Carbon fiber. It's light, it's strong, and it looks so darn cool. As such, we doubt we're the only ones who've wondered why we don't see more eyewear made out of the stuff. Well, there are a couple of good reasons – namely that it's expensive and difficult to work with. While it's complicated enough to lay it down in sheets to make a crash-resistant race car tub, for example, forming it into intricate shapes like sunglass frames is apparently on another level.
Enter Oakley, the eyewear company already plenty familiar with the challenges of using exotic materials. Oakley has teamed up with racing specialist Crosby Composites to make the upcoming C Six. But instead of laying down sheets in the complex form, Crosby and Oakley mill the frames out of solid blocks of carbon fiber, each 40 layers deep, using state-of-the-art Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) drills spinning at 10,000 rpm for 24 hours to create a single pair of these bad boys. The result could very well be the ultimate driving shades, but don't expect every wheel jockey on the turnpike to be wearing a pair. Oakley is only making 250 of 'em, and they're expected to sell for a cool four grand apiece when they hit the market.
[Source: Carbon Fiber Gear]
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