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Try as it might — no matter how much smoke and noise arose from his burnouts, the Top Gear hosts would not awaken from their drinking, revelry and eventual alcohol-induced slumber. Dejected, the 2011 Corvette Z06 Carbon sadly puttered home. More »
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Are you a track day fiend looking for a Corvette Z06 dressed up in carbon fiber tchotchkes and ceramic brakes like its bigger, badder brother, the Corvette ZR1? Enter the Corvette Z06 Carbon Edition. More »
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One of only two circular looms in the world is used to weave dual-tube carbon fiber components, like the A-pillar, on the Lexus LFA. It's obsessive attention to detail like this that explains the near $400,000 price. More »
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We've all seen cars with full-body advertising wraps; now tuner ABT Sportsline has taken the concept to its logical "modified import car enthusiast" (MICE) conclusion with a carbon fiber film wrap for the Audi R8 and Q7. The wrap is just a thin adhesive film printed and textured to be nearly indistinguishable from actual carbon fiber. And, while the treatment doesn't lighten the car like actual carbon fiber panels would, neither does it add any significant weight or drag like most MICE faux speed parts. ABT Sportsline is producing the wrap in just matte natural carbon fiber for the moment, but if sales take off the company says they may offer more colors and extend availability to the TT and A4 also. More »
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Yeah, so, that Car of the Future episode of Nova with Click and Clack just wasn't all that good, sorry about that. The episode should probably have been called "Moments of forced laughter from two funny old guys in between John Lithgow talking down to the viewer about the car of the future". However, buried in the muck and mire of that episode was an interesting segment about the Rocky Mountain Institute and their work with lightweight materials, like in their Hypercar above, built with all carbon fiber superstructures and components. More »
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Rather than focusing vehicle-development and alternative-energy resources on finding different kinds of fuel, students and researchers at Georgia Tech are taking a couple steps back and looking at the emissions problem. The project currently being worked on involves a car that still operates on standard liquid fuels, but the kicker is the carbon emissions. The car will collect those and shuttle them back to a processing plant that can convert them back into fuel, taking out two birds with one stone. More »
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Carbonetic is an offshoot of Across, which produces carbon-carbon composites using a patented method. The translation is that since they can make nearly anything out of carbon-carbon, they can also produce a series of clutches, limited slip differentials, and brake pads using the same stuff. What impressed us the most was the multiplate clutch setup. The usually heavy steel floater center plate discs in carbon-carbon weigh almost nothing. Picking one up makes for a hand does not believe the eye kind of thing. Carbonetic also has a line of single plate street clutches using sprung hubs and carbon composite for the under 500 horsepower cars out in the garage or driveway. [Carbonetic] More »
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