Wheel weight versus rigidity
 

I caught this over at og-made.com. Its a comparison of wheel weights versus wheel rigidity.

What they did is take a set of standard Enkei GTC-01 wheels (18x9 +22 at 23.76lbs) and compared it with a special lightened version (made specially by Enkei for the test) with the same specs but 19.8 lbs.

The cliff notes: The standard available wheel is faster around the test track by .5 a second. It even shows that even though the lighter wheel gives better acceleration, it doesn't necessarily translate into a higher top speed.

Regular High Rigidity GTC-01
Best Lap: 1 min. 4.646 seconds
Top Speed: 147.16 km/h @ 17.83 seconds

Specially Lightened GTC-01
Best Lap: 1 min. 5.045 seconds
Top Speed: 141.46 km/h @ 17.74 seconds

Full article available here: http://www.seccs.org/members/nkoan/O...e-English1.pdf

There is probably a lot of room to break down this test (first and foremost being that Enkei made a lightweight version of their wheel to show that their production model is better) but its an interesting read to say the least.

There is no technical data on the rigidity. The areas they show are classic areas for lightening wheels by removing unnecessary weight without compromising rigidity. They don't talk about reducing spoke cross section or changing the material composition.

Put the sucker on a stand, and put some lateral and torsional forces on it. :rolleyes:

The tires tell me they were going faster and overdrove the corners, not that the wheels were flexing. Where is the lateral g and speed data with any detail to be useful. A cheap G-tech Pro/R would have given useful data, something like Scott's GPS/accelerometer would be even better.

This is an advertisement for these Enkei wheels, not a useful analysis of weight vs. rigidity IMHO.

Comparing "name" wheels with the appropriate Rota knockoff would be just as telling.

Makes sense to me. Theorectically a small change in a wheel's weight would have no effect on top speed. Top speed is only a matter of power, friction, and aerodynamics.


Now if these wheels were placed on a conveyor...

JUST KIDDING! Don't throw anything at me.

The rigidity is easily modelled with finite element analysis. They show a screen shot of this in the article, but it would be best to know what the difference in rigidity is. I wouldn't be surprised if they did no real analysis.

if friction and aero were both affective, then consider spoke aero. think of that one blinged out e36 bimmer with wheels that had chrome spokes shaped like turbine blades.

These?

http://www.bmwe34m5.com/img/reference/turbine.jpg

I'm gonna guess the cooler brakes vastly improved lap times vs. the worse drag. ;)