Is carbon fibre better than utherane?

Question

I want to reduce weight on my car, so i want to know what material is better, lighter and why.

Answer 1

carbon fiber is the best for being lighter and looks, but if your putting on a bodykit polyurethane is the way to go . i had polyurethane bodykit for an sunfire and hit a brick in the road at 60mph an all it done was bust the paint off its very bendable, but down fall is when it is hot outside it gets heavy due to swelling. so carbon fiber should be the best

Answer 2

They serve different purposes. Carbon fiber is stiff and light, and is good for feather-light parts, but it's very brittle. You wouldn't want to make bumpers out of it. Urethane is a sort of flexible rubber, good for bumpers but not my first choice for fenders unless you want Saturn-style dent resistance.

If you hit a golf ball really hard at a piece of urethane, a piece of steel, and a piece of carbon fiber, all the sort of thickness typically seen on cars, you'd probably dent the steel, punch a hole clean through the carbon fiber or leave a large crack - and not leave a mark on the urethane. But in places you don't expect to be hit hard, carbon fiber is the way to go.

You may end up covering it with a thin layer of urethane though - urethane can also be made into paint!