Carbon Fiber - Is it worth it?
 

Hello gents. My new Release Series 1.0 is a very fun car to drive but as I drive it I look and wish I had some type of modification to it.

I know some people will cry foul to mod this vehicle since it's a Release series but I bought this car to drive and to keep so I want to do improve it.



Now yes I know people tell me forced induction is one of the first mods I should do but I don't feel like violating my warranty while stationed in Hawaii. So instead I'm going to go for exterior modifications and will be saving up for a Hood, Trunk and any other suggestions people might have for my vehicle.


Also I'm curious about paint. Hawaii has notorious Sun-Damage and I'm not an expert on anything cars....in fact this is the first car I will ever mod. So I'm going with the idea that I might get a carbon fiber hood to start out with but I'm guessing I should paint it.



Maybe you gents can help me out or let me know to wait til I'm stationed somewhere else.

What are you hoping to achieve?
RICE?
Function?

Carbon fiber goodies usually don't go well by themselves. They typically look better with aggressive builds and other substantial modifications. It would look pretty goofy with a stock 86, or any car for that matter to have a cf hood or trunk by itself. If they were installed together with other things such as a lip kit, suspension/wheels, you can balance it out very well and achieve that desired look.


This is only my opinion and you are entitled to your own. I'm not going to tell you what you should or shouldn't buy.


I had an e46 zhp before this car .. had cf hood/lip in the front. trunk lip in the rear. coilovers, wheels, headlights, tail lights, you name it. Everything worked well with each other. The paint was a very dark metallic gray, so you couldn't even tell any of the parts were cf from afar unless the lighting was right.

Like sD24 said

Are you going for looks or for function?

If its the former, thats always going to be 100% subjective to you personal taste, if it's going to be for function that is an entirely different ball game.

other than cars that competitively race on a track, carbon fiber stuff is for looks. that said, i love my cf front lip and rear lip hahah.

I like the look of a carbon fiber lip kit and spoiler. Otherwise I've never liked carbon fiber hoods or trunks. That's just my opinion though.

I seem to remember the CF hoods actually weighing more than our OEM hoods? And the trunks were <.5 lbs difference.

Whatever you do, please don't put carbon fiber vinyl wrap on the car.. Santa kills a baby elf every time a ricer wraps a car part in carbon fiber vinyl.

if you want cf parts, go for it.

CF generally doesn't do great if its constantly exposed to sun, however. You could always paint it down the road if it becomes a problem.

That mmd ! :lol:

Meh. IMO it beats spending $500 for a hood that doesn't fit as well, won't last as long and is marginally lighter than stock at best. If you're going for performance a carbon fiber hood is just about the worst bang for your buck possible. If you're going for looks, I don't know - I think CF is ugly anyway.

Performance is what I'm looking at. Three years down the road once my warranty is up or close to going up I will be going for forced induction and suping up the car for performance....or I might just get the engine entirely rebuilt.

Having a lighter car is my main focus.

gut the car first before resorting to carbon fiber.
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42284
read that members journal for easy and fast weight reduction.

I do not want to completely strip it. This still will be a daily driver. Weight reduction by changing out the hood and the trunk and such should not effect my warranty that much.

I am running a carbon hood and deck, from Siebon, and while I am extremely happy with the fit and finish, they are not a significant weight reduction. If pure performance without trashing the warranty are your priority, I would go with light and grippy wheels and tires, intake and a cat back, and then bushings, then a good sway bar kit, and last, a set of name brand (Eibach or RSR coil overs.)

If you are looking for a great first mod, without spending a ton of money, get an AEM or K&N intake kit. Reasonable $$$, and can be installed by someone without a ton of experience.

Just my $0.02.

Happy with my cold-air TRD intake from the factory. And I prefer less grippy tires myself in fact I like the stock ones.


Also you are talking to someone with no prior car knowledge of any modding. Cat-back...bushings? Might as well speak Spainish
to me haha.

Wet carbon or dry carbon?
If people can't answer this question they should refrain from giving advice on it for weight savings.

You're not going to save weight by getting a new hood/trunk on this car. The body panels are already about as light as they come. Part of the reason the interior in this car is so loud.

It doesn't matter. If you are trying to save weight in a stock car a carbon fiber hood is a huge waste of money.

Ha ha! Everyone has to start somewhere, so welcome to the club! I forgot about the included cold air on the release. A cat back is a replacement exhaust system, that replaces only the rear half or so of the exhaust. Easy to do, sheds some weight if you get the right one, and makes the car a little louder. Replacing the swaybars is also pretty easy on these cars, and can make a noticeable difference while driving.

The release cars are pretty well equipped from the factory... So a lot of the easy stuff is done already. Best advice is go autocrossing, have fun with your car, and the needed mods will become obvious.

Good advice all around,

A little word of caution to the inexperienced- Sways are typically a fine tuning suspension adjustment mod. One can make things worse by messing with their sway setup, even if choosing reputable manufacturers and going off of other's builds, or waste their time and money trying to solve a problem that other avenues will

As already said, the factory hood is aluminum and already VERY light. Trunk isn't going to save a lot of weight at all.


