The Porsche 718 Cayman GT4, the first racing car made from hemp

A few days ago, Porsche released a new racing car model: the 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport. Developed in Weissach (Germany), at the German manufacturer's Research & Development center, it comes in two versions: a Trackday version priced at 134,000 euros and a higher-performance Competition version priced at 159,000 euros.

The model has the distinctive feature of being partly made of hemp fibers, an alternative to carbon fiber. According to Porsche, this is the first time a sports car has used this material.

Natural fiber vs. carbon fiber

Some parts of the car feature hemp, or more precisely natural fiber, a composite fiber made from agricultural waste including flax and hemp fibers. On this model, the car's doors and spoiler are made from this material. Normally, these parts are made of carbon fiber. Like carbon fiber, natural fiber has the advantage of being both rigid and very light.

According to a Porsche expert, The vibration-damping properties of natural fiber are five times greater than those of carbon fiber. On the other hand, natural fiber is slightly less solid and only slightly heavier than carbon fiber, but it splinters less. It is therefore easier to clean on the track.

It is above all from an ecological point of view that natural fiber outperforms its rival: the material costs 75% less energy to produce. What's more, it can be recycled, whereas carbon fiber has to be burned at very high temperatures. For the time being, it costs more to produce, but the developing uses for hemp will mechanically lower prices.

The auto-mobile market and hemp

15% of French hemp fibre is processed for the automaker market, BMW and Bugatti, for example. Non-woven and thermocompressed, it is used to create parts for dashboards, door panels, window pillars, wheel arches and trunk bottoms. This use is widespread in Europe in almost all car manufacturing companies but had not yet been democratized in the racing world.

400 to 600 tons of hemp fiber per year are used to create bio-sourced plastic components for motor vehicles. Blended with polypropylene and other additives, hemp fiber enables a weight reduction of 20% with no loss of performance, thus helping to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. minimization of CO2 emissions.