I am relatively close to Panoz (for those who are familiar with their road racing history, this name may ring a bell)... http://www.panozmotorsports.com

Anyway, I have been speaking for a while now with one of the guys who works there, and expressed an interest in getting a carbon-fiber hatch.

Basically, he's got an integra too but the deterrent has been the cost. For a high quality piece it'd cost $2k-$3k for the mold, and then another $600 or so per c/f hatch..... So the first one could cost anywhere from $2600-$3600... that's a little steep for me. This would be hollow prepeg with honycomb in the middle.

But if we can get say 20 or so people to get in on the group-buy, then we could each get a hatch in the $600 price range and lose some weight off the car.

Please post up ONLY IF YOU ARE SERIOUS. If there is sufficient interest in this product, then I will move forward in coordinating the whole thing. I'm not trying to make any $ off of this, I just have been wanting to get a c/f hatch for a long time and this is the best thing I've found so far.....

Please remember that this may take as long as 6 months to get the molds made and hatches shipped & delivered.

If everything looks good to everyone, I'll set up a paypal account or something...

 

So nice but we need more details like:
1)OEM Fit?
2) OEM holes?
3) OEM plastic lining areas
4) needs pins?


And other stuff like that.

 

Would the CF hatch utilize the glass window or ?

 

I hope the hatch will require a lexan rear window and does not utilize any stock latches.

 

um...wouldn't this allow theives to get in since it wont use any latches? ...

 

Sounds interesting but please add some more details.

 

This is a race part, isn't it?

EDIT:

Then again a lot of sanctioning bodies won't allow aftermarket body panels, so I'm not quite sure what the target audience is.

 

i'm interested if it looks nice...

 

check out a hyper rev mag. i swear i have one with ads in it for a cf hatch for dc2

 

Yeah J's has a frp.


[Modified by B2FiNiTY, 12:08 AM 2/7/2003]

 

J's Racing only makes FRP body panels for the DC2.

 

OEM fit, yes.

OEM holes, yes.

OEM plastic? The holes will be there, but wtf would you put the plastic in there for? I'm trying to save weight here, not ADD weight...

No pins needed. I'm pushing to have oem electric latch/ lock usable, as well as oem hinges and hydraulic mounting points. This is to keep the hatch as generally acceptable as a "street" part for most. No glass will be included, but I'd recommend the FAL rear formed window - to save weight over the oem glass... 3rd brake light could be added or left out as the mounting hardware will work like on the oem hatch. This will be OEM FIT AND FINISH. Waterproof.

And for those who want it race only, they can substitute real lexan and just pins instead of hinges and latches...


[Modified by Black R, 3:41 AM 2/7/2003]

 

Backyard Special makes the only other c/f hatch for dc2 I've seen. The quality of theirs is ****.....

There's a reason they're called "backyard special"
...cause they look like a hillbilly jdm guy made them in his outhouse

I was gonna use that, but this is a better option for me now...


[Modified by Black R, 3:40 AM 2/7/2003]

 

SS Works has FRP panels too

 

i'm in

 

can anyone post pics of the carbon fiber hatch or a frp hatch on a dc2? never seen one before.

 

Im in... pm me as soon as u find out....

 

I would like to see a prototype before I decide to purchase. I am interested though.

 

hrmm... time to start a business.

 

a photochop should be done so that we can see what it would look like on each color.

 

i bet it'll look like carbon fiber.

 

The whole idea here is to get enough people together ahead of time so they can afford to make a prototpe! Jeez!


[Modified by zygspeed, 1:16 PM 2/7/2003]

 

.....ok, it looks like we have 4 ppl here (including myself) + the guy at panoz - so that makes 5.

All we need is 15 more people, and we can actually put this together!

 

LOL!

Did I miss the approx weight saving?

 

what do you expect the weight to be of the hatch with the FAL plexi compaired to a stock hatch with glass....