How to remove wheel weights

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what affects? / How to calculate the mass of the wheel.

A wheel in a car is an integral element of the vehicle's structure. Tires and wheels give the car different performance characteristics. For example, they affect patency and speed qualities. At the same time, such a simple parameter as the total weight of the wheel plays an important function. Let's see what the mass of disks and tires affects during the operation of the machine.

How wheel weight affects vehicle performance

Let's start with the fact that all motorists are aware of the fact of increased fuel consumption when transporting goods. In this case, the machine becomes heavier, which means that the engine needs to generate more energy to transmit torque to the drive axles. Approximately the same thing happens if the car is equipped with heavy wheels. The weight of the machine will increase, which will affect the increased fuel consumption.

Many drivers have noticed that after switching to alloy wheels, the car becomes more agile and economical. That's right, the weight of the unsprung mass has decreased, and this has led to a reduction in the energy consumption of the engine. 2*0.9*1.25/4=0.02kg). And the air density of an inflated tire is about 3 times greater. Therefore, the difference in weight is 20*3-20=40 grams.

Tire weight

The second factor influencing wheel weight is tire size and seasonality. For example, low profile and regular tires for the same car will weigh differently. Because there is less material in a low profile tire. The second example is winter and summer tires. For winter, tires use a softer composition of rubber materials and a complex design. This makes the product heavier. Multi-ply wheels with deep tread for off-road use will also be heavier than road counterparts.

Some brands of SUVs are sold with reinforced run flat tires. These are special tires that you can ride on after a puncture. But, the weight of such rubber is 1.5 times more than conventional pneumatic tires.

Wheel weight

Today, the car owner can choose several types of wheels for his car: steel, light alloy and forged. They differ significantly from each other in terms of technical characteristics.

• Steel discs are produced by stamping. Such wheels have a weighty design, but at the same time they are the most affordable for the consumer. In most cases, cars at factories are equipped with steel wheels in order to reduce the cost of production. The advantages of such wheels are low price and maintainability.
• Alloy wheels, weigh 20-40% lighter than steel counterparts. Aluminum and various alloys based on it are easy to process. The simplified manufacturing process allows manufacturers to provide a wide range of attractive rims. The rapid heat dissipation of aluminum favorably affects the cooling of brake discs and pads.
• Forged wheels are even lighter than their aluminum counterparts. And thanks to hot forging, manufacturers are able to reduce the weight of the product by up to 50%, in relation to the steel rim. In addition, the forged disc is not inferior in strength to steel. It does not burst upon impact, but only deforms. This type of wheels is more expensive than their steel and alloy counterparts. But, the costs pay off with durability and increased dynamic characteristics.

Example. What will be the weight of the wheel for the VAZ 2110 with different disks? Summer tire 185/65R14 weighs 7.6 kg. R14 steel disc has a mass of 8.01 kg, light alloy 6.29kg, and forged 3.94 kilos. So the wheel assembly will weigh:

• 1 version 15.61 kg;
• 2 option 13.89 kg;
• 3 variant 11.54 kg.

If you add to this a camera that weighs 1 kg, then a set of four wheels will increase the weight by another 4 kilos. Although in this period, car owners prefer tubeless tires.

As can be seen from the material of the article, the choice of disks will have an impact on the performance of the machine. With lighter wheels, the owner saves on fuel and suspension repairs. But first, you have to pay a little more. However, after 1.5 - 2 years, light disks are guaranteed to pay off.

Car diet: the most original ways to make your car lose weight

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Author: Dmitry Lavrenov

In order to reduce the weight of their cars, many manufacturers are using somewhat unexpected solutions to the problem of excess weight. We remembered some of the most unusual ways to make the car “lose weight”.

Ask any car connoisseur what a Silver Arrow is? A Mercedes-Benz racing car, of course, he will answer. But until 1934, all racing Mercedes were painted white and even received the respectful nickname "White Elephants" among the people! On this score, the brand has its own legend.

