Meet the RM-X2. It looks like the kind of SUV Batman would drive around Gotham on one of his crime-fighting sprees… and it ostensibly is the right SUV for the caped crime fighter, because this absolute beast of an automobile isn’t just aesthetically hardcore, it’s a 999hp road devil with an LT5 V8 engine that bestows upon it an acceleration of 0-100km/h in 3.3 seconds, massive all-terrain tires that give it up to 27.5 inches of road clearance, and a body that’s made to practically be an armor. Available in a variety of styles and variants, the RM-X2 has the option of being equipped with B6 or B7 Ballistic Protection, thanks to its body that comprises materials like carbon-fiber, Kevlar, and titanium.
Customizable to fit your needs and wants, the SUV comes in as many as 6 variants with minute changes to the body parts to suit your aesthetic sensibilities as well as switch up the engine or even add an electric motor and batteries, turning the bulletproof SUV into an EV! Don’t get your hopes up about owning one of these though… each RM-X2 costs north of a million dollars, and the company is only slated to make 12 units in 2020.
I assume somewhere in VolleBak’s headquarters lies a massive whiteboard with the words “WHY NOT” scrawled on it, because if the past few months have been any indication, the company’s product launches have been getting progressively stranger but at the same time, exciting just because we’re witnessing one of the most avant-garde movements in apparel and fashion design.
After making kevlar, iridescent, and graphene jackets, VolleBak’s latest uses a material found exclusively in jet engines, missile housings, and supercars. I’m talking about Carbon Fiber, the material that’s lighter than aluminum and stronger than steel. VolleBak’s Carbon Fiber shirt comes with a price tag of $110 which seems pretty reasonable considering it comes made with woven strands of carbon fiber in it. Designed to be worn close to the skin, the material is breathable, lightweight, and wicks moisture incredibly well.
If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering why (and also how) would VolleBak integrate carbon fibers into fashion. Carbon Fiber is known for its incredible strength, which lends its properties to the shirt, making it practically abrasion-proof. Designed to last much longer than any traditional tee shirt, even in the most demanding of scenarios, the Carbon Fiber tee shirt will not scuff, rip, shred, or tear if you accidentally fall off a bike or slip while trekking or bump your shoulder against a tree’s rough bark. In extension, the fabric even protects your skin, preventing damage to itself as well as you. The fabric itself comes made from a yarn that contains thousands of intertwined individual carbon fibers. While you’d expect these fibers to be incredibly tough, the fabric also comprises 36% elastane, giving it strength but also a 4-way stretch, making the VolleBak Carbon Fiber Tee look like just about any other tee shirt you’ve seen, but behave unlike any other. Why not, eh?
With phones becoming increasingly flat and homogeneous over the past few years, many companies like Huawei, Oppo, and OnePlus have begun resorting to CMF to create a factor of differentiation, with gradients, anisotropic reflective metallic finishes, and holographic patterns. As a fan of solid colors, it seems unlikely that Google would adopt that path, but something like this Pixel 4 concept with a carbon-fiber finish is definitely something that would look like a thousand bucks (although quite out of Google’s ball-park).
The rumored Pixel 4’s back obviously wouldn’t be made out of carbon fiber, given that it would definitely affect the phone’s ability to wirelessly charge, but Google could just as easily create a faux carbon fiber pattern in their glass/ceramic back through clever etching. The end result would look as good as a vinyl clad, giving the phone a completely new avatar, with the same body and soul! Hey Sundar, think your team can pull this off?
The Terzo Millennio concept, although debuted last year, still remains an automobile worth drooling over. What’s not to love, with its highly overstated Lamborghini flavor, and the very fact that it’s Lamborghini’s first ever electric vehicle, ditching the V12 for a silent hyperdynamic electric system. However, the head of Lamborghini’s research and development department, Maurizio Reggiani, says that it isn’t anything like the EVs you see and hear about.
Reggiani’s opinion is that the present-day technology used in automobiles built by the likes of Tesla, Nissan, and Jaguar is not suitable to power a super sports car that meets Lamborghini’s wildly elevated standards. The main problems? The weight and the packaging of the battery pack. So, says Reggiani, the Lamborghini Terzo Millennio won’t have a battery pack. It’ll BE a battery pack!
Working alongside the best minds at MIT, Lamborghini has developed a ground-breaking method of storing energy in parts made of carbon-fiber, essentially turning the entire car’s body into a rechargeable battery of sorts. In fact, even the interiors like the seats, or the suspension, or any trim made of carbon fiber can be used to store energy. “Our cars must have a top speed superior to 186 mph, they must be able to run three full laps at full speed on the Nordschleife, and they must have state-of-the-art handling. You cannot do this with the current battery technology,” Reggiani explains. Most EVs have batteries the size of a queen-sized mattress resting beneath the car’s interiors, right between the axles. This solution works particularly well for crossovers and SUVs, but it doesn’t cut it for Lamborghini, since it creates package constraints and adds to the weight of the car. The new technology certainly works for Lamborghini as it allows the car’s body to serve as the battery, reducing one extremely heavy component, while also allowing existing parts to serve a dual purpose.
