TaylorMade Carbon Fiber Drivers Explained: Qi10, Qi35, and the Carbonwood Era

TaylorMade has been chasing the carbon fiber advantage for over two decades. What started as a materials experiment has become the foundation of their Carbonwood™ era — a complete shift away from traditional titanium-faced drivers.

The 2025 Qi10 and Qi35 series represent the third generation of this evolution, using carbon not just in the crown, but across the entire structure for more forgiveness, more speed, and more control.

If you're looking for real insight into how these carbon fiber drivers are built, and whether they actually deliver on the hype, this breakdown covers the full picture.

Origin of TaylorMade’s Carbon Drivers

Where Carbonwood™ Started

Titanium worked until it didn’t. Club designers had maxed out how thin and fast a titanium face could go. That’s when TaylorMade started looking at carbon fiber. It wasn’t just lighter, it gave engineers more control over weight, face response, and overall structure.

After years of testing, the Carbonwood™ concept was born.

Instead of using carbon just in the crown, TaylorMade built the entire face out of it. That shift gave them a clean slate. Weight could move lower and deeper. Energy transfer got more efficient. And mishits flew farther than they had any right to.

Stealth Was the First Real Swing at Carbon

When TaylorMade launched the Stealth driver in 2022, it made an immediate impact. Golfers were curious, skeptical, and ready to test it. A carbon face wasn’t something you saw in most Tour bags, and it definitely wasn’t showing up in weekend foursomes.

But it worked.

The 60-layer Carbon Twist Face™ gave players more speed, better launch, and added forgiveness without changing how they swung the club.

In 2023, Stealth 2 pushed that design further. TaylorMade nearly doubled the amount of carbon in the head and shifted focus to forgiveness — what they called “Fargiveness.”

Off-center strikes flew straighter. MOI went up. And players noticed more stability without any major tradeoffs in speed. Ball flight stayed consistent, and distance remained reliable, even if it wasn’t dramatically longer than the original.

The sound got a small upgrade too, with a brighter, crisper feel through contact. While some still found it quieter than titanium, most testers preferred the new acoustics.

Qi10 and Qi35 Refine the Carbon Platform

Qi10 and Qi35 take TaylorMade’s carbon platform and push it further.

Qi10 uses a 97% Infinity Carbon Crown that helps lower the center of gravity and improve stability across the face. That extra stability keeps launch consistent and ball speed high, even when the strike isn’t perfect.

Qi35 builds on that foundation with a multi-material design. Carbon still drives the structure, but five metals, tungsten, aluminum, titanium, steel, and chromium carbon, are placed inside the frame to fine-tune weight, balance, and feedback. Each one does a specific job, and together they give the head a more responsive feel without adding complexity. The result is a cleaner swing, tighter dispersion, and more control through the ball.

Qi10 Lineup at a Glance

TaylorMade offers four Qi10 models built on the carbon-first platform, each tailored to different swing types and performance goals. All four use the same 97% Infinity Carbon Crown and fast 60-layer carbon face.

Model	Flight Bias	MOI / Forgiveness	Adjustability	Best For
Qi10	Neutral	≈ 8 500 MOI – very forgiving	No	Mid-handicaps wanting straight distance
Qi10 Max	Neutral to draw	≈ 10 000 MOI – highest ever	No (fixed 32 g back weight)	Slicers and players who need max forgiveness
Qi10 HL	Neutral	Higher launch, lighter build	No	Moderate swing speeds seeking speed and launch
Qi10 LS	Neutral / Low Spin	≈ 7 600 MOI – tuned forgiveness	Sliding weight bar	Skilled players chasing low spin and shot shaping

Qi35 Driver Series at a Glance

The Qi35 series takes a more technical approach. These heads still use carbon as the core material, but now the internal structure includes five precision-placed metals: tungsten, aluminum, titanium, steel, and chromium carbon. Each one helps tune the club’s behavior—whether that means lowering spin, increasing feedback, or stabilizing the head at impact.

