Ferrari To Shun Carbon Fiber For Aluminum In Future Models

Everybody knows that carbon-fiber reinforced plastic is the material for cars of the future, right? Well, maybe. But Ferrari, for one, is not so sure.

In its quest to make lighter cars by reducing the use of steel, the Prancing Horse is casting its lot with aluminum rather than carbon fiber. Despite the high-tech aura of the lightweight black plastic, Ferrari insists that aluminum is superior for most cars, a position that goes against the grain of recent announcements from McLaren and BMW committing to carbon-fiber use in their existing or future models.

Read Article

dlin - 11/9/2011 3:59:00 PM

+1 Boost

Wait for several years and it'll be clear.

Joe_Limon - 11/9/2011 4:09:08 PM

+2 Boost

New aluminum alloys provide similar strength/weight characteristics to carbon fibre with the benefit of being weldable and machinable. It's a much more flexible working material with a very good potential of becoming lighter/stronger then carbon composites thanks to metal matrix composites.

cs4444 - 11/10/2011 8:30:05 AM

+1 Boost

The BMW i cars have a carbon fiber passenger cell that sits atop an aluminum sub frame which houses the battery and motor. Carbon fiber is lighter and stronger which is why is it used in almost every racing series. The only reason Ferrari is sticking to aluminum for the time being is because they haven’t developed a cost effective way to mass produce/ and assemble carbon fiber vehicles.

"Laying up carbon fiber, as the process is called, is particularly time- and labor-intensive, though. That makes it suitable only for cars that are produced at a rate no quicker than one per day, Ferrari engineer Patrizio Moruzzi says. Aluminum, on the other hand, is better suited for production of Ferrari’s magnitude, in the neighborhood of 30 cars per day."

"And production will shift away from welding and toward bonding with glue. In the current 458 Italia, there are 70 meters of welds and 8 meters of glue. "In the future there will be more bonding than welding," Moruzzi says. That’s why Ferrari can use aluminum that wouldn’t be suitable for welding."

Yonder7 - 11/10/2011 11:41:38 AM

+2 Boost

This will looks silly butI think is cause since they are using CF and Plastics , their cars catch fire more often.

quizz - 11/11/2011 12:55:08 AM

+2 Boost

Imagine if they used a magnesium frame, a real nice fire there.

xjprou - 11/11/2011 7:06:31 PM

+1 Boost

Now I understand why they are having a hard time in F1!
While everybody making racing cars and even in the aerospace industry finds the advantages in carbon fiber, Ferrari geniuses are going to swap to aluminum construction.-
I hope that for next year F1 championship, they have a better idea of what they are going to do!!