Reply to "Carbon parts"

Huh! Lot of movement here!

I absolutely understand some people doubts of what we are talking about here.

Jeff your right, like Larry says, the Pantera unibody will flex and distort when you just remove fenders, firewalls….with out any support. It would be a must to fix at least the suspension points in a jig to keep it straight. As soon the carbon replacements are in place and the structural adhesive is cured, the car is back with more stiffness than before. Carbon has a much better e-module (stiffness) in relation to his weight than the steel, used on the panels of the Panteras.
And Larry, I am totally agreed with you when you say a fancy “Super-duper-pink-fix everything-epoxy” wouldn’t do this job. We have to use structural adhesives witch are specially designed to bond composite materials to metal surfaces and its also important to make the right surface preparation prior to glue any parts together.
Also with the rivets I agree with you. Rivets may work to put GT4 flares to the car ore help to keep parts in place to let adhesives cure. All the forces in a structure have to be transferred from part to part. Rivets (and so welded points and bolts) can do that just in points and the forces have to go thru these points. In case of bonding you have surfaces do this job and so no high stressed points.

DeTom , you say: “the only way it works is to make the whole unibody one great big piece” YES this would bring the best performance. That’s exactly what they do in Formula one, Le Mans, GT, Indy and all the other $$$£££€€€ racing classes.
And with fire you bring in another important point. The carbon fibre it self’s doesn’t burn and it withstand extreme temperatures without loosing his fantastic mechanic properties. The brake discs of high performance race cars are made out of carbon... The problem with body parts in case of a fire is the resins in the composites (epoxy, vinylester or polyester). They will burn and worse, they will smoke, some of them toxic! To take care of these facts we use fire retarded resin systems like we have to use on any aircraft interior parts.

Kevin, at the same time we were at the “1993 Geneva Auto salon” with our Monteverdi project, De Tomaso was there with the SI (I am not 100% sure about the type but I’m sure SI Targa can sort this out for us). The carbon technology was already available in the 90` but to expensive for mass production and in this case, nothing changes since then.
The composite industry love to keep the “carbon is: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$” …

Dean, we actually produce a motorcycle carbon wheel set. It is used in the Moto GP class.
Just the rims for 3 piece wheels like BBS`s are no problem but full carbon wheels for a street driven car are much more difficult to make. The major problem is the heat from the brakes after a wild ride when there is no more cooling airflow to keep the temperatures in a range that the resin in the wheels can withstand.

I sure some of you are interested in these pictures of the main structure of the Monteverdi car.