[Charles Geer]

Gotta get another 200 lbs out of the car to make it a competive NASA GTS 3 car.



Who makes high quality, carbon fiber race hoods for the 968. Fit and finish also important.



Eric: your looks pretty good, is it cabon fiber? where did you get it? Did it come with the NACA ducts?



What about GT racing...any good?

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[flash]

the last time i spoke to them, the gt racing is not a carbon fiber hood - it is carbon fiber lain over fiberglass



as far as i know, only arktech makes a carbon fiber hood



fit and finish is probably going to cause you issues - i don't know how the arktech panels fit (having not seen one of those $2000 japanese panels yet), but the ones that i have seen from other companies are not good enough for a street car



even if you go to a 4 pin hood, you still won't save but about 30lbs - the stock hood is only 39lbs - you can peel another 5 or 6 off of each fender, and then a few off the doors



the best place to save weight, if you haven't already done it, is the glass and the dash - you can dump almost 200lbs right there - i presume you have already dumped all of the interior panels, seats, glue, carpet, etc, and of course, the bumpers and bumper shocks



how light are you trying to get?

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[Eric_K]

Mine is carbon and it came with the NACA ducts. I got it from Speed6 http://www.speed-6.com/, but I don't think they made any more than one batch of them.



The GT Racing stuff is hit and miss. It could be good or it could be rough, but figure on it needing some finishing work.



There are others out there. I talked to someone else who made them. I can't remember who it was now. Check MA Shaw they may have the part even if they don't advertise it. http://www.mashaw.com/



Unless you are paying big bucks, this is not autoclave stuff but vacuum bagged or hand laid and thus not hugely different than the fiberglass version.



You'll probably have to find the 200lbs in 30 different places.



Eric

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[Jason Judd]

My stuff is from GT Racing...guess I got lucky.



I've got the hood and both front fenders. Between that stuff and the removal of the headlight assemblies, H/V/AC stuff, non sunroof option my car is down to 2,640 with the big BBS 18" wheels.



My cage is about 105 lbs, but then I gutted the doors like on the photos Eric sent me



If I went to plexiglass I imagine I would be around 2,500 lbs.



Jason

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[flash]

yeah - there isn't going to be much difference between the gt racing stuff and carbon fiber when it comes to weight - maybe 6 lbs over the entire front end - tough to make that be worth the money



i wonder how much rigidity in the front end is lost though, when you lose the sheet metal, since the car is unibody - i noticed it in the mgb (yes, i know that car was a lot flimsier to begin with) - it was surprising how much the fenders did though in torsional resistance - we had to run some stiffener rails across the car to make it up - have you noticed anything?



but the big news is 2500 lbs - very cool - that just has to be a whole lot of fun just to think about

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[Jason Judd]

Brey Kraus has some stuff for that if it becomes a real issue for me.



I've already installed a strut brace, though.



I also put in an Odessy (sp?) battery...that saved me an add'l 21 lbs! My stock Interstate battery weighed 33lbs, and the new one comes in at 11 lbs! God, it looks so small!



I must say that I did notice some acid marks when we took out the stock battery...must have been venting out the side hole of the battery, or slopping out from some of the turns on track.



I think everybody should keep an eye on that area.



Jason

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[saxman]

[quote name='flash' date='Oct 30 2006, 07:30 AM']even if you go to a 4 pin hood, you still won't save but about 30lbs - the stock hood is only 39lbs - you can peel another 5 or 6 off of each fender, and then a few off the doors[/quote]

there's no reason that a very well made, high quality carbon hood for the 968 couldn't come in under 5 lbs if you're using pins and ditching the stock mounting hardware.



Granted, said hood is probably not available on the market... you'd need to find someone to do it custom... for a reasonable cost and good strength, you could probably get away with 3 layers of carbon with a honeycomb layer in there, vacuum infused with an epoxy resin.









*edit* bah, read your post as "you still won't save near 30lbs" originally

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[Mark]

A dry fibre hood will cost mega $$$$$

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[flash]

i actually had this bid out at one point - i had them work on 2 versions - one that was a pin type, and one that was to mount like OEM



the pin type was estimated to be about 6lbs - the OEM type would be 14lbs



so, 33lbs is what you could save there (i just rounded off, not quibbling about 3 lbs, saying instead "about 30 lbs")



cost was significant, but could be brought under 900 on the OEM type if i had 20 of them done

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[saxman]

[quote name='Mark' date='Oct 30 2006, 03:07 PM']A dry fibre hood will cost mega $$$$$

[right][post="27450"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]

very true, which is why I suggested vacuum infusion







and flash, I got what you're saying... misread it the first time that you were suggesting that you couldn't get anywhere near that weight loss.

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[Mark]

Sorry sax, read too fast.

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[flash]

no worries



i could always revisit this if enough people got interested

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[Cloud9...68]

[quote name='Eric_K' date='Oct 30 2006, 11:08 AM']Mine is carbon and it came with the NACA ducts. I got it from Speed6 http://www.speed-6.com/, but I don't think they made any more than one batch of them.



Eric

[right][post="27441"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]



I just happened to have talked to the guy a couple of weeks ago who makes the NACA ducts for Speed6; the owner of Speed6, from whom I bought my car, told me he is the guy who made them for the factory. His first name is Frank (didn't catch his last name), and he has a definite German accent, so I assume this is correct. Anyway, I asked Frank about the possibility of a carbon fiber hood for the 968, and he said there's nothing particularly difficult about it (easy for him to say <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/smile.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> ), but the cost of a mold would run in the neighborhood of $3000. After that initial investment, duplicate hoods could be made for somewhere in the $800 range. So, if there are enough people interested to absorb the cost of the mold, let me know, and I'll get in touch with him. I can tell you the quality of Frank's work on my NACA ducts is first rate.

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[flash]

yeah - that's about what my guy said too - it was 900 only because of the aluminum reinforcement at the hinge and latch points to make it work like OEM, and in quantities of 10 - there was no mold cost though - he figured he could make up the mold cost in quantity

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[Eric_K]

Frank or Chris should already have (or had) a mold since they made my hood. Maybe there was an issue since they didn't make more.

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[flwbyu]

I would be interested in contributing to this cause. Especially if Frank or Chris included the NACA ducts!

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[saxman]

while I can certainly understand an $800 a hood production cost, $3000 for the mold is a bit excessive. I've done a good amount of work with several carbon manufactures, and while a hood mold is expensive, there's no reason it should be in the $3k range... closer to $1k, $1500 at absolute most for a top and bottom mold, etc.



If you all are interested, I can put you in contact with some other carbon manufacturers.

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[mattipuh]

What is the conclusion of carbon hoods for 968? <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/smile.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

I'm also possibly purchasing one, if there's just good ones available.

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[PorscheDude]

You may have go with fiberglass.

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[flash]

yup - somebody else is going to have to run with this one



i cannot find anybody who is willing to make a vacuum formed carbon fiber hood, in oem layout, for less than the 3k setup - i can get a poor aesthetic quality pinned type hood done for less, but i have no interest in that at this time

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