I'm looking for alloy wheels that look like widened steels - including hubcap. I found these, do you know of any others? Don't want the billet look, but trying to add lightness...
Wheel Vintiques makes those, and they have a couple other styles too. But I don't know of anybody else making anything like them. You must be rolling in money to be wanting to spend $500 per wheel to save a couple pounds. You building a race car or something? Jimmy
Hey wheelkid...there wouldn't be much of a market for them at $500.00, but I think there would be a market at a reasonable price. Most steel wheels (including some I bought from Wheel Vintiques) are not too round...sort of a plus or minus a 1/16" type of a thing. I guess that was ok in the 40's, but now with freeway speeds at times pushing 90mph, the plus or minus 1/16" thing doesn't seem to work out too well. I would be interested in a skinny 1940 Ford style alum. wheel if it was light , ROUND and reasonably priced. I'm building a 60's style 32 W using some old American 5 spokes. My true love is in the 50's style with skinner wheels and tires, but I will switch over when the above alum. wheels and ROUND skinney tires are on the market! Road force balancing....off setting an out of round wheel and an out of round piece of shit tire is stupid.....it's 2007!
I know, I know. Trust me I dont want to spend that much, but I hate to put 50lbs of unsprung weight on each corner too.
wide 5's saved me about 2lbs per corner unsprung...i thought that was pretty good using all old parts
Check the back of Circle Track. Years ago I needed 13" 5 on 4.75" and got them in steel as the aluminum guy didn't want to sell them for street use. They probably have trailer centers (the steel ones did) but a set of Magcaps will hide that. Let us know.
I'm with zman on this subject. For a light car, there's nothing so worthwhile as reducing the unsprung weight. Even better if you can lighten the rotating inertia of the wheel/tire/brake, as ride and acceleration both benefit.
Years of roadracing motorcycles taught me a thing or two, well that and I read a lot. On a bike racing we had figured that saving weight was the same as making more power, and if it was unsprung even more so. Not to mention the handling and ride benefits. I can't remember what the exact figures were but I want to say it was 7 lbs. equal 1 hp (on a bike). I guess I need to work out the math for cars. Or just find someone else who has.
it's just a ratio. hp/lbs just estimate the weight of your vehicle and figure out how many lbs would make the same difference as one HP. as far as alum. wheels. unless the are a spun or forged or billet alum wheel they will be heavier than a comparable steel wheel. as far as out of round goes you can go the same route as all the early bonneville cars did and have the tires shaved after they are mounted. this will true them up perfectly. balance em up and you are ready to cruise at 150
Huh what? I had cast aluminum 5-slots on a 1970 Skylark and they were noticably lighter than standard GM wheels or Pontiac Rally wheels. That car rode really nice and I always wondered if the lighter wheels were part of the reason why.
Typically, Aluminum is ~.1 lb/in3 while steel is .283 lb/in3, so you can have almost 3X the amount of Al before you equal the steel in mass. Then it boils down to tensile strength, and fatique issues. Here's a bike site w/some good entries on Al and Mag matl: http://www.1tail.com/alloy_performance.asp
So what sizes are you thinking about getting? I see if I can get some one to weigh one for me in the same sizes in steel and billet. Jimmy
I started my build thinking I wanted 18x8 and 20x10 plus rubber band tires but I just can't do it. I prefer the old look more, and I'd really love to have some painted steels with hubcaps and 70 series tires. But, the car is built to roadrace so my inner-racer is struggling with my choice. low-profile rubber will be much faster on the track. High profile will be more comfortable on the street. Race wheels will be *much* lighter than steels+70 series rubber, but cost probably 5x as much. However, the roadracing scene isn't the same in US as it was in UK (where tracks were like drag racing is here, cheap and plentiful) so I may only get to the track once a year here. The logical answer seems to go for the cheap, comfortable, nice looking setup for the street. 15" steels, hub caps and tall rubber. And then in the future when I have spare cash buy some race rubber. It seems tires are rarer than wheels and dicate the sizes, but I'm hoping to find 15x8, 15x11 or perhaps the same widths in 16". It's likely that I'll go with steels unless I'm very lucky and find something better. My IFS/IRS is already saving me the weight of a 9" . I've built my own wheels from 3 piece rims and carving a billet center before, so I could in theory create a center that will accept hub caps, but that's not a cheap route either.
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