OMG I want some

[pureadrenalin]

These would go so sweetly on my black track car.
At the bottom of the page.

http://www.riverscarbon.com/carbon-fiber-race-wheels/

Just imagine the cost.

[Malcolm]

Rivers carbon, I used to work there (for about a month over summer ) They're one of our sponsors. Those wheels are significantly different from standard cars, I'm not sure what the system is specifically called but the fronts have an aluminium insert and the wheel bearings run directly inside that, with a stationary spindle mounted to the upright. I think they do sets (x2) of the rears for something like $4K? Not sure what they charge for the fronts, probably a bit less because there's less carbon in them, but the lay up is a bit more complex because they're made as a single piece.

We're actually working on carbon wheels for the fsae car, we have a design ready to roll but need to find someone to machine the moulds for us (out of fairly sizable billets of alminium). They're 13x7 so would actually be suitable for a number of race cars (although you'd design/make centrelock spindles for your car)

[pureadrenalin]

Yes, I see all the stuff they do for SAE. Pretty cool.
I was just having a search aroud for carbon wings and stumbled across these guys. Maybe I should have had a chat with them before I brought my new CF wing

[Malcolm]

yeah, their website is a tad misleading because it states in a few areas that they designed and made stuff for us which is a bit of a stuff up by a third party who makes their website, we do all of our composites work ourselves but they give us (lots of) advice & help and let us use their autoclave for curing stuff - although one of our team members is also their production manager . The wings they do were actually designed by one of our team members for our 2006 car. They have found their way on to a few pretty high level race cars around the country including a certain ridiculous spaceframed pike's peak evo (that didn't fare too well), a tvr race car, and Squig's doorslammer that is in the pics of the carbon drag wheels.

I'd highly recommend buying from they, excellent dudes

[barryogen]

Damn...

[Stott69]

how much tho???

[Malcolm]

found out today, about $2,500 each although as no moulds exist yet for anything suitable for a road car/production based race car you'd probably want to budget for getting moulds machined (if you were actually in a position to be doing this you'd be better off taking to rivers about specifics)

[Louie028]

I am a bit surprised at the weight..... 7.5 kg each isnt that light

a 17x9 ennkei is 6.something kg (dont have the figures with me atm). The ANZ 17x9 is 8.1kg

But they dont state what size they are and they do handle 2000hp!!

[big-ben-007]

I remember when that drag car (team squig falcon) first used those wheel.

First run and 1 of the rear wheels fell off and everybody thought it was the wheel not able to take the stress, it wasnt but it was an interesting few minutes

[Mike-]

I am a bit surprised at the weight..... 7.5 kg each isnt that light

a 17x9 ennkei is 6.something kg (dont have the figures with me atm). The ANZ 17x9 is 8.1kg

But they dont state what size they are and they do handle 2000hp!!

they look quite a bit wider than 9inch

[Malcolm]

I am a bit surprised at the weight..... 7.5 kg each isnt that light

a 17x9 ennkei is 6.something kg (dont have the figures with me atm). The ANZ 17x9 is 8.1kg

But they dont state what size they are and they do handle 2000hp!!

they are in the vicinity of 65% of the weight of the aluminium wheels usually used. These are not wheels for your corolla, these are wheels which have been tested to conform with specifications required to be used in top fuel drag racing (think 8000hp).

The rears are something like 15x12, can confirm size tomorrow.

[Malcolm]

I remember when that drag car (team squig falcon) first used those wheel.

First run and 1 of the rear wheels fell off and everybody thought it was the wheel not able to take the stress, it wasnt but it was an interesting few minutes

Yeah, from what I've heard that's what happens when you add lots more power and don't upgrade your spindles to be able to take the extra load.

[Trls250s]

We're actually working on carbon wheels for the fsae car, we have a design ready to roll but need to find someone to machine the moulds for us (out of fairly sizable billets of alminium). They're 13x7 so would actually be suitable for a number of race cars (although you'd design/make centrelock spindles for your car)

I just started as a tool maker and we cut dies and moulds out of Tool Steels. We might be able to help.

Drop me a PM with dimensions of the Billet and ill see if the CNC/EDM can take it.

[Bazda]

carbon wheels are being made in Japan, and have been for a while now.
They have heaps of diff styles, look really good, but apparantly arent that strong yet and cant be used in aus/nz.

[RomanV]

and cant be used legally in aus/nz.

Fixed for accuracy

[barryogen]

and cant be used legally in aus/nz.

Fixed for accuracy

Whats the reasoning behind that?
From the info from the links above, they would certainly seem to be strong enough.

[Malcolm]

and cant be used legally in aus/nz.

Fixed for accuracy

Whats the reasoning behind that?
From the info from the links above, they would certainly seem to be strong enough.

Depends a lot on the laminate and quality control measures in the manufacture. Rivers Carbon are a small operation that do one off and small production runs, but when you start manufacturing on a larger scale then you're more likely to get the occasional defect. The other thing is that the failure mode for carbon composites is very different from aluminium. Failure of an aluminium rim is usually hitting a pothole and buckling the rim. If a carbon one failed it's much more likely to be a sudden and catastrophic impact failure due to the brittle nature of the composite. Carbon (and brittle materials generally), while typically having a higher overall strength, will absorb much less energy in a failure than ductile materials like aluminium.