does anyone know anyone in australia producing Carbon Fibre mini Front ends ?

Nick

for road or track ?

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http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=71255

If this is for the same car you want to put a starlet engine in its going to make life very hard to get it on the road, well, for us people outside SA it would be anyway.

not really - if it's pre '70 in vic it's not an issue

for road..

and it just needs to be engineered.. carbon fibre is as strong as steel so i dont think ill have too much of an issue..

My bold. It's strong in certain directions. It's great stuff under tensile loads, but doesn't do so well under compression. It also tends to have a very limited amount of flexibility and under excessive loads tends to shatter & explode into lots of bits.

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You're only supposed to blow the BLUDDY DOORS OFF!!

It doesnt matter how strong the carbon is, its the resin that shatters. And you might have to do crash testing on it as well.

Were you looking for a bare carbon finish? or purely to save weight?

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Simplify and add lightness

i just want a flip front, and figured it would be lighter and stronger than fibreglass (therefore easier legally), and it will be painted so not exposed weave no..

but once it becomes a flip front its not a structural part of the car anymore. I think the point about its strength is nearly useless, in a crash it'll still be damaged as much as anything else.
Can't imagine it would be cheap either.

Yeah, I'd say there would need to be a lot of extra work done under the shell to maintain the structural integrity, and that would in all likelihood outweigh any savings in the carbon skin.

Glass is actually less likely to shatter under impact than carbon; the fibres have less rigidity (so lower tensile strength as well) than carbon, so up to a point a glass laminate will retain its shape better after impact as it has more "give". The resin binder will break down but the fibres will hold it together, whereas carbon fibres will break with the resin.

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You're only supposed to blow the BLUDDY DOORS OFF!!

If you can prove to an engineer that the shell/subframe assembly has been strengthened to match the strength of the shell with the front panels intact. And that its not going to reduce pedestrian safety by shattering on impact or flopping all over the place.

Putting a flip front in qld means that you have to put a request in writing to queensland transport and to an engineer, outlining all of the changes your looking to make. I guess youd need something similar for SA.

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Simplify and add lightness

I'll need to make a few calls to an engineer to see where I am before I get too serious about buying a flip front I'm just doing my research ATM,

But yes all those are valid points/obstacles

Just a side note on the whole shattering issue with the carbon fibre. A lot of top end race cars actually sandwich some kevlar when they lay up in a mold. Adds more strength, but upon impact when the panel shatters, it still drags behind to minimise debris.
It took me half an hour with really good scissors and nearly a dozen razor blades to do a 100mm cut in some kevlar matting once.
I only used the razor blades cause the kevlar ruined the scissors!!

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Chuck Norris is the only person alive who can kick you in the back of the face!!
mooo, I'm a pig!

I am not sure other states but soon in Victoria Carbon Fiber will be banned from road cars. Better think twice.

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Since light travels faster than sound, people appear bright until you hear them speak

perhaps ill just stick with a steel front end, but still flip front.. shouldnt have too much issue with that.. and still reap the benifits of the conversion