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The mood at this year’s Paris Motor Show: Quiet

The Paris Motor Show, held every other year in the early fall, typically kicks off the annual cavalcade of automotive conclaves, one that traverses the globe between autumn and spring, introducing projective, conceptual and production-ready vehicle models to the international automotive press, automotive aficionados and a public hungry for news of our increasingly futuristic mobility enterprise. But this year, at the press preview days for the show, the grounds of the Porte de Versailles convention center felt a bit more sparsely populated than usual. This was not simply a subjective sensation, or one influenced by the center's atypically dispersed assemblage of seven discrete buildings, which tends to spread out the cars and the crowds. There were not only fewer new vehicles being premiered in Paris this year, there were fewer manufacturers there to display them. Major mainstream European OEM stalwarts such as Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Nissan and Volkswagen chose to sit out Paris this year, as did boutique manufacturers like Bentley, Aston Martin and Lamborghini. This is not simply based in some antipathy on the part of the German, British and Italian manufacturers toward the French market — though for a variety of historical and societal reasons that market may be more dominated by vehicles produced domestically than others. Rather, it is part of a larger trend in the industry. Last year, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would not be participating in the flagship North American International Auto Show in 2019 — and that it might not return. Other brands including Jaguar/Land Rover, Audi, Porsche, Mazda and nearly every exotic carmaker have also departed the Detroit show. Some of these brands will still appear in the city in which the show is taking place, and host an event offsite, to capitalize on the presence of a large number of reporters in attendance. And even brands that do have a presence at the show have shifted their vehicle introductions to the days before the official press opening in an attempt to stand out from the crowd. In many ways, this makes sense. With an expanding number of automakers, with diversification and niche-ification of models and with wholesale shifts that necessitate the introduction of EV or autonomous sub-brands, there is a growing sense that, with everyone shouting at the same time, no one can be heard.

Lamborghini's path to the future is paved with forged composites

As far back as 1983, Lamborghini has been researching carbon fiber for automotive use. The automaker felt confident enough in its ability to work with the high-tech material in 1985 that a team led by Maurizio Reggiani, now the Lamborghini Board Member in charge of Research and Development, crafted a revolutionary Countach with a chassis made almost entirely of hand-laid carbon fiber. The result was spectacular in that the car's chassis weighed about half of its all-metal counterpart. It turned out that first foray into carbon fiber was just as spectacular when it was finally tested for crashworthiness, but in a completely different way. Catastrophic would be an appropriate word, according to Paolo Feraboli, who now leads Lambo's brand-new Advanced Composite Structures Laboratory in Seattle, Washington. Proving how far Lamborghini has come since that ill-fated carbon-fiber Countach Evoluzione, Feraboli told us during the ACSL's grand opening that today's Aventador, which boasts a high-tech carbon chassis, aced its very first crash test in 2009. Chalk that success up to high-tech computer modeling and the practical application of lessons learned over several decades of trial and error. The dull red monocoque of that crashed Aventador now hangs on the wall at the ACSL like a functional piece of art, a reminder of Lamborghini's cutting-edge milestones of the past. Lamborghini's future will be hewn from what the company calls forged composites. First seen on the stunning Sesto Elemento Concept from the 2010 Paris Motor Show, the patented carbon-forging process forgoes hand-laid sheets, injected resins, and high-heat autoclaves. Instead, wads of randomly oriented carbon fibers that sort of resemble the kind of dough you'd use to make pasta undergo a three-minute press inside a mold. The resulting parts are just as strong as other carbon-fiber bits, but can be mass-produced at a fraction of the cost. While it's true that cost is often a secondary consideration for high-end supercars, it's still relevant. By reducing the cost and increasing the scale of composite pieces, Lamborghini can then afford to spend more money on other parts of the car. It's not just body panels and chassis components that Lamborghini thinks it can build using forged composite technology. The Sesto Elemento featured forged-composite suspension control arms that haven't yet made it into production, but probably will soon.

Lamborghini unveils customer-commissioned one-off SC20 barchetta

Lamborghini unveiled the mysterious roof-less supercar it has been testing on and off the track for the past few months. Called SC20, it's a one-of-a-kind model positioned at the intersection of road cars and track cars. Developed by Squadra Corse, the firm's in-house racing division, the SC20 was built at the request of a customer who eagerly participated in nearly every step of the design process. Lamborghini explained the project's goal was to transfer some of the lessons it learned on the track (notably those related to aerodynamic technology) to a street-legal car that falls in line with its current design language without copying an existing model. Mitja Borkert, the head of the company's design department, cited the Diablo VT Roadster, the Aventador J, the Veneno Roadster, and the Concept S as sources of inspiration. Up front, the SC20 is less angular than the Aventador S, though it's still immediately recognizable as a member of the Lamborghini family, and its vents are modeled after the Huracan Evo GT3's. Out back, the rear lights are reminiscent of the ones fitted to the Sian, but the fascia wears a markedly more aggressive design that incorporates a sizable wing with three positions called low, medium and high load, respectively, a deep diffuser and vents that let hot air escape the engine bay. Viewed from the side, the SC20 is characterized by the complete lack of a windshield, a layout which provides an unobstructed view of the Alcantara upholstery on the dashboard and of the carbon fiber panel that covers the digital instrument cluster. All told, the SC20 is much closer to a barchetta than to a conventional convertible. Bare carbon fiber on the dashboard, the firewall, the door panels and the center console hints at the SC20's lightweight construction. Lamborghini used the composite material to make the seat shells, too, and it machined the door handles out of solid aluminum. The center console houses a slanted touchscreen which displays the infotainment software that the Italian company developed in-house and released on the Huracan Evo. Although the Aventador's replacement will go hybrid, the SC20 eschews electrification. It's powered by a naturally-aspirated 6.5-liter V12 which produces 770 horsepower at 8,500 rpm and 531 pound-feet of torque at 6,750 rpm. It spins the four wheels via an Independent Shifting Rod (ISR) seven-speed automatic transmission linked to a pair of shift paddles and a central electronic differential.