I noticed the same thing after the first race I ran. The carbon is from componet grade fiber. As for other hop-ups. I took the time to do a lot of them to mine (built my own) and bought some. The only thing I would sugest is the light-wieht 2 speed shaft. I had my car so light from hop-ups that I had to put 57cents in the car to get weight after removing the titanium screws and hinge pins. And with a worn set of tires, I was still at 1726grams.