Method:

Mercedes stopped painting the bodies of their racing carsJune 1934, when they announced a new W25 car, traditionally painted white, for the start of the Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. Equipped with a 300-horsepower carburetor engine, the car immediately became a contender for victory, if not for one "but". Under the terms of the technical regulations, the mass of the car should not exceed 750 kg. At the control weighing in the evening before the race, it turned out that the car does not pass according to the regulations, since its weight is several kilograms more. There was still a night before the race, and they simply would not have had time to make serious changes to the design of the car. And yet a solution was found.

Of course, there were tricks to get around the rules of back then. For example, only the dry mass of the car was hung on the commission, i.e. the restriction did not take into account the mass of liquids and the pilot, and the car was manually rolled onto the measured scales. The mechanics of many teams, draining the oil into a special reservoir, simultaneously unscrewed the forged supports of the front shock absorbers along with plugs and hoses (and each of them weighed at least 3 kg), thereby reducing the weight of the car. But Alfred Neubauer, the permanent director of the Mercedes racing team, understood that such a forgery could be easily detected, and did not take risks.

But one of the engineers came up with a better and more legal idea: the paint applied in several layers to the car body also has weight, and by removing it, you can immediately lose several kilograms of excess mass. And so they did: during the night they scraped off all the paint from the German car, and the car, sparkling with polished aluminum, passed the control weighing. The Mercedes won that race, and in memory of this event, the silver color became the trademark for the brand. Well, the nickname "White Elephants" with the light hand of journalists turned into "Silver Arrows".

However, removing paint from the body is not the most difficult problem. But the Americans have come up with a more interesting way to lighten the weight.

Method:

The number one motor sport in the United States in the 1960s was drag racing . Crowds of fans of speed at night blocked the coveted 402 meters on the straight sections of American highways in the hope of proving to everyone that their car is the fastest in the area. Automotive companies also took an active part in the motor race, participating in the Super Stock class of the national association NHRA, specially created for such dragsters.

Ford, General Motors and Chrysler - the three pillars of the American automotive industry - used any trick to prove that their cars are the best and fastest. An important way to achieve victory was to lighten the weight of the dragster, which along the way was implanted with the largest engine in the range. That is how, for example, the Dodge Hurst Hemi Dart was born - a real monster that flew a measured quarter mile in less than 12 seconds.

To create the car, they used the body of the most compact car in the Dodge line - the mid-size Dart coupe. The stock engine was removed and replaced by a 7.0-litre V8 HEMI, Chrysler's pinnacle of hemispherical combustion chambers. This giant barely got into poor Dart's engine compartment, and even the new battery had to be moved to the luggage compartment, which, by the way, contributed to improving the weight of the car. And for such a useful thing as a power steering, there is simply no place left. The entire interior was gutted from the car, along the way, of course, by installing a powerful roll cage, and a number of body panels were made of fiberglass. However, this was not enough for the engineers from Dodge, and in the hope of winning back a few extra kilograms of mass, ... acid went into action.

Steel rear fenders and outer door panels were etched with an acid solution, as a result of which the thickness of the panels was reduced to 1-1.5 mm. All these tricks helped the Dodge Dart to win prizes in the races. However, Chrysler was not far behind competitors from General Motors, which also created their own dragsters to the requirements of the NHRA, and in the stash of which there were several of their trump cards to lighten the weight of cars.

Method:

Pontiac has become an active participant in the drag battles that have erupted in the vastness of America, trying to get rid of the stigma of “cars for pensioners”. The new dragster was based on the Catalina model, which in the sporty iteration was called the Super Duty and a mighty 6.9-liter V8 (421 cubic inches, in terms of the American system of measurement), equipped with three two-barrel carburetors and developing, according to the manufacturer, the power of 410 l. With. True, some experts believe that this figure was greatly underestimated, and the official power of the 421st engine is about 550 hp. With.

