VTS Wheel & Tyre Weight

12th May 2009, 00:11

Right guys, had the rear beam loosened off today so as the wheels were off I took the liberty of weighing one and weighing one of my spares

Alloy - 9.5kg
Alloy + Tyre - 17.2kg

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12th May 2009, 00:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by adsayer

Right guys, had the rear beam loosened off today so as the wheels were off I took the liberty of weighing one and weighing one of my spares

Alloy - 9.5kg
Alloy + Tyre - 17.2kg

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Very good!! you must have alot of time on your hands bud.......

12th May 2009, 00:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by adsayer

Right guys, had the rear beam loosened off today so as the wheels were off I took the liberty of weighing one and weighing one of my spares

Alloy - 9.5kg
Alloy + Tyre - 17.2kg

Ads

interesting.
make and condition of tyre ?

12th May 2009, 00:21

Michelin Exalto (supplied tyre with VTS) condition 3-4 mm of tread.

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12th May 2009, 00:24

Well there you go then 9.5 kg per alloy, double the weight of ultra legs!

12th May 2009, 09:31

Heavier than I thought! I think the 106 14" wheels weigh less than half that. Are you sure they weigh that much?

12th May 2009, 10:06

Woaah.
Someone weighed one at 7.4KG the other week!

12th May 2009, 10:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jorge-

Woaah.
Someone weighed one at 7.4KG the other week!

Ads, are you sure you weren't on the scales at the same time? You weigh about 2ks don't ya?

12th May 2009, 10:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jorge-

Woaah.
Someone weighed one at 7.4KG the other week!

Yeah I was gonna say that, someone put one on some scales and it was 7464g, give or take a gram

12th May 2009, 11:04

I'll go weigh it again then......

12th May 2009, 11:06

Bloody hell they are heavy. I need track wheels.

12th May 2009, 11:24

They are definitly heavier than other wheels I have owned

12th May 2009, 11:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by adsayer

I'll go weigh it again then......

Just the wheel Ads...

12th May 2009, 11:43

yeah I'm not taking the smegging wheel off again

12th May 2009, 16:24

weighed it again

8.6kgs

I cocked up last time, I noted the weight in my head and must have made a new number up in my head before I got back to the laptop!

sorry!

12th May 2009, 16:27

tyre and wheel are 15.9kgs btw

12th May 2009, 16:49

So 3.7kg a wheel heavier than a Superleggera, but add on the spacer and you are looking around 3kg a corner.
Sweeet, nice saving there of 12kg unsprung weight.

12th May 2009, 17:02

I honestly wouldn't worry about the spacers man. they're relatively light, but more importantly the mass of the spacers is concentrated very close to the centre of rotation. So from an inertia point of view their addition is minimal.

which is harder to spin, a small disk with 2kg concentrated bang on the centre of the spindle or 2kg concentrated 0.5m from the spindle?

12th May 2009, 17:06

adsayer is so clever it makes me moist

12th May 2009, 17:15

I was walking through my local high street today and heard non-stop splatter noises from women creaming themselves as I shimmyed past.

12th May 2009, 17:20

the best sentance utilising the word "shimmyed" EVER!

12th May 2009, 20:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by adsayer

I honestly wouldn't worry about the spacers man. they're relatively light, but more importantly the mass of the spacers is concentrated very close to the centre of rotation. So from an inertia point of view their addition is minimal.

which is harder to spin, a small disk with 2kg concentrated bang on the centre of the spindle or 2kg concentrated 0.5m from the spindle?

Wewy, wewy good Ads.

Also, do you know why handling is improved? If you take a bike wheel (push bike, not a motor one!) and hold it in your hands at the centre axis, so that you can spin it really fast. While holding it straight, try to tip it left to right and vice versa, and you'll see how difficult it becomes as the speed of the rotation increases. As you know, the bike wheel has practically all its weight on the outside rim area. Do the same experiment with a wheel with the weight located more towards the centre axis and you'll be pleasantly suprised.

12th May 2009, 20:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toad

Wewy, wewy good Ads.

Also, do you know why handling is improved? If you take a bike wheel (push bike, not a motor one!) and hold it in your hands at the centre axis, so that you can spin it really fast. While holding it straight, try to tip it left to right and vice versa, and you'll see how difficult it becomes as the speed of the rotation increases. As you know, the bike wheel has practically all its weight on the outside rim area. Do the same experiment with a wheel with the weight located more towards the centre axis and you'll be pleasantly suprised.

gyro effect y0

this is another problem that rears up with bump steer to.

12th May 2009, 21:09

ad sayer- your a smart man so-

i currently have vts wheels on my saxo. if i were to change to super legs etc what gains would there to be had?
-better handling?
-more responsive?

thanks

12th May 2009, 21:40

I'm not that smart man, I'm just in an environment where I study where people are constantly batting idea about with regard to improving performance in anyway possible

It's good that you're lowering the unsprung mass, but people forgot than there is still 7.5kg's of tyre around the outside of the diameter, which is less than 50% of the mass of the VTS alloy and more than 50% of the mass of the Superlegs.

so either way your limiting factor is always going to be your tyres, this means that even though you're reducing the weight in and around the centre (the alloy) by 50%, the inertia is NOT decreased by 50%... it'll be more like 15%.

but what it means is that the car's acceleration will be improved by about (according to my little spreadsheet) 0.1 second to 60

and maybe 2 seconds improvement to top speed (which takes about 2.4mins)

so in a straight line, not a lot of difference... although in 1st and 2nd may feel the tiniest of improvements.

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