Fabryce-

Thanks for the clarification- before reading this thread I didnt know the first thing about composite wheels. There is no question that Dymag knows wheels, and I am interested in seeing how the application works for you. Unsprung weight makes all the difference, and when racing, we all know it is about getting that 100th of a second.

Keep us updated as the wheels are used, and Im dying to see pics of them on the car!!!

 

Speechless.

Anybody that follows bike racing knows Dymag is the ONLY one making composite wheels worth buying. It's a rock solid product. Those are art.

 

Vader is an old fart and sold his Gt3--

 

get them on i want to see the pics

 

Nice wheels. Are the centers also carbon?

 

You don't think BST is right up there?

I have seen more bst's on bikes then I have Dymag's.

 

OWCH, just for that I will be purchasing James's GT2...

 

LOL- OUCH- James's- GT2 hahaha funny guy........

 

FIXED..........lol

 

If someone said that, they don't understand their product very well. Carbon/epoxy composites-- ALL of them-- have exactly zero elasticity. Zero. If you bend them, the cured resin between the layers will fracture, similar to how paint will "spider crack" on rubber surfaces if bent beyond a certain degree. While a part may not completely fail on the first deformation, it is very easy for a part to cumulatively fail.

While a metal wheel may deform before a carbon wheel will shatter, which really depends on the wheel and the impact, virtually all alloy wheels are malleable to some degree. They'll bend before they completely fail. Composites will not. They'll either crack internally (hence x-raying) over time, and eventually fail completely without warning, or catastrophically fail all together.

So, as I said, they really have no place in a street application.

On a race car, personally, I'd have to weigh the weight reduction against the posibility of being able to finish a race with a slightly bent wheel, or at least make it to the pits.

Here's why I won't use carbon wheels on anything:

 

And some how I knew that picture would come into play here. Was a nice looking duc before too.

 

Down Boys-

Lets not all start bashing carbon wheels, Im sure I can show you pictures ( via the internet )of other metal wheels that have failed just as bad if not worse.


Everyone is entitled to there own opinions - No doubt...

I am sure there are circumstances that lead up to the failure etc etc..



So its safe to say that Simba is Not a Carbon wheel fan....... LOLOL???

 

Actually, I love them, from a theoretical standpoint. I just won't trust them any farther than I can throw them as I've worked with composites for some years and have a good deal of experience with the physics involved. So, I try and remind people that you probably don't want them on your sports car when you hit a pothole at 150 on the ...em.. closed, private road... on the way to the 7-11.

They sure do look cool, though.

Also, to be fair, Dymag does make the best wheels of that sort I've seen, and their two-piece version with the magnesium centers are much, much stronger than completely carbon wheels.

 

I have a tidy collection of others, as well. Those were handy.

And yes, it certainly was pretty beforehand.

 

Fabryce, how much more maintenance is required of the carbon wheels versus others? I would suspect as Simba pointed out above that the carbon wheels will require more maintenance (i.e. inspection) to ensure you don't have a critical failure.