The hollow carbon fiber wheels on the 2013 Agera R are incredibly light. Developed by Koenigsegg carbon fiber wheels are 40% lighter than forged aluminum.

How do you make a Bugatti Veyron even more opulent? With carbon fiber of course. Lots and lots of carbon fiber. Oh, and did I mention gold? It’s not real gold, but Mansory, the company responsible for this monster, has spread golden-alloy accents all over this super car.

It took minutes for great submissions to start rolling in on our new “Send Us Your Pictures” campaign. The early entries include custom carbon fiber longboards, sporty autocross cars and manned aircraft replicas. (For more information about the drive, see the submission page.) You’ll see more of these projects and others in the coming weeks [...]

Glass manufacturer Owens Corning joined BASF, the largest chemical company in the world, and aerospace composite manufacturer TenCate in an effort to reduce the cost of composites in mass-production vehicles.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory opens new research facility; Lamborghini Veneno and BMW i3 debut at Geneva Auto Show; A guitar made at the Techshop; Composites in cars, planes help save on fuel.

The future of commercial carbon fiber may lie in the mountains of Tennessee. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, one of the nation’s top federal science research institutions, opened up a new carbon fiber manufacturing research facility this week to find a way to make the advanced material more cost-effective for commercial industries.

Unlike the carbon fiber BMW i3, the Veneno is not designed with practicality in mind. Practicality isn’t even allowed in the same building. To drive in reverse — probably not a common occurrence in this car, anyway — the driver needs to have a spotter, or stick his head out of the open scissor door.

Check out this carbon fiber guitar (and great project overview) made by Instructables user “workislove”. He hand-crafted a composite guitar using carbon fiber and fiberglass with an epoxy resin base for a playable, durable instrument he created himself.

Jeff Gordon blew out his right-front tire and collected Matt Kenseth during the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway March 17, giving fans a look at how NASCAR’s new carbon fiber hood reacts during a wreck.

The BMW i3 city car, to premiere at the Geneva Auto Show in May, will introduce carbon fiber into the consumer vehicle market. Unofficially, it may start the next stage of the consumer-grade composite arms race.

The international market for carbon fiber, often associated with high costs and scarcity, is expected to grow rapidly as popular vehicle manufacturers look for ways to decrease vehicle weight to meet government standards — vehicle fleets in the US must average 54.5 mpg by 2025 — and consumer desires. Once available only in special luxury or racing models, carbon fiber is finally entering the consumer market.