What is the difference between dry carbon and carbon fiber?

What is the difference between carbon fiber and dry carbon?

• I was looking at carbon trunks for a Mustang GT, and noticed the dry carbon trunk was $1600 when the carbon fiber trunk was $600. Is one more durable than the other? Significantly lighter? I didn't think you could get that much performance out of a lighter trunk, at least $1000 worth... And please do NOT leave an answer about the manufacturing process

• Answer:

  Dry Carbon is Carbon Fiber that is manufactured in a different way. The plain carbon fiber you are referring to is actually called "wet" carbon versus, obviously, the dry carbon you were asking about. I took this directly from Seibon's website: "...As for pros and cons, here is a brief summary: Simply put, with dry carbon, you get the most strength and save the most weight. The weaves and quality are more consistent, but they are generally 3 to 4 times more expensive than wet carbon. Wet carbon products are hand-laid, and are more prone to small defects like wavy weaves and tiny bubbles. They do not save as much weight as their dry carbon counterparts. But on the plus side, you get an incredible combination of visual attraction, weight-deduction, and most importantly, price. All products you see on our website are wet carbon. Wet carbon products are also the most popular and most commonly referred to as just "carbon fiber" ----------- http://www.seiboncarbon.com/faq.asp Dry Carbon is commonly impregnated into a mold and then vacuum sealed for strength, not requiring heavy doses of Resin to keep it together. Wet Carbon(which is what I worked with on the racecars I built) will use a lot of Resin and other forms of adhesive to keep it together and in "shape." Dry carbon is much more expensive due to the cost of manufacturing and the smaller demand. On a trunk the weight savings would be minimal and a "wet" carbon trunk is more than adequate. Hope this helps, Good luck!