andy webster wrote:
>
> Hi list,
> Quick question...
> If I were to replace my stock steel rims with alloys..say minilite copies
> would I notice any difference in the cars driveability?
You'd notice it mostly in turn-in -- the feeling of intial corner
entry. That, of course, is assuming that you get wheels that are wider
than your stock steel rims (which is almost inevitable, given the narrow
rims that were placed on stock Spridgets).
Why: a wider wheel lets you mount wider tires, with more vertical
sidewalls as well. This helps reduce flex when you begin to load the
tires on corner entry. There's also some additional grip once the car
stabilizes in a corner, mainly due to the wider tires that you can now
fit on the wider wheels.
I *will*, however, point something out. ...In another posting.
Also, if an alloy wheel is really lighter than a steel one (which may or
may not be the case), the car should ride better. This is because the
weight of the wheel acts as a kind of pendulum out on the end of the
suspension arms, with the car's chassis at the other end of the
pendulum. It's called "unsprung weight," and the ratio of sprung weight
to unsprung weight is a key factor in a car's ride as well as its
handling. The more unsprung weight there is, the more a sudden movement
(such as a bump) that the tire/wheel suffers will upset the sprung
weight.
An easy visualization: Let's take two of my kids for example. The 11
year old weighs 97 pounds; the 2-1/2 year old weighs about 30 pounds. I
hold my arms out in front of me and, one by one, my kids run at me and
jump into my arms.
With the 2-1/2-year-old, I feel a kind of thump in my chest and get a
big hug.
With the 11 year old, I get knocked back practically off my feet.
Well, the same thing happens to your car's body when the wheel hits a
bump. A heavy wheel (the 11-year-old) will make the car really rock to
one side, and will probably shake the whole thing on those oil filled
lever things that make up the top suspension arms. A light wheel (the
2-1/2 year old) will just wobble it a bit, and the valves inside those
Armstrong dampers may actually be able to damp the oscillations within,
oh, a few hundred feet.
> I saw that replacing wires with alloys gave an improvement for some..
I suspect that a trip to British Wire Wheel would have made a noticeable
improvement in my case; wires are just fussier than steel or alloy
wheels.
I suspect that the short answer (me? short answer? Bwahahahaha) to your
question is:
The harder you drive your Spridget, the more you'll notice an
improvement by going from steel to alloy wheels. And this will be more
noticeable as the wheels get lighter, and you use tires that are wider,
than stock.
--Scott
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