It’s still way too soon to expect this technology to find itself being used in automobiles. Maurizio Reggiani’s best bet is that if this research project works out well (over the next three years), add a few more years for industrialization and production and you could see Lamborghini’s ultra-futuristic technology and its first ever EV hit the road by 2030. While the car impresses us no doubt, it’s Lamborghini and MIT’s ground-breaking innovation that really is amazing. Beneficient not just for cars, you could also see this technology being used in consumer electronics. Imagine how thin phones and laptops will be if they’re made out of carbon-fiber bodies that serve as batteries?!
Designers: Lamborghini & MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
If you look back at Technabob over the years, you’ll notice that we’ve featured a number of cool watches from TokyoFlash Japan. In recent years, they haven’t been as prolific as back in the day, but they’re still coming up with some really neat and unusual timepieces, like this awesome looking design shown here.
The new Blade watch is their first watch to feature real carbon fiber components, and has a neat, sculpted display which looks a lot like a turbine fan. It’s got a matching black leather band with a carbon fiber surface effect to complete the look.
The watch is available with red, blue, or green LED tubes to display time, which appear as a set of lines which can either blink in position to indicate the current time, or can also replicate the hands on a traditional analog dial. The watch also has an alarm mode, and is rechargeable via a USB cable.
Best of all, the Blade carbon fiber watch is reasonably priced, at just $169. You can order one now over on the TokyoFlash website.
I think carbon fiber is one of the coolest materials ever invented. It can be formed into just about any shape, is extremely lightweight, and somehow still very strong. It’s amazing how the physics of weaving fibers together and then fixing them with resin provides such properties. I’ve got quite a few carbon fiber things these days, from a bezel for my watch to the interior of my car to my keychain. One thing I don’t have though, is a carbon fiber toilet seat.
Yes, for just $480, you can have your very own lightweight and durable toilet seat, made from carbon fiber. According to the guys at Carbon Fiber Gear: “The manufacturing process uses the finest epoxy resin system and 550,000 psi tensile carbon fiber. The carbon fiber features a 2 x 2 twill pattern, the weave looks absolutely gorgeous! Pictures do no justice.” That’s a pretty lofty description of something you’re going to sit your bare ass on and poop through. Still, it does look pretty cool as toilet seats go.
I’m not sure how this would look sitting on an ordinary white porcelain toilet bowl though. It would be cool if someone made an entire toilet from carbon fiber. Then again, that would probably cost five grand.
My favorite part of the product description: “Due to the nature of the product, sales are final.” LOL.
Other than tradition, there’s really no reason that jewelry has to be made from precious metals and gemstones. Personally, I’d rather wear one of these slick glow-in-the-dark rings, fabricated from carbon fiber.
Israel-based Composite Corporation handmakes these rings using carbon fiber and composite materials, along with epoxy resin, and a special phosphorescent powder. The resulting pieces look super cool day or night. When the lights are on, you see that sleek and technical carbon fiber texture, when they’re off, they glow quite brilliantly.
The rings’ makers don’t specify how long you need to charge them, or how long they glow, but there are phosphorescent powders out there that can last anywhere from 15 minutes to 15 hours, depending on the color, so I’m guessing the same applies here. Greens have a tendency to glow longest, followed by blues, with yellows and reds having the shortest glow times.
They’re available in a variety of designs and colors over on their Etsy shop, with prices starting at $79(USD), and each one can be custom ordered to your exact ring size.
There are definitely solid reasons why carbon fiber has been popping up a lot in gadgets and even wearable accessories over the past few years, and it’s certainly not just hype. For one thing, it looks amazing. Sleek and modern, it gives off a smooth feel that works well with […]
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We say “almost” because not matter how awesome, it’s still a freaking fanny pack… but of all the 80’s fashion revival attempts we’ve seen (and no, we haven’t seen many), The Coolest Fanny AKA – The Manny PackTM | AKA – The CF2 from Common Fibers is just aout the most interesting. Not only is it made of carbon fibre, it’s got some features like Bluetooth connectivity and integrated speakers. Considering it’s a staggering $249, you better be very motivated about making a statement of some kind.
When Tony Hawk meets Tony Stark, you get the 121C Arc Aileron. Not your average skateboard, the 121C Arc Aileron puts a motor underneath the board, giving you the familiar feeling of riding a skateboard, with the added push of a brushless DC motor that propels you at up to 35km/h.
Built for the skateboard enthusiasts, and to attract the segway/hoverboard loving crowd, the Aileron isn’t just a thrill-machine… it also serves a higher purpose by being the perfect vehicle for commuting rapidly in the city’s crowded hustle-bustle lifestyle. The Aileron comes from Arc Boards, a company known for their high-performance skateboards in Singapore as well as internationally, and partners with 121C for their carbon-fiber construction. Carbon fiber is by far the most ideal material for the skateboard, making the Aileron weigh just a mere 4 kilos, while also being able to take the load of up to 120 kilograms. Uniquely though, the carbon fiber used in the Aileron is completely upcycled from the aerospace industry, reducing landfill waste, while also ensuring that the material is of the highest aerospace-grade quality.
The Aileron comes with a wireless remote, featuring a beautifully intuitive jogdial control that allows you to speed up or slow down the Aileron. Packed with a motor capable of giving you 35km/h of speed, the Aileron also has a braking system that can be operated by the remote too. Essentially an automobile in skateboard clothing, the Aileron ticks all boxes for being compact, convenient, reliable, lightweight, rapid, and cool, because no one ever looked good on a hoverboard or segway!
