matrix

What the.....??? Rahul, when we first met, you told me you thought CF hoods where dangerous....had a change of thought???

1badride

The shop I am using has spent huge money on R&D to ensure safety on their products.

matrix

ahhh, so they are crash testing S2000s with CF hoods to ensure the crumple zones are still there and that no decapitations will happen right?

1badride

No, they are using a simulator to test the individual products...

Crashing S's would be even more expensive...

DoGMaN

Ya know it sounds like more R&D effort goes into Rahul's car than goes into the space shuttle.

I swear you could have bought GT2 by now with all the stuff you've done or want done to that car.

S2kRob

Here's what I got back from Hammerhead Aviation. They make CF plane parts. It has put my mind to ease. This and the fact that cars like the McLaren F1 and Pagani Zonda are 100% CF and two of the safest cars ever built. Done right, CF is a more effective crash absorbtion material than steel.

"Looking through the notes on crash worthiness, what your refering to are the crumple zones (dimples on the underside of the hood). The engineering behind crumple zones is really quite simple. We incorporated similar features into the Civic hoods when we designed them. In the case of our design the corners closest to the windshield and windshield pillars will break away first. The inner structure of the hood (what you don't see) is seemed just forward of the hinge mounts, it creates a stress riser that fails first in the event of impact. The stress riser was not engineered into the design to prevent the hood from coming through the windshield, which is near impossible since the addition of safety glass to the automotive industry, but to lessen the damage sustained to surronding structures in the event of impact. When a collision occurs the first thing you want to achive is the adsorbtion of energy as fast and efficiently as possible to lesson the damage to surrounding panels, and passengers which is dictated as much by the insurance companies as it is the DOT. Insurance companies hate to give you back your money it's unnatural to them, crumple zones result in lower repair costs to the insurance companies, our design simply follows that philosophy. As for the hood coming through the windshield and shearing your head off, the hoods would have to be built with so many layers of carbon to have that type of strength that it would defeat the purpose of building it out of a light weight material. No worries guys, we build airplanes for a living, Robert and Andrew don't leave a great deal to chance when it comes to survivability. Let me know if you have any other questions."

matrix

Rob...I never had a problem with CF products...Rahul did. My comments were fishing for what they were doing to "test" the products...

Which brings us back to well...how are they testing them for safety if they don't crash them?

Nabs 79

CAD-CAM?

Mindcore

badump bump

1badride

Holy shit...

You guys are freaks...

You're asking for too many details.

Looks like the decapitation thing was some rumor - started by Taylor probably...

The problem with saftey is multi-layer components - the hood has two layers that are glued together. When not done properly, an impact will cause the two layers to separate - now you've got a carbon fibre guillotine(sp?) flying around...

This company bonds the components using the same process that GM uses to bond components for the Corvette bodies.

Now shush... if you want it, order one.