Lightweight racing wheels

[Rich Team11 H/O]

My brother and I are building a car to compete in the Bullrun. We have 6 cars in the stable but have decided in one of two. A 75 Cutlass Supreme (dubbed the Extreme) and a restorod 75 Hurst/Olds.

The engines are covered, both cars have engines built to put out over 500hp, the extreme may get a twin turbo setup bringing power closer to 1000hp..but thats non issue at this point.

What I am concentrating on are the wheels, tires, brakes and aerodynamics.



1) As far as wheels: we need the lightest and most practical wheels we can find. Since the car weighs in at about 3500lbs the wheels need to be strong. I was also thinking of using wheel disks to help with the aerodynamics, but I dont know how badly that will affect the brakes. We are looking into 17-19" rims, that wont break the bank.

2) We were going to go with run flats, but after talking to the people at Tirerack, they highly suggested that we go with a conventional high performance tires and forget the emt tires since their performance is reduced. Basically we need a tire that handles fantastically in dry and wet. They need only last about 3000 miles but at speeds exceeding 150mph for long stints.


Any help appreciated.

[alcino]

If you want light wheels and tires, smaller is better. So I would get 17 inch wheels(I run 15s). They are smaller than the poser-touring sized wheels, but offer lots of tire options at much more affordable prices and still keep the unsprung weight reasonably down. Bogart Racing Wheels and Jongbloed Racing makes some really light wheels that are designed to be strong for road racing.
For tires, the Toyo RA-1 are one of the best if not the best wet racing tires. Plus they are a great dry road racing tires too(have you noticed they are the spec racing tire for SCCA?). I was able to get over 10k miles out of mine(full tread depth). That included 3 track days, 4 autoX events and a Popular Hot Rodding photo shoot/track test beating.

hope this helps

[slowcamaro]

CCW also makes so pretty light wheels depending on the size you go with I think 17x11 classics weigh in at 20-21 lbs.

www.ccwheels.com

Here are some more light wheels from spinwerkes that ive read about lately, they seem to spare the design and machining of "circle racing wheels"..both of which Im having a hard time tracking down information on...circle racing and spinwerkes sites are both under construction...so it might be worth calling the manufacturers...heres a site with prices though...

http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/spinwerks.htm

Spin Werkes Racing Wheels

16918 Gridley Place
Cerritos, CA 90703

866-528-7746 Toll Free
562-467-1522 Phone
http://spinwerkes.com/


New Phone: 559-251-1127
New Fax: 559-251-1620
New Address: 5515 E Lamona Fresno Ca 93727
http://www.circleracing.com/