ahh youd be suprised on the stregth of the CF cc bumper, ive hit cones on the freeway @ over 80 and no damage, hit several little things with it without any damage, it does flex prety well! (for CF) its a pretty high quailty piece in my book ultimately a lifted jeep ended my C.C CF front bumper for its short lived life!

 

I think overall, CF is a horrible application for front lips or front bumpers with the way it's made today for consumers. It has the potential to be great, but then you're dealing with $4000-5,000 bumpers. It's inherent it it's design that it can only give (bend) so much before breaking. It's tensile strength is crappy. The fact that it had a "short lived life" proves this, though of course that is an extreme case that you had. I think you'll find that any quality FRP bumper will withstand more abuse than a CF bumper. CF = Bling when talking about $600-$700 CF bumpers. I think that is a fair statement. I personally wouldn't run CF fenders either due to the fact that the chance of my tires coming into contact with them is pretty high. Having dealt with a fiberglass widebody before, I don't want to go through that headache again. Spoilers/Wings on the other hand are a great application because they don't need great tensile strength to do their job and withstand daily risks.

Even though I'm sure you didn't have a FRP bumper to compare it to of the same type, I'm sure the weight is very negligible (if there is even a difference at all). If there was, I'm POSITIVE they would be advertising the weight savings, yet...they don't.

 

there was quite a bit of weight savings, from my FRP bumper, (jp type N) to my CF bumper although minimal any weight helps. maybe 1-2lbs. and i believe FRP is just as brittle.

 

Possible. Either way it's cool if you want CF just to have CF. At roughly twice the cost, very negligible weight difference, harder to repair, easier to break in most cases, it's just not my cup of tea for this particular application. Ultimately CF is the "in" thing right now in the scene so I've come to expect it. You could always just take a crap and lose the 12oz or so difference. In my experience FRP has been better for front lips/bumpers, but anything can break. Hell, I've broken a urethane lip cleanly in half before.

If it was feasible I would rather have an aluminum front bumper in the same designs and deal with the 5-10lb penalty for durability but that isn't an option.

 

lol could be just depends on who u know!

 

My wallet feels light just thinking about it.

 

naa baller!

 

the yellowing that occurs is due to the gel coat resin used. a lot of the stuff made in china will yellow but not all.

 

The most expensive piece in constructing a carbon fiber component is the UV protection used. You'd be amazed at the cost of a high quality UV protector. The cost to make a QUALITY carbon fiber parts is NOT cheap. If your worried about fading or yellowing, just get a Mastergrade part. They guarantee their parts for the life of the vehicle from fading or yellowing. They can do this because they use the highest possible UV protection available.

 

^^^I agree with Jim, GM's estimate of the UV protection cost on the carbon pieces on the ZR1 is a perfect example.