Carbon fibre wheels.
 

Leading on from the "Aluminium Radials" thread on this board.

In the 1970's Citroen experimented with Carbon fibre wheels for their SM model.
Sadly little progress seems to have been made since then.

Does any one know of a source for these for road cars?

And why do F1 , Indy cars etc not use them?

Cheers , Pete.

My guess would be the heat generated by the brakes.

I read something on this awhile back... there are a few companies (at least one) overseas that make CF wheels, but they're not available for street use.

I *think* it has something to do with torsional loading, etc, that makes them more likely to decay and be damaged in short order vs. alloy wheels.

Even if you could get them, and get them imported, it's still illegal to run them on the street, as they're not D.O.T. Approved, and probably won't be any time soon. I'm sure there is a concern over the wheels being made of "fabric" or something.

This, of course, applies to US DOT, not Aussie. Have no idea about foreign (to me) countries.

I've been eyeing up a set of carbon fiber wheels:

http://www.zipp.com/_media/images/dy...ubular_set.jpg

http://spidermouse.us/images/smilies/wink3.gif

Do those have tires on them?

I saw somewhere... (might have been a joke) latex compound bike tires... very low weight rating, but they were supposedly LRR tires for bikes..

Most "carbon" bicycle wheels are only carbon fairings attached to an aluminum rim. The properties of the aluminum make it less likely to self destruct in a pot hole or something like that. After seeing a true carbon wheel colapse after a 5mph collision with a dog in the Tour de France there is no way I'd want one on my car.

As far as sturdy bicycle wheels I like American Classic's line of aero rims. The difference in aero is negligable for us mere mortals, the wheel is lighter, and costs a lot less.

Back in the 80's Carroll Shelby was building some great little hot rods based on fwd Chrysler platforms. The Shadow based 89 CSX had fiberglass reinforced plastic rims called fiberides. They were lighter than the alloy wheels but never really took off and to find a 89 model with those is EXTREMELY rare considering that they only made 500 of the Shelby CXTs. The wheels were fine for road use, but on road couses many of our Shelby/Dodge Auto Club members have found that the centers start to melt causing the lug holes to soften up and wallow out!

89 CSX-VNT Info

you remember the TV show "pacific blue" which had all kinds of bike cops? those were all spinergy carbon wheels. there is an al strip on each side but the rest is cf, spokes and all.

there are carbon wheels out there for cars, very rare, race only.
there are more options for carbon wheels for bikes and motorcycles

F1 & Indy race cars have many Carbon Fiber components but no CF wheels because
... given this characteristic of CF to delaminate (essentiall shatters into shards and dust, much like glass would) it is much too risky to use it for the wheels of an open wheeled race car capable of speeds in excess of 300km/h. Given the high potential for contact of all sorts in open wheel racing, I can’t imagine seeing a car traveling at those speeds and having it’s wheels delaminate from an impact and essentially turn into dust leaving only the rubber behind.

Carbon fiber is beyond EXPENSIVE. :eek: Up to $59 per yard.
Carbon Fiber/Graphite from Aircraft Spruce

The CF wheel in the attachment weighs 6.1 lbs. and cost $4000 per wheel. :mad:

fiberides
 

I attempted to locate a single wheel over the wrecking-lot parts-locater network for an Earth-Day exhibit and never scored.I understand that they weigh only about 8-pounds.Should one of your race friends want to part with one of the "ruined" wheels,I might purchase one for future exhibits.For street use they might have been okay,as they did receive DOT certification.From a mass standpoint they're quite remarkable!