Re: [scca] Wheels

[Kevin Wenzel <kwenzel@privateI.com>]

On Mon, 5 Jan 1998, Jim Buck wrote:

> Man, I wish DuraLight had 14x6s, I picked up an unmounted 13x8 once and
> it felt more like a potato chip!  8 pounds!  No kidding!  Imagine what
> that would do for your braking and acceleration, not to mention
> suspension sensitivity.  I heard somewhere that removing 1 pound of
> unsprung weight (wheels, tires, a-arms, etc.) has the same effect on
> performance as removing 7 pounds of chassis weight.  Using that
> equation, switching to wheels that are say, six pounds lighter would be
> equal to removing 168 pounds from the car 6lbs x 4wheels=24lbs x 7
> =168!      

It definitely feels like it makes that much of a difference - I had been
running with steel 13x8 wheels (those were the yellow ones, for people
who have seen pictures - 19# each... yick), and when I switched to Weld 
roadracing wheels (13x9, 5" backspace, something like 10# or so - Iain 
knows, he actually weighed them) it made a *huge* difference in feel.  I 
did the caster plates at the same time, so I started whacking lots of cones 
on the inside of corners...  Turn-in was dramatically affected.  

Kevin Wenzel
1981 VW Scirocco S (w/1.8 JH) - DSP #81 (Blix)
Director of Network Operations, privateI, LLC        
http://www.privateI.com/


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