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What would you think if you´d be the driver?Video by Setra Motorsport
I was actually at the same DN track day when this happened. Inge's car was running plastic windows as well and as you can clearly see, they don't seal properly at high speed due to their light-weight allowing the wind to get in between them. At 174mph, the wind wins LOL. He did retrieve the door, but then had to use copious amounts of duct tape to refix it in for the remainder of the track day, which I was absolutely gutted about, as he'd promised me that the next lap I could go as a passenger LOL.
Hello everyone. As a manufacturer of these doors, I would like to answer a few questions.
We produce all carbon parts using the infusion method with subsequent drying in an oven. The front side is made of three layers of carbon and one layer of carbon-kevlar. Kevlar is added for additional protection of the outer part from tearing upon impact. The inner part consists of four layers of carbon and the middle of the door is reinforced with an additional layer. All places where locks and door hinges are attached are reinforced with an additional layer of carbon. The door also has internal ribs, which give additional rigidity to the door and make it possible to install all factory components. The epoxy resin that we use is certified for the aviation industry and has UV protection.
We do not use gelcoat as a front layer in production. This adds strength and makes the door lighter, but slightly complicates painting or applying clear coat.
The doors are glued with high-quality and durable two-component glue. The same glue is used to glue carbon roofs of cars. We glue metal crash bars with the same glue and rivets. In the center, we use a special sealant that remains elastic and does not leave marks on the front of the door. We take metal crash bars from original metal doors. On the doors of the E46, the crash bars are installed on bolts, just like on the original doors.
About small defects on carbon parts. Unfortunately, all parts are made by hand and, like all living people, we can make mistakes and we cannot always do everything 100% perfectly, but we try. Some defects on the forms appear after some time and it is not always possible to notice and correct them in time, but since the doors are usually painted or clear coated, all these defects can be easily removed.
Painting carbon doors is slightly different from painting metal ones. Due to static electricity, dust sticks very strongly and it is much more difficult to remove it than from metal parts. Therefore, we polish all the parts after painting, this gives a good result.
If you are interested, I can describe the painting process.
Regarding the strength of carbon products, you can watch this video.
Of course, if you fly into a pole at a speed of 150 km per hour with a door, it will not save you, but a metal door will not be a 100% guarantee either.
A little later I will make a video of the doors on my personal car.
We are now in the process of obtaining TUV certification and after that we planned to do tests of the doors in comparison with metal ones, but most likely this will be next year.
If I missed something, write, I will try to answer.
Also, sorry if I write not quite correctly, English is not my native language.
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