Carbon Fiber Rims

[Drew]

Is anyone out there running full carbon fiber rims??
Looking at a second set of wheels, was originally going to pick up a second set of the OEM ACR wheels but then kinda got interested in the idea of a full carbon set.
I like the look of the forged 360 CF Straight 5ive rims.

Any knowledge of how they stand up to track use or are they a bling thing and not so good of an idea for speed and hard braking / cornering

You must be registered for see images

I think these would look pretty sweet on my car

Drew

 

[AbsolutHank]

For the record, those are just carbon overlays. Search member FLATOUT...Andy has run multiple sets on his red Vert.

 

[Drew]

Overlays as in wrapped?
What in the actual rim made of?

 

[troublemaker]

I haven't seen Flatout around in a while. Nice looking wheels, even if they are overlays.

 

[AbsolutHank]

Overlays as in wrapped?
What in the actual rim made of?

You need to PM him over on the Alley

The faces are machined out to accept the carbon pieces... It's not just the standard wheel wrapped. The metal is forged aluminum like all 3pc wheels

 

[SSGNRDZ_28]

Only recently have full carbon wheels been made available for vehicles... and they run 10-15k I believe.

http://www.carbonrev.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pvGadQiB44

Not full carbon, but carbon barrel:

http://www.hrewheels.com/blog/hre-previews-cf2-carbon-fiber-wheels-at-sema-2012/



From what I can tell these full carbon wheels are as strong or stronger than forged aluminum equivalents and would be fine for tracking. The Sidewinder II wheels are very light for their size and probably a better value than these full carbon options IMO until the price starts coming down. The wheels with carbon overlays are purely done for cosmetic reasons as far as I know.

 

[MoparMap]

Yeah, full carbon wheels for a full size car is probably going to be a very small market. For my senior design project in college we built a formula SAE car (think Indy car but with a 600cc motorcycle engine, so smaller) and played with carbon rims for it. Our first designs were full carbon, but you have to put slugs in where the lugs go because carbon does not like being loaded up through its thickness. Our later designs were a carbon barrel with an aluminum center section that bolted on (much easier to make as well since you were trying to get crazy angles between the spokes and the barrel on a full carbon rim). Either way they were a total pain to make and really a "best guess hope this doesn't fail" kind of design. We put one into a curb and splintered the wheel lip pretty bad, but it survived okay.

The big thing that people don't necessary realize about carbon fiber is that it's not necessarily stronger than metal depending on how you look at it. Carbon fiber is strong directionally (think wood with across and along the grain), so if your forces are from all directions you have to build up one dang thick piece of carbon fiber to be able to withstand the somewhat random loading (aka $$$$). Wheels see all kinds of loadings from all sort of directions with suspension actions, so a carbon rim might not even be all that much lighter than an aluminum one by the time you get it thick enough to withstand the loadings from all directions. To give an idea, our formula car weighed about 600-700 pounds with a driver, so 150-200 pounds per wheel and our rims were probably 1/4" thick. Increase the weight 5x and your probably looking at a pretty substantially thick wheel.

 

[Viper Grenade]

Just stick with an overlay of CF. The price to do a full CF rim is crazy. Daymag makes them and even with the Mg center they are about $2,500ea.

 

[anton28]

I haven't seen Flatout around in a while. Nice looking wheels, even if they are overlays.

His on the alley site

 

[VIPER GTSR 91]

Is anyone out there running full carbon fiber rims??
Looking at a second set of wheels, was originally going to pick up a second set of the OEM ACR wheels but then kinda got interested in the idea of a full carbon set.
I like the look of the forged 360 CF Straight 5ive rims.

Any knowledge of how they stand up to track use or are they a bling thing and not so good of an idea for speed and hard braking / cornering

You must be registered for see images

I think these would look pretty sweet on my car

Drew

Def. a Bling thing as you asked and if your just showing your car they are really cool and would stand out from other wheels. For track you want the lightest and still durable without having to worry about scuffs or looks.

 

[SNIPERDOG]

Do want.,.,.,

 

[Nine Ball]

The carbon wrapped wheels are just for appearance. They actually weigh more than regular forged wheels, due to the additional wrap overlaid on them. The only true lightweight carbon wheels use an aluminum center and a carbon fiber barrel. Big bucks, well over $10,000 a set.

The negative of carbon hoops? If you have any sort of impact or curbing damage, the barrel is ruined.

If you are just shopping for lightweight wheels, I'd suggest 1-piece monoblock forged aluminum wheels. These will be lighter than 3-piece forged wheels.

Tony

 

[VicTxV10]

I haven't seen Flatout around in a while.

He's need suspended from the VCA. Not sure for how long.

 

[SilveRT8]

He's need suspended from the VCA. Not sure for how long.

SUSPENDED ?
Where's he hanging now ?

 

[v10viperbox]

Seriously just find wheels that you like then have them hydro-dipped in a carbon fiber weave and shoot a crud ton of clear over it. That is if you want the look of carbon.

HRE shows only a few pound difference between there entirely carbon wheels and the 3 piece custom stuff and I could think of a lot of things for 10K difference that would make you faster then 12-15lb's of unsprung weight.

 

[Hostile]

I have carbon fiber BSTs on one of my motorcycles if I could have

a set for my Viper it would be the best an quickest performance mod

I can think of.

Skeeter

 

[Sonoman]

Yeah, carbon rims are great on motorcycles-- but bikes, at their light weight, don't have as much trouble with rim damage as cars do! I seldom hit a big pothole on my Ducati, it's too easy to steer around them!

 

[SoCal Rebell]

Why not just pop for a set of Magnesium rims?

 

[tcsracing1]

Dymags make full carbon wheels but had their issues..

These new guys are looking very serious however:

www.carbonrev.com

 

[Drew]

Spoke with rep from this company.
15k a set. They only make a couple sizes and bolt pattern.
They stated nothing planned for viper sizes, but if interest was there they would consider it. They figured price would come down in time, but right now they are feeding a niche market.
Someone's gotta pay for the technology and tooling.

I could go through 4 sets of sidewinders for that kind of money. Not into the bling factor, watching carbon revs YouTube video was what made me ask my initial question.

So staying with stock acr wheels.

Dymags make full carbon wheels but had their issues..

These new guys are looking very serious however:

www.carbonrev.com