<<Subject: Re: Steel Wheels vs. Wires
When I switched from
street tires to race tires for autocrossing I immediately started getting
stress cracks in the STEEL wheels on my MGA, like one cracked wheel for
every 20-30 minutes of track time. I have since procured a nice set of
aluminum wheels, so no more
breakage.
Incidentally, the aluminum wheels are very stiff, and as a result provide =
a
much improved feel of firmness to the handling of the car, no more hop-ski=
d
from a little bump in a turn.
Barney Gaylord>>
I agree, Barney. I used to run stock wheels (for a race or two) on pushrod
style suspension (Twinkie stuff wasn't accepted). They broke up. After I g=
ot
my letter from the factory (wonder where Don Hayter is now) and put the
Twincam stuff back on, I actually tore the centre out of a TR6 wheel in th=
e
middle of a corner (I had converted the knock offs to bolt on for ease of
wheel sourcing).
I went to magnesium and the improvement was remarkable =97 especially at 1=
20 mph
downhill into a hairpin corner =97 with steel wheels the car would squirm =
and
hunt all over the place, while with real mags it just went straight and
smoothly into the corner.
For vintage I have reconverted to original Twincam (well, almost original =
- I
seem to have a set of slightly wider ones somehow....), and they are actua=
lly
surprisingly good, stable, and strong, if somewhat heavier. Much better th=
an
the old pushrod style (both 1500 and 1600 variations) which are much too w=
eak.
I also managed to pull the centre right out of a Corvair reversed steel wh=
eel
(13") that I was using for autocross, while travelling under an underpass
sideways in the middle of the night. But that is another story, and I was
_much_ younger.
Bill S.
|