• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

How much time do you shave off by changing to carbon fiber?

oiprocs

oiprocs

Diamond Member
Let's say your car does the 1/4 mile in 15 seconds. (10 if you're zanejohnson).

You replace every part of your car (everything feasible) to carbon fiber.

How fast can you now run the 1/4 mile?
 
Too many unknowns in this equation. Weight to horsepower ratio cannot really be estimated without at the very least a baseline vehicle to attempt to theory craft with.
 
Originally posted by: Saga
Too many unknowns in this equation. Weight to horsepower ratio cannot really be estimated without at the very least a baseline vehicle to attempt to theory craft with.
Click to expand...

Okay, pick one. Civic? Accord? Impreza? Taurus?
 
What is your purpose? Are you stripping the car down purely to drag (no interior panels, removing shit like back seats, speakers/stereo, ac, etc?). I mean you can replace all the body panels and maybe wheels with carbon fiber, but an expert would have to come in and give you suggestions outside of that because I'm not sure what internal components it'd be strong enough to replace.

Take a base civic and strip it down to drag and replace the panels with carbon and you'd probably drop enough weight to make it significantly quicker, but you're going to see a greater overall performance increase from power train customization in the form of cams, gear ratios, exhaust, turbo's, etc. Hell, in the end throwing a twin turbo on a base civic would probably not only be cheaper but far more power efficient than replacing everything with carbon.

This question needs to be thought out a bit more I suggest.
 
Actually, I saw a G35 with a carbon fiber hood. So I thought, I wonder how much time that really saves.

Then I wondered if the whole car was carbon fiber, how much time would be saved.

For the record, I drive a Civic that has no mods at all. Just plain Civic. And I don't intend to mod it.

I'm also not a gear head. I like to drive nice cars, and I like fast cars that look cool. But engine wise, I'm clueless. I don't change my oil or any of that basic stuff.

Let's not complicate this.

Let's take a 2002 Honda Civic Si. From Road and Track, the 0-60 is 7.6s, and the 1/4 mile is 15.8s.

Do NOTHING but make every possible part carbon fiber.

What kind of decrease in time do you see?
 
Drive around with a half tank of gas and you have the same weight saving as with the carbon fiber hood.
 
Originally posted by: scorpious
Actually, I saw a G35 with a carbon fiber hood. So I thought, I wonder how much time that really saves.

Then I wondered if the whole car was carbon fiber, how much time would be saved.

For the record, I drive a Civic that has no mods at all. Just plain Civic. And I don't intend to mod it.

I'm also not a gear head. I like to drive nice cars, and I like fast cars that look cool. But engine wise, I'm clueless. I don't change my oil or any of that basic stuff.

Let's not complicate this.

Let's take a 2002 Honda Civic Si. From Road and Track, the 0-60 is 7.6s, and the 1/4 mile is 15.8s.

Do NOTHING but make every possible part carbon fiber.

What kind of decrease in time do you see?
Click to expand...

why dont you just do the math, go find out the weight/sq ft of carbon fiber then find the same for steel/plastic thats used in every single part of that civic. nobody in here is going to give u anything near accurate. all just a guess if thats what you're looking for
 
Originally posted by: scorpious
Actually, I saw a G35 with a carbon fiber hood. So I thought, I wonder how much time that really saves.

Then I wondered if the whole car was carbon fiber, how much time would be saved.

For the record, I drive a Civic that has no mods at all. Just plain Civic. And I don't intend to mod it.

I'm also not a gear head. I like to drive nice cars, and I like fast cars that look cool. But engine wise, I'm clueless. I don't change my oil or any of that basic stuff.

Let's not complicate this.

Let's take a 2002 Honda Civic Si. From Road and Track, the 0-60 is 7.6s, and the 1/4 mile is 15.8s.

Do NOTHING but make every possible part carbon fiber.

What kind of decrease in time do you see?
Click to expand...

You'll still be in mid 15s. If anything focus on handing - that generation SI is actually a lot of fun to drive (and the seats are awesome!), replacing stock body work with carbon fiber will have negligible performance gains and cost a ton of cash.

Think about how "slower" your car fees when you have a passenger in the car. That's about all the difference you'll be able to get.
 
Originally posted by: halik
Originally posted by: scorpious
Actually, I saw a G35 with a carbon fiber hood. So I thought, I wonder how much time that really saves.

Then I wondered if the whole car was carbon fiber, how much time would be saved.

For the record, I drive a Civic that has no mods at all. Just plain Civic. And I don't intend to mod it.

I'm also not a gear head. I like to drive nice cars, and I like fast cars that look cool. But engine wise, I'm clueless. I don't change my oil or any of that basic stuff.

Let's not complicate this.

Let's take a 2002 Honda Civic Si. From Road and Track, the 0-60 is 7.6s, and the 1/4 mile is 15.8s.

Do NOTHING but make every possible part carbon fiber.

What kind of decrease in time do you see?
Click to expand...

You'll still be in mid 15s. If anything focus on handing - that generation SI is actually a lot of fun to drive (and the seats are awesome!), replacing stock body work with carbon fiber will have negligible performance gains and cost a ton of cash.

Think about how "slower" your car fees when you have a passenger in the car. That's about all the difference you'll be able to get.
Click to expand...

Thank you. This is all I wanted. :beer:

The rest of you can suck my muffler.
 
I know for my car, the CF hoods don't actually save much weight at all but they do look cool. I think it's because my hood is aluminum though.
 
