"Aero" wheels - a new car design trend?

[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.

[Slopez]

Think VW missed a trick not having something similar to these when buying the car new back in the 80s

[TellYaWhatItIs]

Am I doing this right?

[DazzaSport]

TellYaWhatItIs said:

Am I doing this right?

Blimey, I remember seeing cars with those in the late 80's / early 90's. LOL.

[saaby93]

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https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1346307

[cidered77]

Super Sonic said:

Aero wheels been around for yonks
Old Rolls Royce 1930 something
And my favourite wheel,Mugen CF48.

been around for much longer than that....

[Chris32345]

SWoll said:

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

Most OEM alloys are heavier then the equivalent steel's

[Ambleton]

donkmeister said:

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!

You must have forgotten about the Renault 5, 2cv, Visa, smart fortwo, Austin7, alpine.... (my mind has gone... any others?)

[anonymous-user]

1781cc said:

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

Hell yes. Best noise too!

[CubanPete]

Slopez said:

Think VW missed a trick not having something similar to these when buying the car new back in the 80s

[Fat hippo]

leggly said:

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

The deep dish 9000 aero wheels looked superb