Carbon Fiber mods have become one of the more popular trends to hit the automotive scene recently. It’s a material that is finding its way into about just about every aspect of a vehicle; from performance parts to interior trims to body parts. Originally, carbon fiber was used to develop parts because of its high tensile strength and high temperature tolerance combined with its extremely lightweightness. But now the carbon fiber movement has started to become an aesthetic feature as well. Just as how the fibers weave together to create such masterpieces, these products blend together style and performance that catch the attention of any car builder. SEMA show is the largest automotive trade show in the world, so of course there would be no shortage of builds with carbon fiber themes. Here we will bring you the top 10 carbon fiber themed builds at the weeklong show.
10. Scion tC2
First up is a second generation Scion tC put together by Randall Trice from Pasadena, CA. This car may be his daily driver that he uses to go to and fro with his son, but its also his passion. A sponsorship with Seibon helped him bring is vision to reality making this one of the simplest yet aggressive tC2’s in Southern California.
9. Ford Mustang
“Murdered Out” or all-black styling has been a popular trend for awhile now. They say everything goes with black, so why not do it all? Adding carbon fiber to a murdered out look can help keep the consistency, yet kick it up a notch with its weave pattern. It may be hard to tell what is carbon fiber or if there even is any, but that all plays to the stealth styling. Upon getting a closer look, you can see that instead of plastic grills, Ford went with carbon fiber grill, hood, and other accents.
8. Trufiber’s Ford Mustang
Another Mustang? Yes, but with a different feature. Instead of the murdered out look, Trufiber went bright with a neon green and similar carbon fiber accents throughout the body. But what this Mustang brings to the party is the clean use of carbon fiber used within the engine bay. Engine bays are usually one of the hottest spots of a vehicle, especially one this powerful. Carbon Fiber’s characteristics lend it to sitting cool within such a hot space.
7. Seibon BRZ
Seibon specializes in designing high quality products using carbon fiber. It plays to the strengths of performance and style of appeal to car builders. And with the FR-S/BRZ again being named the hottest sports compact, of course it would be wise to produce products for this very hot car. But where most start and stop with exterior mods, Seibon continued its execution to the interior. In addition to the trimming along the dash, they eliminated the back seats and replaced it with lightweight carbon fiber.
6. The Castrol Rocket
While it may not have four wheels, it still has my respect. The OHLINS booth featured their products on The Castrol Rocket. The builders had one goal in mind for this, and that was to revive the legacy of Triumph Motorcycles and their ways of setting land speed records. A motor pushing over 1000HP will not even feel anything moving this carbon body around.
5. KSport’s BMW ZM4
After a fully coated two wheeler, we will now start getting into fully coated four wheelers at SEMA. And with that, KSport featured one of Mfest’s BMW ZM4 with a widebody carbon fiber exterior. The widebody and carbon fiber styling all play to the aggressiveness of the motor, which is supercharged to push at least 570HP.
4. DUB Mercedes SLR
DUB is usually known for pushing boundaries and bringing out some of the wildest rides, especially with their wheel size. But this time they went crazy in another direction, a carbon fiber one. This SLR is not just coated in carbon fiber, but it has also been tuned by RENNtech to give it that extra kick.
3. Wilwood’s 818S
Okay, this one might not be fully coated in carbon fiber, but the rarity of this ride puts it up on the list; as well as a few other unique features. I had to ask a lot of fellow car heads what this car was, each one making guesses, but none coming close. It wasn’t until I did some research that I learned it’s called an 818S by Factory Five. In addition to the carbon fiber paneling, it also has a complete carbon fiber dash, for this right hand drive car.
2. GoPro’s Pagani Huarya
Now we make our way to the top two carbon fiber rides of SEMA 2013 and sitting pretty at the GoPro booth, a Pagani Huarya Carbon Fiber Edition. With its combination of speed and lightweightness, I’m not sure if even a GoPro Hero will be able to capture anything but a blur. Making this supercar number two was a tough choice, but the next one has something special about it.
1. Ringbrothers’ 1969 Fastback
While most other builders chose to give their cars a coating of carbon fiber, Ringbrothers takes it deeper by creating carbon fiber shells, and doing so to one of the more iconic cars is surely a treat. This Fastback may not be completely built and ready to rumble, but it’s a beauty as it sits. The entire chassis is not only carbon fiber, but it has also been given a widebody look. In the end, much respect has to be given to each of these builders and all the manufacturers that choose to produce such parts. Finding a lightweight product is only half the battle. Making sure the weaves are perfect and that they line up with other carbon fiber parts are what help show the passion that is put into each build. The little details that may go unseen by some but for those few that notice, the appreciation will stick forever. -Justin Pagtalunan
