Ok, I know this is a dumb question, but Ive really been wanting to know. Ive seen all the dash kits, with the "real" and "synthetic"..but WHAT is real carbon fiber? Is it a metal?
Btw, I really like the looks of Oriefs and Hazes..
Haze, I saw the pic of your dash, I REALLY like it, it kinda looks like the grid pattern on the 88's...where did you get it?

When I raced R/C cars, one of the upgrades was to a carbon fiber chasis from a fiber glass one. It is basically like fiberglass, but with a different cloth used in the resin. The big problem was in the on-road cars I raced, the battery cells were strapped directly to the chasis. If the shrink wrap on the battery cells got damaged, they would actually short out in the carbon fiber because it conducted electricity pretty good. Compared to fiberglass, it was about twice to three times stiffer which made for a more consistant car setup. Of course, it costed about twice as much as the 'glass ones, but they did not break nearly as easily (I was tough on the equipment!)

I dont know much about it but its very strong and extremely light. They even make leaf springs and drive shafts out of it. Exotic cars like Lamborghini started making their interiors out of it to save weight. So people started using it in their cars for the same exotic look.
You can get just about anything made out of carbon fiber these days. It's just so damn expensive. The cloth itself isn't terribly expensive but it's very difficult to work with.

Not exactly positive about this but I seem to remember that it starts out as some sort of "glass" cloth. They then some how burn it (hence the name carbon) to remove material and only leave the structural part of the cloth.

Real carbon fiber is layed up to form whatever part about the same as fiberglass. It's then baked at some rediculously high temp to cook it into carbon. It's usually a woven cloth in it's raw form and retains a whoven appearance when finished.

Fake, "synthetic" stuff is usually a simple laminate that is glued to whatever flat surface to give it the look of the above. It is not actually a carbon fiber material.

This should explain it.
http://www.psrc.usm.edu/macrog/carfib.htm http://www.psrc.usm.edu/macrog/carfsyn.htm

They make the fiber, weave it into mesh, and set it in resin like fiberglass to make a product.

I race R/C cars as well, Cooter. It's amazing the materials they use. The cars themselves are blistering fast! My Losi XX4 has a graphite chassis with carbon fiber control arms. The shack shafts, hinge pins, tie-rods and turnbuckles are all titanium. Did I mention I have about $800 into just that one car? If I sat down and figured up how much money I have in all of my r/c cars and equipment I would prolly passout!

Pontiaddict,

boy don't try to read those if your tired..... all those hexs will make you eyes ache.