Re: Flywheel

["Aaron D. Patton" <apatton1@airmail.net>]

> 
> At 20:10 10/6/97 -0000, you wrote:
> >I read somewhere that lightening your flywheel will give you quicker
times
> >out of the hole and out of corners. Any truth to this and any drawbacks?
> >
> The lighter the flywheel, the faster the engine can accelerate - less
mass
> in the drive train to spin up. If you get too light, the engine will not
> like to idle smoothly at normal speeds, so beware going whole hog on
this. I
> don't know figures on how much to remove for Sciroccos, but Beetles used
to
> get by with flywheels cut to about 1/2 the stock weight.

This is true.  But in a VW, which does not exactly have a great surplus of
torque, the added inertia of the regular flywheel helps when taking-off and
accelerating out of a slow corner.  For most people, who never see a race
track, sticking with a stock weight flywheel is a logical choice.  For
racing....that's another thing.  If your engine is going to be spending a
lot of time in the upper RPM range, and you need it to wind up quickly, a
lightened flywheel is a bonus.  BTW, if I remember correctly, Sachs makes a
lightweight aluminum flywheel for watercooled VWs.
ADP
:-) >

"Listening to music is listening to all noise, realizing 
that its appropriation and control is a reflection of 
power"
 Noise - The Political Economy of Music. Jacques Attali.
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