Model	Materials Focus	Unique Feature	Ideal For
Qi35	Chromium carbon + mixed metals	Adjustable front/back weights (13g/3g)	Balanced forgiveness and low spin
Qi35 Max	Carbon + tungsten back weight	Fixed 34g inertia generator, ~10K MOI	Maximum forgiveness and straight ball flight
Qi35 Max Lite	Same as Max with lighter components	24g lighter weight, lighter shaft/grip	Golfers seeking speed with moderate MOI
Qi35 LS	Carbon + tungsten/aluminum/titanium	Trajectory Adjustment System (TAS) weight ports	Low-spin seekers and precision ball strikers

Each model builds on the same Infinity Carbon Crown and 60X Carbon Twist Face™, but the internals are built to match different player profiles. If you're chasing speed and forgiveness, Max or Max Lite fits. If you're tuning spin and want a head that feels more reactive, the LS offers that control.

Why Carbon Fiber for Drivers

Carbon fiber gives engineers more control over how the driver head performs. It changes how energy moves through the face, how mass is distributed inside the head, and how stable the club feels through impact. The results show up in speed, launch, and forgiveness.

• Improves energy return: The face compresses and rebounds quickly, sending more energy into the ball instead of losing it across the surface.

• Protects ball speed across the face: Directional layering in the 60X Carbon Twist Face keeps speed steady on high-toe and low-heel contact.

• Lowers spin and boosts launch: A lighter face frees up weight for deeper placement, which helps lift the ball and tighten spin rates.

• Improves dispersion: Mishits stay closer to center with less drop in carry distance.

• Builds in forgiveness without softening feedback: The face stays responsive but stabilizes the shot pattern when timing or contact isn’t perfect.

Why TaylorMade Moved Away from Titanium

Titanium dominated driver design for years because it was strong, durable, and relatively lightweight. But it hit a limit. Designers couldn’t make the face any thinner without losing structural integrity.

Carbon fiber opened the next design phase. It delivered the same strength with less weight, which made a larger face possible without adding bulk. That change let engineers reposition mass along the perimeter, increase face flex, and fine-tune performance across the entire head. With less weight up front, they gained more control over launch, spin, and stability.

What Is Twist Face Technology and Does It Actually Work?

Twist Face is a built-in correction for the most common misses in golf. Most players catch the ball slightly high on the toe or low on the heel, which creates gear effect and sends shots spinning offline.

TaylorMade changed the face geometry to fix that. The toe is shaped to sit slightly more open. The heel is slightly closed. That subtle curve helps straighten out those mishits before the ball even leaves the face.

In the carbon models, this shaping gets even more precise. Carbon gives engineers tighter control over face thickness and response, which means the correction works more consistently across the surface. You still have to swing well, but Twist Face gives you a bigger margin when the contact isn’t perfect.

Is Carbon the Future of Golf Drivers?

Carbon fiber gives designers more freedom to shape performance. It weighs less than metal and reacts differently at impact, which makes it easier to control launch, spin, and forgiveness without compromising speed.

TaylorMade was not the first to use carbon in a driver, but they were the first to build a full platform around it. Instead of treating it like a cosmetic upgrade, they developed a face and frame that responded the way players needed it to.

That shift is now influencing the rest of the market. More brands are using carbon in structural ways, from the crown to the chassis. The material is no longer an experiment. It’s becoming part of how modern drivers are engineered.

Carbon That Works Like an Engineered System

These aren’t just carbon drivers. They’re carbon systems. Every layer, cut, and curve in the Qi10 and Qi35 models is shaped with a purpose, whether it’s increasing launch height, reducing spin, or giving you more stability at high swing speeds.

When titanium hit its limits, carbon created new design freedom. The payoff is in the results: tighter dispersion, higher ball speed, and more forgiveness when you need it. TaylorMade restructured the head to perform more consistently across a wider range of swing paths.

Carbon fiber is the same material used in high-performance cars, aerospace builds, and the gear we carry every day. When weight matters, when strength matters, when function can’t get in the way of form, carbon shows up.

Shop carbon fiber gear that’s made to perform and made to be seen.