Wow.. you've taken that so far out of proportion it's not even funny.
I'll chance one more reply to it.
First off, the original case was that you had only 2 light weight wheels, the other two were stock.
Secondly, the engine does not SEE the inertia required to spin the non-drive tires.. it only sees them as dead weight. The fact that they roll means nothing.
The engine is directly driving (via transmission) the drive axle, therefore, weight reduction on this plane means that the engine benefits twice, once from less power necessary to accelerate, and again from less power necessary due to overall weight reduction to MAINTAIN that movement.
We're not talking about racing here, we're talking about real world application. Get your head out of the books and THINK about it.
Once again, if you lighten the rotating mass of an engine, it does not have to work as hard to accelerate, therefore, since the wheels on the drive axle are directly connected, and PART OF THE DRIVELINE, lightening them means that the engine does not have to provide as much work to acceleration.
If you lighten the vehicle as a whole, it will achieve the same effect, but not nearly on as large of a scale, considering that every 100lbs of power train mass lost translates to a higher net efficiency increase when compared to equal VEHICLE weightloss.
What part of this had anything to do with racing?
Facts are easy to ignore when you're reading from a book, such as the fact that lower required inertia gives to more efficiency due to less work.
If it takes less torque to initially turn and accelerate the wheel, such would be the case with the engine's driven axle, obviously the engine can put less work into the same achievement.
Basically, what you're trying to say is that putting the lighter wheels on the non-drive axle would achieve the same result. I laugh.
I want you to actually try this. I've done the math, I've pointed out all the necessary test points, and I've actually done the test. I have 8 sets of wheels for my car.. I've tried them all, in almost every conceivable combination... believe it or not, I wasn't just talking out my ass when I typed:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Christ
Simple answer - If you can only afford to reduce the rotating mass of two wheels, make them the drive wheels. Obviously, the drive wheels are the ones that would benefit the most from reduction in rotating mass, since it would essentially be a reduction of weight that the engine has to turn during acceleration, and overall weight as a bonus, for cruising. Less work for the engine == better FE overall.
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