While McLaren made a lot of noise with their new P1 hyper car, this year’s Paris Motor Show has been quiet for Ferrari. They didn’t have anything new to present, just some nicely trimmed models from the bespoke department. But they had brought along a big slab of carbon fiber that sat in the middle of their stand like an sculpture or something.

That is the the F1-inspired carbon fiber chassis for a new limited edition car they have in the pipeline. It takes no genius to say that it’s the new F70, the replacement for the Enzo.This chassis is 20 percent lighter than that of the Enzo, but about 30 percent more rigid and stiff.

The chassis uses four different types of carbon-fibre and is hand-laminated then cured in autoclaves following engineering processes which optimise the design by integrating the different components.

The main structure is made from T800 carbon with local, strategic applications of T800UD, a unidirectional carbon-fibre tape, for reinforcement. To ensure weight was kept to an absolute minimum, the structural underbody and the cross-member are made from another type of particularly high tensile strength carbon-fibre known as M46J. In certain critical areas, such as the doors, very tough T1000 was adopted as it is particularly efficient in terms of impact absorption which is why it is used in the nose-cone of the single-seaters. Carbon-fibre is combined with Kevlar® for the undertray to prevent damage from debris thrown up from the road.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7tCSG68yAw