Callaway Partners With Lamborghini

[GolfSpy_X]

Forged Composite. If you are golfer and you don't know those words, Callaway Golf is looking to change that. Preferably by the time you begin your holiday shopping. Source: lamborghini.com

 

Looking to rev up slumping sales in the beleaguered golf industry, the company announced today a strategic partnership with automaker Lamborghini in a quest to find the strongest, lightest and most durable materials.

 

The alliance was announced at the by Automobili Lamborghini President and CEO Stephan Winkelmann and George Fellows, President and CEO, Callaway Golf [

 

In a joint statement the companies said the agreement will allow their R&D teams to “collaborate and develop innovative technologies and materials designed to enhance the performance of each company's products”.

 

For Lamborghini, a partnership with a golf manufacturing company is a natural fit. “We see power-to-weight ratio and weight reduction as the keys for future super-sportscars and carbon fiber as the material to achieve these goals” said Winkelmann. “Callaway's expertise in specific technologies is strategic for our research projects.”

 

For Callaway, it's hoping to lead the golf industry down a new path and give golfers a reason to trade in that old driver for a new one. Callaway is well known for setting trends in the marketplace, first with the original Big Bertha (made of steel) 20 years ago and later with oversized titanium drivers via the Great Big Bertha in 1995.

 

Titanium is now the dominant material design with over 95 percent of all drivers on the market today made with an all-titanium construction.

 

 

Callaway has long been looking for the next great material. Recently, carbon fiber materials have been the focus, with lighter and stronger metal alloys compared to titanium. The problem has been precision, which carbon fiber lacks. The company hopes it has found the answer in Forged Composite, the first material to result in its collaboration with Lamborghini.

 

Callaway says the material is the lightest, strongest and most precise material it has ever employed. Despite having just one-third the density of titanium, Forged Composite allows for a greater load carrying capacity per unit mass in bending. For golfers, that means greater power upon impact, resulting in longer and straighter drives.

 

Lamborghini is using the Paris Motor Show to unveil the Sesto Elemento, its first design made using the new material.

 

“The introduction of the Forged Composite technology allowed Lamborghini to realize the monocoque and the suspension arms of the Sesto Elemento with groundbreaking quality and costs levels,” said Maurizio Reggiani, Director Research and Development of Lamborghini. “Our next challenge is to make this technology a standard for low volume productions.”

 

As for Callaway, it's betting big that Forged Composite will forever change the way it makes golf clubs going forward. For now, it's already changing how the company does business—for the first time since 1995, Callaway will not be offering an all-titanium design in its upcoming product line.

 

The new Forged Composite driver is being released in November—you guessed it—just in time for the holiday shopping season.

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39438628

[jamo]

You'd think they would team up with a company that specializes in actually making the composites. I assume Lambo doesn't actually design their own composites, no? Seems like a marketing move, though a smart one at that.

[bcgolf]

Behold the new Lamborghini Seste Elemento Concept car!

It weighs less than a 1000kg due to use of carbon and composite materials. So maybe they do know something about the subject ?

 

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[Justin66]

How much different can these be compared to the FT-3... the first to use a composite crown? As for the car, they're using composites in areas they never used it before- that doesn't mean they found some new (or at least, improved) material.

 

Not only that, there's a limit to how much this stuff will improve someone's game. Getting the CG or the club equal to or lower than the CG of the ball has an effect on feel... that's it. Loft, face angle, swing path and clubhead speed are the important variables to distance (with horizontal bulge, vertical roll and MOI secondary). If you're someone with a decent-to-good swing, there's no difference... with the lone caveat being switching from an unfitted driver to a fitted one. If you've got a terrible swing, there's no "magic cure".

 

So basically, with the exception of driver length (I don't think they've gotten to 48"... yet), everything else about it is maxed out. Maybe not completely physically maxed out, but there isn't much difference from a driver with a COR of .823 and .83; or MOI of 5400 g*cm2 or 5900 g*cm2. Lowering the CG, as stated earlier, can be good for feel, but that's only for people that don't/can't hit the center of the face.

 

What's that leave us? Their drivers will most definitely have an "it" brand/model shaft. That alone will keep its price in the ~$400 area. Now we have the Lambo partnership. Lamballaway's "R&D" could justify (to use the term very loosely) another $100 towards the pricetag. We end up paying the same price as last year's (and those previous) for very little innovation. If people are so psyched about this club, why don't they just buy the FT-iz... or wait 6-8 months and get this at a reduced cost?

 

Other than sole cosmetics, what difference is there? The little red "gills" don't do anything. The shape's the same; hosel's the same... If anything, you'll be getting the same club without doing massive damage to your wallet.