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Wheel stiffness affects performance. -We test Carbon Revolution's CF wheels vs A
Hey guys,
Whether you own a GT350R, Ford GT, or Ferrari 488 Pista with Carbon Revolution's Carbon Fiber wheels or are just looking to buy new wheels for your car. Check out this article that explains the importance STIFFNESS plays in ALL wheels, the effects of reduced unsprung weight, rotational inertia, NVH, and strength (which is different from stiffness) has on ALL wheels.
You'll also learn that carbon fiber wheels are a game-changer, forged & cast wheels have the same stiffness, and lighter is not always better when choosing a set of wheels. Hopefully this article will provide you with more knowledge to make better wheel purchases in the future.
While interesting from a theoretical perspective, I have a hard time getting excited about a set of CF wheels only the very wealthy can afford. Once they get the price down to under $5K a set, it'll be of further interest. Also, many racing bodies won't allow anything other than metallic wheels in their rule sets, so check carefully before sinking any money into these wonderkinds.
While interesting from a theoretical perspective, I have a hard time getting excited about a set of CF wheels only the very wealthy can afford. Once they get the price down to under $5K a set, it'll be of further interest. Also, many racing bodies won't allow anything other than metallic wheels in their rule sets, so check carefully before sinking any money into these wonderkinds.
As mentioned in the article, with volume, price goes down. Increasing output 15X is a good start.
Most of the concepts and importance of weight and stiffness applies to ALL wheels.
Don't have time to read? -Listen in where I join The Exotic Car Hour podcast to discuss the technical aspects from the MotoIQ article on the importance stiffness plays on ALL wheels, clarify some misconceptions of carbon fiber, and talk about my involvement helping to develop some of Ford's greatest cars like the Ford GT and the GT350/R Mustang:
Don't take this the wrong way but, as a competitive cyclist, the benefits of carbon fiber wheel sets is old news. Your marketing piece does suggest a few things that are of benefit to the automotive community for sure and with increased production, maybe there is a reality for street car sometime down the road; but as dkmura implied, there's really no excitement for a set of wheels - at least on a Z car - that cost as much as the cost of the car themselves these days. Strong IMO here and I do wish you luck on your venture and hope I'm proved wrong.
Just FYI, my $4k bike (cheap by competitive standards but that was the cost 10 years ago!) sports a set of wheels worth over half the value of the bike's cost so maybe it's not out of the question.
Don't take this the wrong way but, as a competitive cyclist, the benefits of carbon fiber wheel sets is old news. Your marketing piece does suggest a few things that are of benefit to the automotive community for sure and with increased production, maybe there is a reality for street car sometime down the road; but as dkmura implied, there's really no excitement for a set of wheels - at least on a Z car - that cost as much as the cost of the car themselves these days. Strong IMO here and I do wish you luck on your venture and hope I'm proved wrong.
Just FYI, my $4k bike (cheap by competitive standards but that was the cost 10 years ago!) sports a set of wheels worth over half the value of the bike's cost so maybe it's not out of the question.
The main takeaway (as highlighted in bold) should be the concepts of how stiffness affects the performance of a car, and that applies to ALL wheels. Knowing that flimsy super light wheels may not be the best in terms of performance applies when choosing aluminum wheel A vs aluminum wheel B.
This benefits anyone who is about to buy new wheels for their car.
Very cool stuff. 10-15k acutally isn't as expensive as I thought it would be. If you actually use your car for racing and spent 100K plus on a track car this would be a very worthwhile upgrade.
That being said that's more than I paid for my HR
Motoiq seems to attribute most of their perceived on-track benefits to less wheel flex, in spite of them having significantly reduced unsprung mass which is likely the source of most of the perceived improvements. And their materials "test" is in no way indicative of the actual flex you would see on a cylindrical wheel with those same materials. Not saying CF wheels arent awesomely stiff, but that article is fluffy and soft. And they give nothing to back up their 1deg of flex per g load aside from citing Carbon Revolutions "testing." And then can we maybe discuss the longevity and drawbacks of composite structural anything?
Wheel stiffness affects performance. -We test Carbon Revolution's CF wheels vs A
