There is something fishy about the Corvette C7 Z06 and C7 Stingray "full carbon fiber" hood

When the newest generation of Corvette was introduced by +Tadge Juechter on behalf of +General Motors , there was a lot of press noise regarding "extensive use of weight reducing carbon fiber composites used for the first time on a mass produced car".

This announcement sounded right down impressive and gave the potential buyers an illusion of featherweight super car that could be purchased on a relative shoestring budget.

As the dust settled, the truth started to surface and all of the sudden, the illusion of featherweight resulted in right down obese car.  Then, the illusion began to erode even further after GM confessed to limiting the use of carbon fiber composites to hood and roof only and using so called super low density SMC for the rest of the car (except for the rocker panels which continue to use a rather conventional fiberglass composite).

But even so, given the alleged budget price of the car, a carbon fiber roof and hood on Corvette should be right down impressive but is it all like Juechter would like the dimwitted Corvette enthusiasts to believe?

According to Plasan Composites, the technology used to make those "full carbon fiber" hoods and roofs is a true technological marvel.

How are these parts supposed to be made?

Each part is hand layed in its Nickel Vapor Deposition  tool on an indexing table outside the press, using prepreg from a robotically cut kit produced in another part of the facility, since the technology doesn’t exist yet to do automated layup of very complex geometric parts with the compound sweeps that you find in automotive.

When layup is complete, the canopy is pulled down over the part and smoothed into place. Then the table indexes into the press chamber, and its front and rear doors close. A pressure box (slightly larger than the tool) descends from above, sealing off the top and sides of the tool and bladder. A vacuum is drawn, and a very small column of air completely surrounds the tool and bladder inside the box. Pressure is applied to the top of the box (and, therefore, the air column) by a hydraulic ram. In this sealed environment (which doesn’t require nitrogen because the process tightly controls exotherm) the tool surface rapidly heats, enabling resin to flow quickly before crosslinking begins. This supposedly accounts for a much-improved surface finish.

As one would logically expect, both layers of the parts should be that pre preg carbon fiber, resulting in a full carbon fiber part.

But... here is a little rub... looking at the photo of a damaged Corvette C7 hood, the upper layer of carbon fiber seems to be somehow missing... 

In fact, the top layer look a lot like SMC, as demonstrated in this photo, exhibiting the exact same manner of failure...

So the question here is, what is the real story here?  Where is the carbon fiber?  The carbon fiber inner layer is clearly visible but what about the upper layer?  Obviously, it is not the same material as the inner layer and it looks nothing like anyone would carbon fiber to look?  Who is lying here, Plasan or GM?  Certainly, this is nothing one would expect from a FULL carbon fiber hood.

The other troubling part is the apparent lack of bond between the inner and outer parts of the hood, is it a failure or design of the hood?  According to Plasan, both half should be bonded, to improve the rigidity of the part but this is certainly not the case here.

However, what is described here easily explains why the rather pricey option of visible carbon fiber center hood section requires Plasan to resort to installing an extra section of actual carbon fiber textile on top of the original outer layer.  By all accounts, if the upper part of the hood was indeed real sheet of carbon fiber, this activity should be limited to choosing a top grade hood and eliminating paint around the exposed area.  Ironically enough, the "visible carbon fiber section" results in weight gain, not weight reduction as it would be with an actual carbon fiber hood (minimal savings from less paint but still...) and lack of the truly unsightly elevated edge of the bullshit exposed carbon fiber veneer.

Now, the official story is that the upper layer is not of show quality and thus, the veneer but perhaps it is there because the carbon fiber is not on the outer side at all?  Certainly, the value of GM bullshit and owners gullibility are priceless as usual.