Originally Posted by SkullWorks (Post 993404)

You are obviously not a material sciences major,

Let me just clarify that you are wrong. while the weight per cube is less with aluminum it is also weaker and far more subject to failures due to fatigue/stress, it's properties also degrade as heat rises much quicker than most steel alloys.

Now most steel wheels (steelies) are not an optimized design for aesthetics (obviously what you are after) or performance, there are wheel companies out there that make nothing but true track rims from steel....have you ever seen an aluminum wheel in nascar? and why not do you think?

If you are taking a design all the way to the edge (which no aftermarket street wheel manufacturers do for public consumption) than you will end up with a magnesium, carbon, or billet aluminum wheel...but none of those things are even on your shopping list,

Please educate yourself before you attempt to educate the rest of the world...and no reading the rays catalog isn't education try some books published by forges (reynolds or kaiser for AL and Jorgensen or carpenter for steels) and then try to understand what is actually going on.

Originally Posted by yohan04 (Post 993385)

Quite the opposite.

Steel wheels are heavier than aluminum wheels, so the extra unsprung weight hurt the handling.

There's absolute reason to run steelies unless you're esthetically retarded or absolute broke (in which case you should've even modify at all).

just sayin':)

Originally Posted by nalc (Post 993602)

Oh, right, because the stock wheels on the BRZ have so many fatigue related failures :laughabove:

Your logic is fundamentally flawed. Sure, I'd put my money on a ~17-20 pound aluminum wheel failing before a ~25-28 pound steel wheel. But what situation are you having aluminum wheels fail? I haven't seen any reports of that happening on the twins.

Sure, in theory, you're running the aluminum wheels at a higher load, but if you're still well within the safety margin of the material, who cares? There's no benefit to swapping an aluminum wheel out with a steel wheel weighing 8-10 pounds more unless you're cracking aluminum wheels on a regular basis. It's just bad news for performance. You don't get extra credit for completely overkill solutions when it comes to vehicles where weight is bad for performance. You could pop on some big ol' train wheels and drive your BRZ on the train tracks and I bet you'd never have a flat tire or a cracked rim either, but that doesn't mean it will be faster. You could throw 400 pounds of steel bracing into your BRZ and give it a wonderfully stiff chassis, and it will be slower than mine around the track.



Even the latter reason isn't a good one. Go look through the internet, and I'll guarantee that you can find a set of alloy wheels that fit our cars for less than the 17" steelies on Tire Rack that people here buy because they're 'cheap'. Yeah, have a fun winter on 28 pounds of steel, I'm going to be having a more fun winter on 16 pounds of aluminum that I got for cheaper because I took the time to figure out what wheels will fit, search classifieds to find a set for sale locally, and drove a little bit to pick them up.

Originally Posted by SkullWorks (Post 993689)

wow...so you missed the part where a well engineered wheel from steel would weigh less than the aluminum counterpart because you have to allow in the design more material in an aluminum wheel because it has lower fatigue strength?


I never stated any of what you ASSumed, but you obviously have little exposure to reality, lots of aluminum rim failures occur all the time. it's not a theory, and you are not going to have such an issue with the factory rims i never even suggested such a thing, no one was in here talking about oem aluminum rims...are you lost little boy?

I see how you are trying to be cute and look all smart and stuff but you misunderstood everything in my post and simply look like a 13 year old child now. thanks for the laughs...this is where i'd say cheers but I don't want to be accused of encouraging underage drinking.

Originally Posted by nalc (Post 993708)

You may be right about being able to design a steel wheel to be lighter than an aluminum one, but that's clearly not the type of steel wheel being discussed.

Originally Posted by nikitopo (Post 1888839)

I am opening this thread again. It is not so important how much your wheel + tire weights, but where the center of mass is. You need the latter to be closer to the center of the wheel. When you put a lighter wheel, the center of mass is moving away from the center (i.e., the tire weight remains the same).