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Re: Which cars use cf first?
Carbon fibre has been around for a long, long time. Earliest car that I know of to use it was the Gulf GT40s which used carbon reinforced panels.
Having said that the way carbon fibre looks has changed a lot over time. The typical striped pattern we all know only really dates back to the mid eighties and is only the most common form since the early nineties. True the MP4 was the first full carbon fibre chassis, but that had a very rough unfinished textured surface, using modern carbon fibred decals (if there was a kit) would look wrong. Carbon fibre was used in F1 way before that however. Graham Hill’s team used a carbon fibre rear wing mount on their 1975 Lola built chassis. It tragically collapsed during the Spanish GP, causing the car to crash into spectators, killing several.
Best thing to do is collect references on the car you are building. Making generalisations will only lead to mistakes. Like I recently saw somewhere a Lotus 107 (IIRC) with carbon fibre decals all over the suspension - very wrong as carbon fibre didn't come into use for wishbones and pushrods until the late nineties. Even more embarrassing was a build-up of a McLaren MP4/13 which the guy had superdetailed including horizontally mounted front springs and dampers. Wrong, the MP4/13 heralded a return to vertical dampers.
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