconds, the Sesto had an impressive 2.5-second 0-60 record while having the same engine.

Price

A car with such great capabilities and rarity doesn’t come cheap, and even if you have the money, it won’t be easy to find one. The original price was set at $2.2M, with the latest listing going up to $ 3.4 M. Because of its rarity, it’s very hard to find public listings of the sesto elemento.

Conclusion

Overall, the Sesto Elemento is considered one of the lightest and fastest cars on the track, and this is due to its revolutionary engineering and technology.