High Performance Carbon Fiber & How Tuners Might Help the Environment

The other day, after returning from a trip out of town, I went to pick up my dogs from the kennel (they like to call it summer camp). As I parked on the street in this semi-industrial, older area of Long Beach, I happened to glance across the street and did the complete cartoon double take. Wha?

Sitting in front of this strip of anonymous looking workshops was a Datsun 2000, a gorgeous new Mazda RX-8 and a kitted out custom RX-7. I was drawn across the road like a magnet and was walking around all 3 cars like a complete idiot. How many girls dressed like a cross between Olive Oyl and Frida Khalo show up at a tuner shop wanting to see more? Not many, I would imagine. A young employee came to the bay door and asked me if I wanted to come inside and see more. Of course, I did! Inside was a small army of mostly RX-7's stripped down and just waiting to be gussied up into the high performance sexy beasts that they can become. Ah- the smell of Bondo on a warm afternoon! The shop is called Asuka Designs. Here is a great video of the owner of Asuka explaining the benefit of carbon fiber bodies:

Now the interesting aspect of carbon fiber bodies is that they aren't just for the tuner crowd anymore. The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, along with Ford, GM and Daimler Chrysler are working to bring carbon fiber bodies to all cars at a lower cost. In an article by Physorg.com, spokesman Bob Norris for Oak Ridge Labs said:

"Whereas today the cost to purchase commercial-grade carbon fiber is between $8 and $10 per pound, the goal is to reduce that figure to between $3 and $5 per pound," said Norris, leader of ORNL's Polymer Matrix Composites Group. At that price, it would become feasible for automakers to use more than a million tons of composites – approximately 300 pounds of composites per vehicle – annually in the manufacturing of cars.

Carbon fiber is 1/5th the weight of ferrous counterparts used in automobile manufacturing while it has the same strength properties which if used in even half of the structural and semi-structural elements in a car can reduce the weight by 60% and reduce fuel consumption by 30%. Greenhouse gases and emissions could be reduced by as much as 10-20%.

Not only would these cheaper and strong fibers be made of recycled plastics, lignin from wood pulp and cellulose so therefor better for the environment, safety tests with the new fibers are showing that they are just as strong, if not stronger than ferrous materials. Cars made with plastic elements are neither as strong, good for the environment (PVCs keep us relying on the oil industry) and to a real car enthusiast- plastics, in my opinion, do not allow for good design integrity. Additionally, the better that they learn to make low-impact carbon fiber, the cheaper it will become which will inevitably lead to less expensive car that utilize any fuel source- especially alternative fuels.

Interestingly, although carbon fiber will eventually go down in cost to the manufacturer, don't expect to be getting a Tesla Roadster for any less than current retail price. Part of the development and sales of that vehicle are counting on lower manufacturing cost of both the carbon fiber body and the batteries so that eventually, they will be actually able to make a profit on the high performance Roadster.

So while you may chuckle at the kids and older kids driving around in a tricked out tuner with a tail end that makes their car look like a grocery cart with a really big handle, many of the components that they are experimenting with to make their cars more high performance can change the way that all of our cars are made eventually to be lighter, meaner and greener.

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