The carbon can be made in many colors and the spoke pattern can be custom designed to your application..... The starting price on these wheels are 1500.00 for any size and width up to 18X10.5 the spoke design ranges from 250.00 to 1500.00

The 8lb wheel is our heavist wheel to date and our next gen wheel will have a Titanium hollow spokes and weights only 5.5 lbs, however they will not be aval. for 4 months.


they have passed every D.O.T. test including
(a) Radial Fatigue Standard test is 2.5 million cycles ours passed 5 million
(b) Cornering Fatigue 1.2 million cycles
(c) Radial impact testing this is the one that everyone worries about.. our wheel exceeded the imapct test by 60KG which has never been done before.
(d) was a repeat of A, B, C with low profile tire... this test not required by JWL or BSAU
(e) additional impact on unsupported inner flange without tire ( no wheel has ever passed this before our wheel)
(f) CASS test enviormental chamber designed to add age to the wheel
(g) repaet A, B, C on wheel post CASS test

after all testing the wheel was pressure tested to assure no micro cracks

This wheel compared to the Z06 wheel was twice as strong and held up better in impact testing then the Z06 wheels and we did it without the center spokes we also did all the same testing once again with only 1 support bolt in each spoke rather then the normal 2
People should realize how strong carbon fiber is... look at all the aircraft using this stuff.... unlike Alum this does not have a memory if you bend alum one time it looses more then half of its strenght..... I guess what I am saying after we tested these wheels, I do not like driving on any other wheels.

 

wow it actually looks pretty cool!

 

Damn...this looks revolutionary...

 

wow, that is pretty crazy. i am assuming that you can build the wheel with a huge lip too, being that the rim itself has the strength you say it does. placing the spokes further inside the wheel should create a pretty good looking wheel, as well.

 

I am a bigger fan of the TWEEL.

 

talk about weight savings!

when you can do one of these babies in 11", i'm there.

 

The OWNER of the company and his comments can be found here ....

http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46703

I am not affilliated but in aww of the product.

Dario

 

Being that I used to work in the composite field I will give my take on this subject. I really not sure it’s a great idea to run these wheels on the street, or even the track for that matter. Composites for one are anisotropical, meaning, they only exert strength on a one dimensional axis where as an alloy is and exerts equal strength in all directions. Point being there are so many different ways a rim is working while in motion, even if the part is engineered with a poly-isotropic laminate it still doesn’t retain the structural integrity an alloy part does. (think about where the rim and spokes attach, think about stopping, accelerating, turning, bumps, etc) Second, alloys bend, composites fracture or worse shatter. Alloy and composites absorb energy much differently. Carbon is such a stiff material, especially in higher modulus material, it is less resistant to taking impacts. Common rule is the stiffer the carbon the weaker tensile strength. Also, the manufacturing process isn’t as I guess you might say reliable. We’ve been manufacturing alloy wheels forever now. Composites are tricky to manufacture. Repeating the steps perfectly each time in composites doesn’t always result in the same product. If for example a tiny amount of porosity or voids were to occur within the part how would that affect the parts reliability?

I wish the owner much luck. I’ve been apart of some pioneering in the composite industry myself. I just can’t see wheels making it into the hands of the public but hey, if they work, they work.

 

Ditto... while I do hope that this is the read deal... that somehow they've mastered the manufacturering process of these composite products... having worked with CF and KF projects in college, I have some working knowledge of such ambitious goals.

And while I don't even pretend to know the details of a D.O.T. test, based on what was posted, I find it amazing that it survived throught all that, and in fact, out-performed a Z06 magnesium wheel... especially in the impact department.

Plainly put, CF composites are very stiff, especially in such an application... however, the stiffer it is, the more "brittle" it is.

What that means is that in the real world, a catastrophic alloy wheel failure would cause a huge defelection in the structure, while with the CF/KF composite wheel, it'd simply "explode" apart. I have no idea what the legal implications are in terms of liability for that manufacturer. Heat can also play a factor in the integrity of the structure.

Nevertheless, that would be great if these guys have perfected the composite wheel. It'll blow the doors wide open for performance wheels!

 

Interestingly, I race bikes and carbon fibre wheels are just making it on the scene the last year to two. They cost upwards of $3k for a pair so they aint cheap in that application. I own a few pair as well.

Bottom line is that there have been some signficant, reported problems and I personally know a few guys who have had wheel failures on bikes that weigh, on average 17 pounds - with a rider of say 175 pounds. Failures tend to be spectacular and not incremental.

I still ride them but I check them before every race and don't use them for training.

 

Here's another quote from the manufacturer:

if in fact you was to hit something hard enough to shatter the wheel.... I think that would be the least of your concerns!!!! yes they will shatter.....however you would not be driving home if it was alum. in fact I would bet that your car would be totaled

 

well im a sucker when it comes to CF.
1. GREAT LOOKING
2. i'll pass till 19s start showing up

 

yes, for the technology i suppose...but the TWEEL is by far the ugliest bit of technology i've seen in a long time. until the TWEEL takes on a more appealing form, i'm sure as hell not investing in a set. that would completely ruin the look of a Porsche (or even a pinto for that matter).

i am also a bit skeptical about the CF wheel, but the stress tests that it passed makes it look more promising. maybe when the wheels have been on the streets for a while and proven themselves...

 

The way I look at it is if this was a good idea, you would have seen it in F1 already. God knows they are not opposed to spending BIG BUCKS for any advantage. I'm not a fan so I don't know if there is some reason they could not have done this. Maybe it is good and time will tell if someone is reinventing the wheel. To wit: I thought curb rashing on my old M5 rims was expensive.

 

It is banned in F1. They have to have homogenous metallic wheels, so good idea or not you would not see it there.

As well, the Tweel looks like any other tire. The pictures everyone saw had the side wall removed to show that it was not necessary for lateral support. Under normal circumstances it would have one.

I should mention I have a little over 3000 km on a set of cf dymags on my motorcycle without incident. The technology is there.