Hello Mates
retrired now I have been for so many years involved in manufacturing different carbonfiber tube very similar to the ferrari one and can tell you that this tecnic is absolutly reserved to very hight and sophiscated cars why ?
1/ the carbon fiber used on these tubs have nothing to do with standard resin they are hight tensile "Prepeg" rovings with specific epoxy resin to be cured under vacuum process and Autoclave
2/ Cores are done with alumium honeycomb bonded with special sheet of prepeg bonding ( very higt cost process)
3/ all hard points to attach suspension are very complicated machined aluminium bloks inserted during laminating process using very special compounds to secure thes on various points
The result have nothing to be compared with very simple look like monocoque done only with flat stock honeycomb bonded together ;it's a solid and very stiff tub capable of very strong torsion loads
Why does such carbon fiber tub ( like theMac Laren F1) cannot be repaired ( or badly)
Because as soon as the car is submitted to an "overload torque" even you do not notice any external damage you can be sure that the core is mostly unbonded in a too big area specaily if an hard point have been damaged
To repair a minor damage need anyway to achieve this with Prepeg stuff and a big vacuum bag is to be done and this will cost too much comparativly to a new without being sure that the result will be OK !!!
Just to give you some idea
In a very small team not so rich I had to built a similar tub (7 to be manufactured) and very low cost in 2006 were ;
Study of monocoque including the laminating playbook fro the company doing this ; 27000 euros
manufacturing the plug in 5 axis mill on LAB material ; 65000 euro
Manufacturing carbon fiber molds ; 90000 euros
machining tooling for hard points ;25000 euros
So total tooling ; 207000 euros !!!
and cost for one sample ; 70000 euros ( on a batch of 7 !!!)
Have in mind that in 2012 this cost is at least 40/100 more
And forget F1 cost !!!! molds are sometime machined directly from billet !!!
Who is able to afford so hight expenses for a GT40 ? Ford :lipsrsealed:
Actual Gt40 carbon one in the market have a good looking but they cannot be compared to these "real carbon tubs" due to the fact hard point and engine mounts are thru steel frames bolted to flat carbon pannels
These tubs are really nice and probaly very strong comparativly to a welded frame and the big interest is the interesting price compare to their nice look
retrired now I have been for so many years involved in manufacturing different carbonfiber tube very similar to the ferrari one and can tell you that this tecnic is absolutly reserved to very hight and sophiscated cars why ?
1/ the carbon fiber used on these tubs have nothing to do with standard resin they are hight tensile "Prepeg" rovings with specific epoxy resin to be cured under vacuum process and Autoclave
2/ Cores are done with alumium honeycomb bonded with special sheet of prepeg bonding ( very higt cost process)
3/ all hard points to attach suspension are very complicated machined aluminium bloks inserted during laminating process using very special compounds to secure thes on various points
The result have nothing to be compared with very simple look like monocoque done only with flat stock honeycomb bonded together ;it's a solid and very stiff tub capable of very strong torsion loads
Why does such carbon fiber tub ( like theMac Laren F1) cannot be repaired ( or badly)
Because as soon as the car is submitted to an "overload torque" even you do not notice any external damage you can be sure that the core is mostly unbonded in a too big area specaily if an hard point have been damaged
To repair a minor damage need anyway to achieve this with Prepeg stuff and a big vacuum bag is to be done and this will cost too much comparativly to a new without being sure that the result will be OK !!!
Just to give you some idea
In a very small team not so rich I had to built a similar tub (7 to be manufactured) and very low cost in 2006 were ;
Study of monocoque including the laminating playbook fro the company doing this ; 27000 euros
manufacturing the plug in 5 axis mill on LAB material ; 65000 euro
Manufacturing carbon fiber molds ; 90000 euros
machining tooling for hard points ;25000 euros
So total tooling ; 207000 euros !!!
and cost for one sample ; 70000 euros ( on a batch of 7 !!!)
Have in mind that in 2012 this cost is at least 40/100 more
And forget F1 cost !!!! molds are sometime machined directly from billet !!!
Who is able to afford so hight expenses for a GT40 ? Ford :lipsrsealed:
Actual Gt40 carbon one in the market have a good looking but they cannot be compared to these "real carbon tubs" due to the fact hard point and engine mounts are thru steel frames bolted to flat carbon pannels
These tubs are really nice and probaly very strong comparativly to a welded frame and the big interest is the interesting price compare to their nice look
