_rocket

The 6RS came standard with a bonnet made of carbon fibre (from Cup car?) but 7RS did not and nor does the new 2010 RS. Why? Please enlighten me, thanks.

mental dental

Apparently by the time the extra layers of paint and lacquer necessary to ensure a decent finish the weight-saving is not worth the effort.

NJ-GT

6GT3 uses a steel hood, 7GT3 uses a very light aluminum hood. Negligible weight savings from the already light aluminum hood.

Carrera GT

I think the cost/benefit doesn't justify the composites, plus even the very best composites from Porsche are still pretty ordinary. Their $10K wings really need a trip to a great paint shop to be finished with a decent clear finish. : )

As long as the factory puts heavy LED taillights in the RS, they're really not that worried about weight.

GTEE3

Cups come w/ steel...or my '01 did anyway.

_rocket

Even Mk2 6GT3?

MJSpeed

Yes even Mk2 6GT3's...did the 6GT3RS?

Jon70

I've owned both a 996 GT3 and currently have an 08 RS. The 996 GT3 had a carbon hood which was put on by the previous owner. The car came with the stock steel hood which seemed to weigh nearly 40 lbs. In contrast, the 997 RS hood is rather light, and by my estimates likely within 10 lbs of the carbon hood.

NJ-GT

Stock 997 GT3 and 997 GT3 RS aluminum Hood: 17 lbs
Stock 996 GT3 (mk1/mk2) steel hood: 32 lbs
Stock 996 GT3 RS (mk2) carbon hood: 11 lbs
Getty Design 996 GT3 Carbon Hood: 7 lbs
Cargraphics 997 GT3/GT3 RS Hood: 11 lbs

P.J.S.

NICE

Bill_C4S

+1

Needs to be tied down..to stop from floating away....

996FLT6

^ UFO incoming at the track : ). Mike

_rocket

Only 6 lbs difference then. Thanks.

Robert Linton

Yes, like for like, a proper carbon fiber hood should weigh less than half of that of one in aluminum. If, however, you modify the design, even more weight can be removed. As to quality, it goes to tooling and to the skill of the laminator and that goes to budget and profit margin. I have seen $700 hoods that require $4000 plus of filling, sanding and priming to achieve a paint surface equal to that of a metal component. On the other hand, the buyer usually will not pay $4000 to get a high quality part preferring, instead, the "bargain" piece, particularly because, oftentimes, the buyer is either indifferent to surface quality or cannot tell the difference. Having said all of this, I know of no firm that offers a truly superior quality carbon fiber hood (not the least reason for which is that that would require proper CAD design, a $50,000 tool and the quality of laminator and supervision that, with all respect, no one making aftermarket components has).