So had anyone bought Carbon Fiber doors for your rx8?
 

I'm on a CF fetish right now and I stumbled across Carbon Fiber doors for the rx8 (front and back) for 1500. Anyone here have them installed?

Not that i know, but I saw some (front & back) on ebay. Sure looks like a good way to save weight if you had a dedicated race car though!

all ive seen on here thus far is the CF hoods, trunks, and mirrors.

How much weight do you lose with them?

They make every panel on the rx8 in carbon fiber, roof, hood, mazdaspeed front, fenders, rear...

Not to mention they sell all the windows in lexan as a lightweight alternative.

i've never seen the carbon fiber doors. any numbers on weight reduction? if i had the money, $1500 doesn't seem to steep, assuming there is a big weight drop, which i'm inclined to think there would be....

Are you talking about the WHOLE door ? Is it *dry carbon* ?

There is NO WAY that they're selling the whole door front and back for 1500 if its dry carbon.

it's cheaper to replace the power window stuff to save weight than replacing a the doors with CF versions.

I like power windows tho ~~~~

But still, I mean, no way those doors are made of dry carbon. probably just regular stuff. which I wouldnt buy.

IIRC the CF doors are just the door SHELLS, no? In other words, you remove the outter sheet metal from the door and bolt the CF shell on.

yeah, gotta be just the outside shell.

Turok: do you have a CF hood and CF trunk already? Maybe start there???

yeah i already have the cf hood & trunk. The CF doors are 8lb. Reply from seller

"I don't know how much the stock doors weigh but i know the doors i have are bout 8lbs each. The carbon can get painted if you want to paint it"


Any information on stock doors weight?

where to get these carbon fiber stuff at?

I think my only problem with CF doors would be safety in case of an accident. Your 8 is a daily driver right? I don't know that much about their composition, but I would think that the regular ones would hold up better under serious impact.

Remember, mine was barely tapped at the door seams between the two and it not only snapped the locking mechanism but they had to replace the front passenger door and the back door shell.

Not trying to down your idea, just something to think about.

link to the cf door shells/panels?

I was under the impression that CF was highly durable

You are going to hear all the rattles in the car. Some guy in San Jose had CF F &R bumper, doors, fenders, hood, trunk. It looked pretty good, but on a black car, it make it look like the paint faded.

CF is durable, but only under certain conditions. The body panels on the car are made to absorb impact. The CF will just break and shatter.

At some point of View, CF is stronger than a lot of metal

but instead of *bend* like Metal, CF, once you go over its limits, will just Break.

So it can protect you better only up to a certain point ... after that, you're on your own, pray to see if you can get away.

So if safety is your main concern, no CF stuff.

but if its for Bumper it could be ok, as long as you dont hit anybody, cuz when CF breaks, you cant repair it.

From my understanding, Carbon fiber is the strongest material you can have for the exterior of a car. But thats just what Ive heard so I dont have much to back that up with:icon_no2:

yes but when it breaks, it shatters.

heres a link to a place that has CF everything. i wouldnt be interested, my baby is a daily driver.

http://www.businessvision.net/edge/M...egoryID=778269

That's right. Now that I think about it; the CF would be stronger but in an impact it would just go BOOM!

You can get it through Mazda but you have to show proof that you race & the car you put it on, is race only!

I understand that, but what does it take to make it "shatter". I mean if its rumored to be sooo strong then wouldnt it take like a freight train to make it shatter?!:lol2:

actually, i wouldnt think it would matter too much. i would think the door frame is a much stronger than what amounts to sheet metal at a right angle to impact.

the worst part would be the scratches. if someone keys your car, or scrapes it in a parking lot, you simply cant have it fixed and repainted. you need an entire new panel.

http://www.mazdamotorsports.com/

But:

http://www.mazdamotorsports.com/pages/membership.html

Autocross results work fine. HPDE events don't count.

Carbon fiber dash = $1645
Carbon fiber left door = 1064
carbon fiber right door = 981
carbon fiber mazdaspeed front 3413
carbon fiber hood = 2163
carbon fiber rear deck 1045
carbon fiber roof = 4653
carbon fiber right rear door = 1377
carbon fiber left rear door = 1377

lightweight lexan front window = 524
lightweight lexan rear window = 436
lightweight lexan left window = 92
lightweight lexan right window = 92
lightweight lexan LR window = 92
lightweight lexan RR window = 92

The problem with a lot of this stuff is that the car is basically designed to crumple and shatter when it is hit.

All this stuff is FAR stronger than any of the stock parts, which means instead of the door crumpling when you are hit it will basically come and smack you right in the side, or the CF hood might become a giant razorblade in a collision and end up decapitating you... etc... not pretty...

Turbo, aren't you the guy who was speeding home to play your newly aquired video game. And you didn't pull over for the cop and got charged with 5 different violations and got off because the officer was fired? Then later got in trouble for street racing??

Nothing is *that* strong.

Also, measuring how strong / tough something is, is actually rather difficult.

There are different types of stresses that any material experiences, and they react differently to each one.

http://www.engineershandbook.com/Mat...mechanical.htm

in a race car, you'd have a cage inside the car, so the door panels wouldn't be as big a structural requirement. If you're just changing out panels, it would be ill advised.

thanks for posting that link. i didn't realize there was anyone making some of those parts.

Seibon was supposed to make cf doors front and back but it seems like they never got it done. They have it listed on their website, but it has no price nor pictures or a link.

cf is strong if its made strong like dry carbon, cheap cf is just as brittle as fiberglass, ie the hoods and lips and trunks that we have

for the cf junkie. full front and rear doors.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mazda...spagenameZWDVW

Obviously the OE doors weigh more, but how much more when it's shell vs. shell?
I'm sure when you transfer all the hardware over to the CF shell, it's not going to be light anymore.

So who knows CF? Is this stuff on Ebay "cheap and brittle" or "expensive and strong"?

If strong how strong compared to metal? If it's cheap, I assume it's basically brittle like plastic or FG?