What's so exciting about carbon fiber?

[bull]

Why is carbon fiber such a big deal? Is it better than plastic or fiberglass and all that other lightweight stuff? Seems all I ever see it used for is decoration and IMO it doesn't look very good.

[Rocky]

Carbon fiber is stronger and lighter than fiberglass.  The decoration stuff that you see is usually just a very thin layer applied over fiberglass, so it is truley a decoration in most cases, just like a big chrome exhaust tip on a Honda.  I only like it cuz it goes good wit my gold teef 

[moparguy01]

i've seen and installed some carbon fiber stuff that was actual CF, not CF wrapped over fiberglass, and its damned light. whats funny is the ricer having us install the actual carbon fiber, then told us he wanted it painted to match the car. He just wanted the weight savings, but the car ran a 10.83 the last time he was at the race track (1/4 mile) so i know he got some of that by shaving as much weight as he could off that car.

[Ghoste]

Isn't more widely used in aerospace and ultra trick motorsports like Formula 1 and Pro Stock drag racing?

[70charger_boy]

Isn't more widely used in aerospace and ultra trick motorsports like Formula 1 and Pro Stock drag racing?

The flaps on a citation 10 are made of a carbon fiber composite and is very, very expensive

[Mike DC]

Carbon Fiber basically serves like a much better version of fiberglass.  It's made of lots of kevlar-ish fibers woven together and cured ("laminated") with heat.     

It ends up feeling like type of plastic that is VERY light, VERY stiff, and VERY strong.  Not flexible at all.  Brittle when broken.  It tolerates an absolutely stupifying amount of force applied to it without giving an inch, and then finally shatters when it's pushed too far.   

[justin1987]

Isn't more widely used in aerospace and ultra trick motorsports like Formula 1 and Pro Stock drag racing?

I'm getting a degree in Aerospace Engineering right now and we learn a lot about carbon fiber and its properties.

[Silver R/T]

CF is the way to go. I wish there were cf panels available for Charger, talk about weight savings