Performance Parts Zone

I like carbon fiber as much as the next guy, but if you had asked me a year ago if I thought it would still be popular in 12 months, I would have told you “No”.  I thought it was a quick fad, some stylish addition to a car that has real purpose on a street car, except for looks.  I was wrong.  It seems there is no end in sight as to where the carbon fiber market is going.  Carbon Fiber Hoods, Trunk Lids, Fenders, and even Carbon Fiber Doors are only growing in popularity.  More and more manufacturers are jumping on board and offering almost any imaginable piece in carbon fiber.  Exterior, interior, under the hood, or in your trunk, any stationary part on your car can be made from carbon fiber. 

Unfortunately, thanks to the airline industry, carbon fiber material has been hard to come by, thus skyrocketing prices and lowering production of parts in high demand.  It sucks for auto enthusiasts, but, not to fear, the end may be in sight.  Rumors have it that manufacturers of carbon fiber materials have been upping production for several months now and we should see prices start to drop very soon. 

With that said, i’m looking forward to seeing what happens in ‘07 with it.  I think we are going to see more c/f wheels and roof skins being made and probably even see more replacement body panels.

Any thoughts?

We have finished our BMW M3 project and it is now ready for the SEMA show in November.  This was a tough build because we had to go a step further than just adding a body kit, we cut the roof off of the car.  Never fear though, we successfully installed the carbon fiber roof, hood, and trunk lid with minimal fitment issues that were easily resolved.  The 19″ wheels, the sparcos, the black grill, and some of the paint work all added up to a wild, yet very clean show car. The Supercharger, exhaust, and big brake kit make it possible for the performance to match the looks.  The car posed a whole new set of challenges than the Japanese cars we have spent the mojority of our time building, but all in all, it was a great learning experience and we look fwd to building another European car in the near future.  Heres a few pictures of the car and more will be posted when we get our photographer in town to shoot the professional shots.

Whats the deal with Carbon Fiber (C/F) these days?  It seems as though its everywhere in the automotive industry.  The question is, why?  Is it because of its performance benefits? Or maybe because its the latest trend in styling made popular by many Japanese race cars.  Can it be both?  I dont know that it can, and here is why.

I just dont buy into the whole, “I put a Carbon Fiber hood on my car to save weight as i drive to school and work everyday a little bit faster” way of thinking.  Don’t get me wrong, i like C/F (more on this later), but as a performance enhancement on a daily driven car, come on, seriously.  Carbon Fiber is used in F1 cars, Time Attack Cars, and now in airplanes. Why?, because its lightweight, strong, and stiff.  Entire car bodys are formed in C/F for the Time Attack cars, the cockpits in F1 cars are entirely C/F.  In both cases, its for the huge gains that can be had by simply reducing the vehicle weight.  Carbon Fiber weighs 1/5 of what steel does and is still considerably lighter than aluminum.  Of course, C/F also costs almost 5x as much to produce as aluminum, which is why you dont see it in mass production coming out  of Nissan, Mazda, or any of the other car manufacturers. 

Carbon Fiber for looks? I can buy that.  Like i said earlier, i like C/F, i have a C/F Hood on my car and love the way it looks.  It’s obvious that young tuners across the world like C/F for its aesthetic qualitys.  The weave, the offset of color, the clear coat on top, all lead to a visually appealing modification to any car.  Carbon Fiber for looks is fine by me, but please dont tell me you want a C/F hood on your car to make it faster.  Especially after you just showed me the crazy fiberglass stereo install you did.

Carbon Fiber right now is currently becoming hard to come by. Several airplane manufacturers have been buying all the raw C/F material they can to build a new era of airplanes out of them.  This has caused C/F prices to soar and while they have leveled out, it doesnt appear that prices will be coming down on it anytime soon.  In my opinion, this is going to increase the popularity of C/F among tuners.  It was just about played out, everyone had it, but now its not going to be so easy to get.  Like any market, low availability drives what’s hot and what’s not.  The C/F market is no different and if you are going to stay on top of the game, put together your C/F wish list now and start saving.

We are about to start the buildup of an 04 Mazda RX8.  I figured i’d let you guys in on it from the beginning, so feel free to subscribe and check back for updates and pictures as we build this car with the ultimate goal of a magazine feature.
We want this car to have a clean look with a hint of race car attitude, but we also want the car to have some power to back up its styling.  The car came to us with a set of 20” HPD MSR wheels, Mazdaspeed replica body kit, a Seibon Carbon Fiber Hood, and a Magnaflow Exhaust already installed on it.  We may leave the hood, and even the body kit, but the wheels have to go because they just don’t work with our theme for the car.  We have yet to decide what performance parts we want to use and that’s where we would love to hear from you.  Let us know what you think we should use in the build-up of this car. Give us your thoughts on exterior styling, performance parts, and suspension pieces.  For the next month or so we will be sourcing parts, so send us your suggestions soon. 
More to come soon….
 

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