Originally posted by: scorpious
Originally posted by: halik
Originally posted by: scorpious
Actually, I saw a G35 with a carbon fiber hood. So I thought, I wonder how much time that really saves.

Then I wondered if the whole car was carbon fiber, how much time would be saved.

For the record, I drive a Civic that has no mods at all. Just plain Civic. And I don't intend to mod it.

I'm also not a gear head. I like to drive nice cars, and I like fast cars that look cool. But engine wise, I'm clueless. I don't change my oil or any of that basic stuff.

Let's not complicate this.

Let's take a 2002 Honda Civic Si. From Road and Track, the 0-60 is 7.6s, and the 1/4 mile is 15.8s.

Do NOTHING but make every possible part carbon fiber.

What kind of decrease in time do you see?
Click to expand...

You'll still be in mid 15s. If anything focus on handing - that generation SI is actually a lot of fun to drive (and the seats are awesome!), replacing stock body work with carbon fiber will have negligible performance gains and cost a ton of cash.

Think about how "slower" your car fees when you have a passenger in the car. That's about all the difference you'll be able to get.
Click to expand...

Thank you. This is all I wanted. :beer:

The rest of you can suck my muffler.
Click to expand...

if u wanted a random guess, why didn't you just guess yourself? you didn't equate carbon fiber to saving a little bit of weight?
 
Originally posted by: scorpious
Thank you. This is all I wanted. :beer:

The rest of you can suck my muffler.
Click to expand...

Including the person that answered your question with scientific backing?

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
the rule of thumb, IIRC, is about 0.1s for every 100lb drop.
Click to expand...

And that generation of Civic as well as the one before it, handles worse than the one two gens. ago, because of the switch from multi-link to Macpherson struts, but I won't bore you with technical stuff. Cars go vroom vroom...
 
Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
Originally posted by: scorpious
Originally posted by: halik
Originally posted by: scorpious
Actually, I saw a G35 with a carbon fiber hood. So I thought, I wonder how much time that really saves.

Then I wondered if the whole car was carbon fiber, how much time would be saved.

For the record, I drive a Civic that has no mods at all. Just plain Civic. And I don't intend to mod it.

I'm also not a gear head. I like to drive nice cars, and I like fast cars that look cool. But engine wise, I'm clueless. I don't change my oil or any of that basic stuff.

Let's not complicate this.

Let's take a 2002 Honda Civic Si. From Road and Track, the 0-60 is 7.6s, and the 1/4 mile is 15.8s.

Do NOTHING but make every possible part carbon fiber.

What kind of decrease in time do you see?
Click to expand...

You'll still be in mid 15s. If anything focus on handing - that generation SI is actually a lot of fun to drive (and the seats are awesome!), replacing stock body work with carbon fiber will have negligible performance gains and cost a ton of cash.

Think about how "slower" your car fees when you have a passenger in the car. That's about all the difference you'll be able to get.
Click to expand...

Thank you. This is all I wanted. :beer:

The rest of you can suck my muffler.
Click to expand...

if u wanted a random guess, why didn't you just guess yourself? you didn't equate carbon fiber to saving a little bit of weight?
Click to expand...

Well it's not as easy to do that, compared to say....equating foreign cars to a pile of doggy doo.
 
heres my guess, it'll be faster by 2 seconds, that wasn't so hard.

i just gave you my guess because i dont want you to tell me to suck your muffler
 
Originally posted by: scorpious
Originally posted by: Saga
Too many unknowns in this equation. Weight to horsepower ratio cannot really be estimated without at the very least a baseline vehicle to attempt to theory craft with.
Click to expand...

Okay, pick one. Civic? Accord? Impreza? Taurus?
Click to expand...

Depends on what the panels weighed before and after the swap.

100lbs of sprung weight is usually good for a tenth in the 1/4 mile.

Weight savings has much better bang for buck factors in road racing esp if unsprung and/or rotational weight.

Most would be better off losing weight off their bodies first, but most are doing it more for the looks or bragging rights.
 
lighten your car and it not only makes your car faster, but it will handle better.

it depends what you replace with carbon fiber, replacing stuff like mirrors and door panels is mostly for looks.

I've seen a few track car build threads, one where the owner chopped the entire roof of his car and replaced it with carbon fiber.
http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/8602/img3784d.jpg

think that car started at a little below 2,800lb, last time I checked he is at 2,000lb

a cheaper alternative to carbon fiber would just be plain fiberglass composite.
 
When I got the used OZ Ultraleggera off some guy from Craiglist (dude drove a S4), he was explaining to me how I can brake faster because the rims are so light you reduce a lot of rolling mass. I just laughed and gingerly mentioned it's going on a frigging 4000lb landboat aka E350 4Matic. I don't care if I save 20lb of rolling mass.
 
With my truck, if I replaced the hood, fenders, and bed with carbon fiber pieces... I'd probably go from 15.50@90 to 15.20@91. I'd just have a slightly lighter brick. Someone with a less brick like car and heavier sheet metal would gain more. Heck, if I was really worried about weight I'd get some cheapo trailer tail lights and just leave the bed at home and race bareback. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
With my truck, if I replaced the hood, fenders, and bed with carbon fiber pieces... I'd probably go from 15.50@90 to 15.20@91. I'd just have a slightly lighter brick. Someone with a less brick like car and heavier sheet metal would gain more. Heck, if I was really worried about weight I'd get some cheapo trailer tail lights and just leave the bed at home and race bareback. 🙂
Click to expand...

Why would you race a truck in the first place? Trying to impress your boyfriend by drag racing an old lady in a Toyota Corolla? 😛
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top