Personally (as I have a collectable version of the twins as well) I went with mods that can be easily unbolted. Add that to the fact I think the factory tails look like something off a Dodge, I changed the tail lights.


Honestly you already HAVE a ton of body mods because it's a release series. Only thing it's really missing is wheels...

Just a personal opinion, I think carbon fiber is never needed. But it's a heavy want.
It should make a big difference for the twins. The hood is already very light. At least compared to normal cars.

Actually, it does considering people are saying it doesn't saved weight by referring to the wet, purely cosmetic pieces.

If youre looking for weight shavings, carbon fiber isnt "where its at" with this car.

Get some magnesium wheels, coilovers, sticky tires, and pull out the spare tire and jack, lightweight battery would kill some weight too.

I am a big fan of the RS1.0. I absolutely would not do carbon fiber on the hood. The aluminum hood is just as light and the random black/carbon pieces will not flow well. Trunklid isn't good value for weight savings, either. I'd put that money toward a strong, light set of black wheels. The black PF01s that I have on my FR-S would look awesome on the RS1.0.

Well being from NY and having a carbon lip that only lasted a month i would say no lol. Carbon on our cars are only for looks and can maybe shave a couple pounds. Since your from Hawaii wet carbon will get faded quickly with heat from the sun. The clear coat will fade and crack over time. Hey it's all on you and Merry Christmas.

I feel you on the lip kit! Mine looked terrible after a couple months, and then I went autocrossing and broke it.

maybe you should check out my skid plates!

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76391

And then throw in the fact that the RS1.0 already has a full aero kit. Unless you just had to have yellow, dumping the TRD RS kit after paying a premium for the car, it doesn't make much sense.


Sent from Tandy 400

It doesn't matter because you could just take the hood off, replace it with nothing at all and you wouldn't have appreciable weight savings.

Yeap, you are totally right.

Carbon fiber wheels....the only real weight bbq saving , u can do. Do it! ;)

I put a Seibon CF hood on my car. I didn't do it for the weight savings, although it was a little lighter than stock. Nor was it for looks. I did it to vent heat from my engine bay for the turbo kit. I had it Opticoated, so its held up fine for almost 2 years. Once it does start to fade I'll paint match it.

As I am sure you've noticed, people have a widely differing opinions, even when about the same point of view. Don't worry about being new. You're in the right place and doing some reading through member journals will give you ideas. Speaking car, like speaking spanish, is a skill which can be learned just by emersion. You'll pick it up as you go.

Things to explain. "Cat-Back" refers to an exhaust system which replaces the piping from the Catalytic Converter to the tail of the vehicle. Your "Cat" or catalytic Converter is a device incorporated in the exhaust system of a motor vehicle, containing a catalyst for converting pollutant gases into less harmful ones. While illegal in some, most, or all (I'm not certain which of the 3 is true anymore) states, it's also common to run "Cat-less" which is, as you've guessed, running without any installed.

Your vehicles will usually have 2 Cats. 1 off the vehicle header (This is the exhaust portion that bolts directly to the engine and takes gases from each cylinder) and one in the Mid / Front pipe (Which is the portion of the exhaust usually in the middle of the vehicle.

The bushings are simply the rubber that holds the exhaust to the vehicle in the example of "Exhaust Bushings". (A lot of areas of the vehicle will have bushings in them).



---- Now what caught me as interesting in your post is when you stated you enjoyed the "less grippy" tires. While I enjoy the stock rims, they are heavy. In racing, they are ineffecient. I still have mine because money and I rather enjoy the look of them. My tires, however, bothered me. I am no longer on prius tires, but I am not on heavily "grippy" tires either. I am running a 225/45/r17 (slightly wider than stock) and I believe I am running on Falken Ziex tires (Though I can't remember off hand if that's my FRS, my shitty porsche 924, or my wife's econo-box Versa).

What makes you enjoy "Less grippy" tires?

hope the information helps. If you have questions, please feel free to ask or pm. I'm sure there are a LOT of people here willing to help you get started.:thumbsup:

Just to clarify, they aren't prius tires so to speak. They are a summer tire that was fitted on a sport edition Prius in Japan. The same summer tires that you'll find on a BMW 5 series and other similar sedans. They certainly aren't the grippiest summer tires, but they aren't what was on my wife's Prius. As far as I know, they've never offered summer tires on a Prius in the U.S.


Sent from Tandy 400

Correct, never offered here on the Prius form factory. Still also correct to say they are Prius tires though.

As been said, cf isn't totally worth it. Although I'm considering CF fenders just because of the bling factor, but its hard to justify cf fenders when they don't add (or subtract for that matter) anything to the car except looks. That 2k or so could be better spent in a tfsa that'll help pay for a supercharger.

Carbon fibre tailshaft.
Unfortunately there is no bling factor unless the car is up on a hoist.