Ok. Now I was planning on putting in a carbon fiber hood but I was wondering how these things do in crash tests? Do they alter the safety of the car? OEM hood are manufactured to fold at certain points. Are the aftermarket carbon fiber hood of the same design?

This is the place and the product I was planning on purchasing.

Seibon OEM-Style Carbon Fiber Hood 07-08 Honda Fit - P/N: HD0708HDFIT-OE

 

dude...why are you worried about crash tests? Did your dad or somebody tell you not to get a CF hood? lol a hood isn't going to stop you from getting hurt. It's all your front bumper support really. The Fit has plenty of airbags to protect you.

 

Yes it's my dad. He wants to be sure, so no hood c/f hood unless theirs solid proof it wont lower the safety of the car

 

I CF hood that is designed right may actually help in a crash. Being stronger and lighter it SHOULD help in a crash. Best thing to do is be defensive and not crash! More of a issue is CF hoods not installed properly or poor quality hoods.....a hood flying up or off is more of a danger! The vendor you linked to I have no info on so I speak in general terms.

 

Well it's not the vendor but that is a genuine SEIBON hood and I have seen them used on many many cars. I just need prove that they are safe and googling has done nothing!

Please help!

 

LOL...you're gonna have to loose this one, carbon fiber is strong and durable but conformant to stock hood crumple zones? No way!
On impact it will splinter and snap and fly apart like a piece of peanut brittle--I've seen them smooshed. This isn't a bad thing just more dramatic looking damage IMO.

Plus, carbon fiber hoods almost always trash the stock hood hinges on impact because they don't absorb the hit like the stock hood is designed to. Honestly there isn't a genuine safety concern with either hood, the hood does barely anything to protect you it's just designed to absorb damage so it stays put, if it wasn't it might fly off or detach on impact.

 

It's doesn't have to crumple I was wondering if it did I just want solid proof that it wont impair the vehicles safety features.

I found one good reference but I'd like to have more

Carbon fiber cars could put US on highway to efficiency

 

You miss my point, ask anyone who knows about cars or car safety and they will tell you that a hood has nothing to do with structural safety! the hood, fenders, doors, quarter panels, etc. are all just body panels, the actual structure of the Honda Fit is really solid and that's what determines the safety of the car.

All that explained I can't see why he wouldn't let you get one at that point but personally I don't think CF looks good unless you are doing the whole damn car with it, but that's just me.

 

Well, actually... The doors do play a part in the whole 'structural safety' issue.

The fenders and hood are just body panels. Matter of fact, the fenders are pretty flimsy. I hit a truck tire tread on the interstate and tore out the bottom plastic panels. The fender liner came loose, and I ended up spending 20 minutes getting the fender itself lined back up properly afterwards. All the damage done to the fender was just from the push-pins that hold the fender liner in place tearing out. Nothing actually touched the fender itself.

Hmm. Anyone remember the Pontiac Fiero? Ever seen one without the body? They're still drivable that way.

 

What do you mean by impair vehicle safety features? There's no sensors or anything attached to the hood. The crumple zones, hinges and hood latch are parts of the safety features.

If you're trying to convince someone that it's safe, I would say yes it assuming you have hood pins just in case if flies up. If, god forbid, an accident happens, the hood will break and not crumple. This could be a good or bad thing depending on how things work out.

I personally don't understand and I'm not sure what answer you want. I think I answered it, but I feel like I didn't.

 

smash and aluminum can. that is how the oem hood will react in a crash.
now break a piece of top ramen in half. that is the generally same reaction of what will happen if you get in a front end collision.

the carbon fiber is strong and durable but because of the fiber layout design it will splinter and you will get pieces everywhere. they are not really a big concern for safety cause your car will be pretty well messed up if you hit something hard enough to crumple the hood.

 

A CF hood is consider more of a cosmetic item, though it does play a part in performace (stronger and light weight)... however, I dun see the reason why op start discussing the whole safety issue.

If you want your car to be safe, dun change ANYTHING. As soon as u change anything, well, like the dealerships love to say: "You void your warranty" =D

I think your dad just dun want you to mod the car... thats about it.

 

Well basically what i've learned from this thread is that replacing the oem hood with a carbon fiber hood will have no impact on what will happen in a front end collision except that instead of having a folded up hood I will have little bits and pieces.

 

One word of caution, what you are referring to here is a wet-laid carbon fiber piece with a fiberglass core. It is not particularly light because of the fiberglass core. In fact, if you look at an E46 M3, the stock aluminum hood is in fact slightly lighter than a Vorsteiner carbon fiber hood. Also, upon collision, the hood will actually shatter and splinter instead of crumble like aluminum. That means there would be pieces coming right at you. Just some food for though when you decide to replace your hood.

All this carbon fiber being stronger and lighter talk only applies to dry resin-preimpregnated carbon fiber pieces. They cost a fortune though. You can take a look at the carbon parts offered by Amuse and see how much they cost. Those are the real deal carbon fiber parts for race application.

 

not sure, how about you just film it black like how some of you are doing your roofs? it'll do double duty. the appearance like you want on CF hoods (functionally really no benefit for street use anyway since the stock hood doesnt weight that much anyway) and clearbra-like protection.

at least then you can easily remove it once you're tired of the boyracer look.

 

He speaks the truth! The majority of the quality hoods from Japan are dry carbon and at LEAST 1000-1200 BEFORE shipping here. Compare that to our $400 USA made FRP, CF covered hoods here. Nothing against us USDM guys, but we're more about the style/look of the hoods.

Another option would be to get your OEM hood wrapped in CF. Derno why I didn't think of that earlier.

 

or you could just put CF stickers on the hood like they do with the top trim Dodge Challenger. STICKERS!!

 

Some companies actually designed their cf hood to crack/break at certain area to absorb energy. Without that feature most cf hoods break off at the hinges or latch. Both of which are dangerous since the hood can now go through the windshield or block the visibility out of the front.
Make sure to get hood pins since they help keep the hood secure in an accident. Pins also help the cf hood from slapping the windshield if the latch on it break off (I know a bunch of people that this happened to).

 

CF is more stronger. Look at evo 8's, their wings survive accidents like most of the time haha

 

Just have Ikona wrap your hood in carbon fiber. You get the CF look, dad gets the "safety", and Ikona gets money. win/win/win situation.