shown at SEMA.






Cobb claims that although it should be 1/3 lighter than alumn, it wont offer any performance gains over the traditional alumn setup.  aside from being lighter, it seems like just a bling part.  thoughts?  

stupid as ***  It looks as if the core is still aluminum just with a powder coat finish.  Carbon fiber has poor heat transfer capabilities compared to that of aluminum.  I would rather functionality over looks.  And while cobb stated that there are no performance gains, I'm willing to bet that the heat transfer effiency of the tubing and core have diminished somewhat due to powder coat and parts being made out of cf.  So it performs less is a definate yes, to what degree, I would like to know.  Plus cf is not malleable.  

So if i had a civic with 20 inch chrome rims, huge gauges, extravagant and utterly useless bodykit and spoiler, i might consider it.  

the core is still aluminum, just the endtanks and piping are the only parts that are "composite/reinforced plastic"
Cobb employees also made the claim that heat rejection of the piping is better than aluminum.

you do want something that wont allow engine bay heat to transfer to the piping, but this is pretty over the top and pointless for the price, though.  Its definitely a part that people would buy just to say they have it.  

Looks nice and probably works nice, but the money saved from getting a normal intercooler would go to much better use.

BTW, hat car do they make it for?  

well dpimpreza it depends which is hotter, the compressed air in the piping or air in the engine bay.  I was suggesting that the the intake air while cooled might still be hotter then the turbulent heated air in the engine bay.  In that case the flow of heat would be out of the piping.  Aluminum conducts heat much better then plastic and carbon fiber. So in that case aluminum would be better.  Flow direction and velocity depends on the temperature diff.  whether you want to shield or transmit heat.  

but if the ambient air around the tubing is hotter then yes i would definately agree carbon fiber would be better.  But of courze large tubing is not optimal for heat exchange so there would be little difference.  

true, but in the end, the money this thing will cost over the regular aluminum fmic setup will be much better spent in other areas.  

i know it is significantly more expensive, but was there a mention of a suggested price.  Just curious.  

they were kind of tight lipped about it, the only thing Cobb said is this:

"We have not really began a price study. Keep in mind that at least 3 layers of carbon sleeving have to be used and at ~$30 per yard per layer you can see that just in carbon alone we could have ~$300-500 just in carbon material. The real expense however is the tooling and time. You need to have LARGE billet infusion molds made that can do one whole convoluted pipe. Then each pipe takes several hours to prep, inject the epoxy, cure, trim, remove the epoxy tabs where the epoxy was injected, and get it ready. It is a large undertaking to do the production piping right to say the least. Done right it would actually be stronger than aluminum although less malleable."



"Being a premium product the price to benefit ratio is a little heavy on the price side. That being said, I know I have a few parts on my own car that I bought because I wanted the best even though I know the benefits were only marginally higher than a much less expensive part. In my interview, I didn't want to come across as saying "Oh yes, EVERYONE needs a CFRP intercooler." I knew I'd get grilled on 'the Internets' for that.

There are some definite advantages to using a composite/reinforced plastic for the intercooler endtanks and piping. We chose CFRP for a few reasons with honestly one being market acceptance. Is it "worth it"? That's for you to decide. That's why we wanted to display it and see what fellow enthusiast thought. We're not here to tell anyone what to buy, we simply try to come up with the parts that excite both us and you and YOU tell us what you'll buy."  

yeah probably more expensive then i thought, thanks.  

I'm still waiting for someone to make carbon fiber utensils.  I can't tell you how much my arm gets tired eating my meals.  Seriously how cool would it be to have carbon fiber utensils.  

Haha, that reminds me. You know what the best tool for prying out those little plastic push-in rivets are? A kitchen fork.. It slips right under the head of the push-pin and you just use it pry it out. I tried everything before that and nothing could get it out, they just messed up the head. Vice grips are not a good idea, stick to the fork