"Aero" wheels - a new car design trend?

[donkmeister]

LuS1fer said:

And my 1985 Corvette

I love the C4. I love the C4 with those wheels. I know that this photo shows the wheels are fitted the way that Chevrolet designed them to work.

But I hate that Chevrolet made the wheels back to front.

[donkmeister]

thiscocks said:

Do these count?

I'm not a wheel-queen, but show me some alloys with a three-bolt fitting and even I know they must be from a Citroen AX GT!

[CDP]

ajprice said:

CDP said:

No, that is the third class Sierra - the 'L'.

This is proper Scum Class, complete with naked steelies:



From https://sierrabase.wordpress.com/author/sierrabase...

(Nothing to do with me)

Seat Bocanegra edition

And the owner is on PH it would appear:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=17...

[kalniel]

I quite like MB/AMG's take on aero wheels - the most critical part is close to the rim, so they have an aero portion there (like bike wheels) and the rest looks pretty normal.

[Rob_F]

kalniel said:

I quite like MB/AMG's take on aero wheels - the most critical part is close to the rim, so they have an aero portion there (like bike wheels) and the rest looks pretty normal.

Interesting!

[HustleRussell]

SWoll said:

Pica-Pica said:

Bring back steel rims and plastic wheel covers. Stop all this alloy nonsense. Easier to replace, update, tune for aerodynamics.

Look dreadful, add unspring weight so affect ride, steering and handling, easy to steal etc.

Wheel trims weigh probably 250g each?

I reckon a steel wheel and wheel trim combination will likely weigh less than pretty much any mainstream standard fitment OEM alloy wheel at the equivalent size.

[saaby93]

HustleRussell said:

SWoll said:

Pica-Pica said:

Bring back steel rims and plastic wheel covers. Stop all this alloy nonsense. Easier to replace, update, tune for aerodynamics.

Look dreadful, add unspring weight so affect ride, steering and handling, easy to steal etc.

Wheel trims weigh probably 250g each?

I reckon a steel wheel and wheel trim combination will likely weigh less than pretty much any mainstream standard fitment OEM alloy wheel at the equivalent size.

and easier to replace the plastic wheel trims

[RicksAlfas]

Magnum 475 said:

TarquinMX5 said:

It's not really new, certain 3-Series had similar styles years ago, amongst others.

This. BMW 320d Efficient Dynamics (2010?) had left and right hand aero wheels to help reduce drag.

Yes, Style 306. They have a little arrow on them to show direction (and remind tyre fitters).
Very easy to clean too!

[Dapster]

saaby93 said:

The XM 10 years later

They nicked that design off of a 1977 Granada!



Other period Aero wheels...

1982 Audi 100


1979 S Class


But for petrolheads like us, the "Aero" wheel of interest are surely the race derived Turbofans designed for more effective brake cooling...













https://petrolicious.com/articles/this-is-how-turb...

[JmatthewB]

F1 banned them although I think they could be coming back next year?

[ajprice]

Aston Martin DB7


plus these



makes this

[1781cc]

in MY OPINION the sexiest touring car that there ever was...

[jamespink]

1781cc said:

in MY OPINION the sexiest touring car that there ever was...

Plus 1

[Bill4San]

What about these monstrosities? Whoever gave these the go ahead should be sacked.

[saaby93]

Bill4San said:

What about these monstrosities? Whoever gave these the go ahead should be sacked.

camouflage innit

Edited by saaby93 on Thursday 10th June 18:59

[jonwm]

Not sure if they are for aero but Peugeot's seem to have upped the game in looks of late but the wheel design is terrible. Often the same wheel for 3 or 4 models / trim.

[pixelmix]

If we must have aero wheels for improved efficiency (and to cover those tiny drums on the rear of electric cars) then I think I'd rather have something traditional than this current trend for overly fussy polished black and whiteworm prone diamond cut wheels.

I'd rather live with these ones that VW used a few years back:



Mind you, I didn't particularly like the wheels on my Mk7 Golf GTI when I got it six years ago, but I don't mind them now. Maybe the current trend will seem normal in a few years.

[ajprice]

The 2011 Beetle (mk2? mk3? New New Beetle?) had similar wheels available.

[leggly]

vikingaero said:

The best looking alloys, in the world... Saab vikingaeros:

I always thought the vikingaeros were the worst of the three spoke Saab wheels. I had deep dish super Aeros on my 9000s, luckily opinions are like aholes

[GroundEffect]

Hazuki said:

SpeckledJim said:

They seem a good idea to me. When a car is doing 70mph its 'top' spokes are doing nearly 140mph through the air. That's a lot of drag and noise.

Surely you mean revolutions rather than MPH and would be closer to around 700-1000rpm (depending on wheel size)?

Sorry not sure if I'm being thick here, but I'm not sure how any part of the car can be doing more than 70mph if that's what the car is travelling at.

Relative to the air flow, the edge of the spokes will be meeting the airflow at their tip velocity +/- vehicle speed depending if they are rotating towards or away from the airflow.

In the same way that helicopter blades do.

The reason they're becoming more popular is that CO2 regs are getting tighter and have real monetary impact to the companies, and for BEV vehicles, the efficiencies of the vehicle are so high that any loss contributes a significant percentage to the overall range.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a30169467/tesla-...

3% range impact. They don't make anywhere near as much difference for an ICE vehicle because they're already hugely inefficient.