Wow. This is going to be a very impresive machine. It's running with 100, even 200+ k exotics. Looks like it will even give the crotch rockets a little scare as well. Even if it stickerd for 55-60k it would be a steal!!!! Good job GM!!!!! Now just bring us f-bod guys our Camaro/TA back (we want the old LS6 motor) .

 

Dunno about the "first CF body panel to ever be mass produced" thing..

 

It's all down to the quantity they're talking about when they say mass produced. I think Mclean Composites is making the hoods for the Z06, but it's really bullshit for GM to claim the mass production thing unless they quantify that claim with numbers..
Ferarri, Porsche, MG, and others have all used carbon in their production cars in years past. They just don't reach the same sales quantities of something in the Corvette price range. Shit, MG has a car that has a full carbon body, and it was for sale last year.

This hasn't been directed at Cobra4B at all, I know he's just passing on info from somewhere else, and so am I. I'm not stepping on anyone's toes, just correcting and adding to whatever media outlet said that GM's hood was the first panel, blah..

By the way, there is a reason that carbon panels have been slow to reach mass market status: They explode. If you hit a carbon bumper, fender, whatever (I'm not talking about a flimsy aftermarket carbon hood because they're primarily fiberglass) it will bend a little, then overload and catastrophically fail. This isn't good for panels that are meant to absorb impact, because carbon doesn't. It does one thing, and that is be stiff. This is why a lot of race panels have layers of kevlar, which is a lot better at absorbtion and also holds the carbon together when it explodes. Anyway, I'll stop now because no one probably cares.. =)

 

Actually... that's interesting. I guess I don't know a ton about carbon fiber other than the basics. So if I buy a CF hood it's not all CF?

 

Man chris knows his stuff on cf. (Can't wait until my cf roof and brake ducts are done!)

 

Nope, they usually only have one layer (top layer) of carbon, the rest is fiberglass. A pure carbon hood would be very expensive, and kind of pointless because a hood isn't structural anyway. Someone like ViS who sells hoods for $350 couldn't even buy the carbon fabric for that price to make a pure carbon hood, even in the quantities that ViS buys materials in. I'm talking thickness for thickness here, vs. a regular carbon hood.. Plus they use polyester resin instead of epoxy, so carbon hoods could be a lot stronger for their weight. Polyester is cheap, less roughly 1/3 to 1/2 the price of epoxy, but it's weak in comparison. Vinylester is somewhere in between for price and physical properties, but I don't know if anyone makes hoods with that. Most companies don't say..
The cool thing about fiberglass is it's cost. It's cheap, so a hood can be made to a decent thickness so it has some stiffness and impact resistance. Carbon is 20 to 100 per running yard in quantity, instead of 2 to 8 dollars per running yard per glass. This depends on fabric weave, weight, quality, etc., obviously..
Really you could make a fiberglass hood a lot stronger than a generic carbon hood, and the same weight, you just have to go about it the right way. This means no chopped strand mat, you have to use real fabric, following the same design rules as you would with carbon.
Someday I'll make a carbon and honeycomb hood, just for the hell of it. It won't need any bracing underneath, and it will be lighter than anything out there, and stronger and stiffer too. And I can make it for less than I can buy a decent hood for, because I supply the labor. But it would cost $1000 retail, roughly. Maybe more.

Sorry I'm longwinded, no one ever asks about this stuff, and it's fun to talk about..

 

You're roof is in the works for this weekend Jay.. =)
Well, assuming everything goes well with my test piece..