Why dont you guys just wrap your hood in CF vinyl???? Easy fix, still lighter than wet carbon..

Because of the vents, or style.
Modifying the stock hood can work also but usually just as much as buying a CF hood.

I've always felt that you should either do real carbon fiber, or not at all. "CF" vinyl just doesn't look right to me.

This too.

http://www.the370z.com/members/jason...04-22-13-3.jpg

Here's my carbon creation hood. Fitment was perfect. Think I paid around $600. I love it.

agreed. CF vinyl is ghetto looking and people that know CF can spot it from a mile away. Im going to attempt to wrap item in real CF but I wont do vinyl.

I have a Seibon carbon fiber hood. I have had it for two years now, and keep it garaged at work and home. It is turning yellow and has two small cracks, one from a model at a car show leaning on it, and one from closing it too hard. It still looks pretty cool, and I do like it, but there is no performance gain from it.

Carbon fiber is not all the same. There are many different resin systems that can be used, and a few different molding/ curing processes. Almost all of the aftermarket carbon fiber available uses the cheapest/weakest resin systems. I am pretty sure that all aftermarket carbon fiber hoods use some form of filler/backer like chopped fiberglass. I don't think even the high end "dry" hoods are full carbon fiber.
If you want to save a lot of weight, and get some horse power as well, go with a titanium exhaust!

But even then a Ti exhaust is really not better.
With a dry CF hood you are removing weight from the front of the car which is huge, while with a Ti exhaust is low and rear half. Also, with a good CF hood (dry or wet) you need to focus on two things, weight & ventilation. Being able to remove pressure and hot air is huge when trying to not lose power, keeping the car in its maximum performance area for as long as possible can be the largest factor.

I was just getting ready to type this. And I really don't think a thread asking about cf hoods is the place to say "cf hoods are crap. Buy one of my Ti exhausts."

Yeah, a bit of a...don't buy X buy my product.
Also, seeing some of the dry CF hoods made by Varis/TS/etc I would say they are fully CF and very good quality. The only issue I ever hear about is the clear is not the best. Though it seems most buy it and just redo the clear and the hood lasts for years without yellowing or cracking.

I got the AMS CF hood for around 550$, fitment was perfect. I never intended to keep displaying the CF so I had it colormatched. I merely wanted some form of aggressive vents.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...Teg/photo3.jpg

First of all, I said that I still like my hood, even though its not the best quality!
Secondly, an other user mentioned that for weight savings a battery is a better idea than a hood. I just threw in that a titanium exhaust saves a lot of weight and gaines power too. Just food for thought on weight savings.

I am pretty sure the Varis hoods are double sided carbon, with carbon on the under side carbon on the top side, but with fiberglass as the main structure of the hood.

Gotcha. I see where you're coming from there.