MenuEverything You Need To Know About "Carbon fibre driveshafts"
The driveshaft takes the power from the engine and takes this to the rear diff where it is transferred to the wheels. The driveshaft rotates at a fair rate and will to some extent act like a flywheel, resisting change in the rotational speed.
A carbon fibre driveshaft has the following benefits.
- It is much lighter than its metal counterpart. So the engine revs more freely. A lighter car will also be quicker and have better handling.
- It flexes along its rotational length absorbing both spikes in power from the engine and traction losses from the diff.
- It breaks into a harmless broom of fibres so is unlikely to cause injury to the occupants in the event of catastrophic component failure.
There are a lot of benefits with a carbon fibre driveshaft but what about the drawbacks? well the price, especially if you require a custom build can be 100 times the price of a standard driveshaft.
The benefits it gives, especially on highly tuned engines makes this worthwhile. A car with a carbon fibre driveshaft will have a smoother power delivery and quicker acceleration/deceleration response.
Front wheel drive cars do not have a long enough driveshaft to make a carbon fibre replacement a viable option.
In Rear wheel drive and 4 wheel drive applications the benefits are well documented.
In a rally environment where there are additional vertical shock forces a carbon fibre driveshafts flexibility will offer enhanced reliability.
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