RE: Wire wheels some more

["Jim Steck" <4sfed@xxxxxxxxx>]

	No, a wire wheel can be both light AND strong, but only 
	within a limited range of dimensions.  That's what I meant
	by "package".  I can see how that statement could be 
	misinterpreted.    

	To John's defense of FWD cars with wire wheels . . . again
	I was too brief.  It is the large negative wheel offset used 
	in modern FWD geometry that prevents the use of wire 
	wheels.  Depending on width, the better wire wheel designs
	have zero or positive offsets.  Negative offsets can be made,
	but compromise strength by limiting spoke angles and rim
	attachment location.  

	In the days of the Millers, the aluminum rim wire wheel had
	the best combination of strength and weight.  The 
	suspension geometry for those cars was designed around
	the tire and wheel package.  Cast and forged alloy wheels
	aren't as limited, and FWD suspensions have been greatly
	improved because of it.

	Regards,
	Jim Steck
	 
	

> ---------------------  snip ------------------------
> Jim Steck says:
> 
> Maybe I didn't make my point clear.  The strength of a wire 
> wheel is not inherently inferior to a cast wheel.  The main 
> "fault" of a wire wheel is it's cost... It can be made as strong
> and nearly as light as a cast aluminum wheel, but not in the
> same "package". 
> 
>> Are we saying that a wire wheel can be EITHER strong OR light?

> ---------------------- snip -------------------------	
> I greatly appreciate Jim Steck's late contributions to the 
> discussions, but I suggest that the "FWD cars need not apply" 
> in his last note is a general truth which does not rise to an 
> absolute rule; The wire-wheeled FWD Millers at Indianapolis 
> were quite successful, as were the later Blue Crowns and
> undoubtedly others; the wheels were not the limiting factors for 
> the Novis or for the less successful four-wheel-drive Gulf-Millers. 
> The FWD Talbot GP cars of the late twenties were, I believe, 
> wire wheeled, and I believe the FWD Tractas which were very
> successful (in class) at Le Mans were also, although I wouldn't 
> swear to it. I expect there were others. They all may have required
> different compromises in steering geometry and/or in lacing 
> geometry, but FWD and wire wheels were not mutually exclusive
> in the decades before alloys emerged as a generally preferred
> technology and (for some) aesthetic, although Jim Steck's 
> reservation is probably generally true.
> 
> Cordially,
> 
> John H.

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