To improve the power-to-weight ratio, the interior of the American coupe was gutted, and a massive safety cage required by the rules was placed in place of the rear seats. Pontiac engineers went to any lengths in the hope of lightening their car by a few more kilograms. The front fenders, bumper and hood are all made of aluminum, as is the oversized exhaust pipe. The manufacturer specifically emphasized that cars equipped with such an outlet could only be used on short-term races of ¼ mile, since the pipe, which could not withstand the constant heat of exhaust gases, had the property of melting. And to further lighten the drag Catalina, 130 holes were drilled in the powerful spar frame, which is why the car instantly received the nickname “Swiss Cheese” (Swiss cheese).

The rigidity of the frame dropped so much that during the manufacture of the machine at the factory, additional spacers had to be placed under it to prevent bending. However, the tricks went to Pontiac's advantage, and "Swiss Cheese", proudly trumpeting its aluminum direct-flow exhaust, won many awards for the brand.

But drilling a frame or treating the body with acid is not an engineering approach, many will say. However, the contribution of engineers in the development of new cars is also difficult to overestimate.

Method:

Japanese automakers are renowned for their meticulous attention to detail. It is a known fact that an employee of one of the automobile factories, walking along the street, met a car produced at his own enterprise with a tiny defect, so imperceptible that the car passed through a strict technical control department. He immediately reported this fact to his management, who not only rewarded the attentive worker, but also replaced the defective car free of charge to the owner. It is not surprising that when creating the third-generation Mazda MX-5 Roadster, engineers were looking for every opportunity to reduce the weight of the car that had increased in size.

Pictured: Mazda MX-5 '1989–97

Pictured: Mazda MX-5 Roadster '2000–05

Pictured: Mazda MX-5 Roadster '2012–15

They came up with and implemented the concept of "thousands of little things". Indeed, in any car there are many different parts, and if each of them is reduced in weight, then the overall result will be impressive. So, according to the designers of Mazda, the interior mirror of the MX-5 has become 23 grams lighter in comparison with its predecessor. The idea worked, and in total, the third-generation roadster, with increased dimensions, weighs 10 kg less than the car of the previous iteration.

A team of engineers striving for excellence is capable of much. But there is only one warrior in the field. For example, Gordon Murray, who in the development of his McLaren F1, deservedly recognized as one of the greatest supercars in the world, went to any tricks to achieve perfection.

Way:

Murray's main goal in developing the F1 was the weight of the car, equal to 1,000 kg. Unfortunately, he failed to achieve this goal (McLaren weighs 1,140 kg), but thanks to the insane V12 engine from BMW Motorsport, the supercar held the first place for a long time in top speed (372 km / h) and acceleration from standstill to 100 km / h ( only 3. 2 seconds).

For the sake of improving and lightening his car, Murray went to any tricks. For example, to protect against overheating, he trimmed the engine compartment with gold foil, because gold best protects the body from the heat generated by the engine. The monocoque body was glued out of carbon fiber, and the suspension arms were made of magnesium alloy. Even the wheel nuts, to save a few grams, were made of titanium on the McLaren. However, the pedals of the car were made of the same space material, and even the keys in the proprietary tool kit offered in the kit for the supercar.

But Murray's main find was a lightweight audio system developed jointly with Kenwood, which in 1992 included a CD changer and audio tape recorder. The details of this system were made of light aluminum alloys, and a number of plastic elements were replaced with lighter aramid fiber. Even the meshes on the speakers are milled out of magnesium alloy.

Gordon Murray used a lot of tricks to defeat the car that was the best supercar before him. Enzo Ferrari, just like the designer of McLaren, used any available solutions to create his uncompromising supercar, built for the 40th anniversary of the company.

Method:

Released in 1987, the F40 became the last model of the brand, to which the "commendatore" himself had a hand. The supercar was a breakthrough for the Italian brand, in which an all-aluminum V-shaped “eight” was used with two Japanese IHI turbochargers equipped with ceramic impellers capable of spinning up to almost 90,000 rpm.

On a light spatial aluminum frame, which formed the basis of the Italian supercar, external body panels were attached, drawn by wizards from Pininfarina and made of Kevlar and carbon fiber. In the cabin, a carbon-fiber front console and sports seats with a carbon base were installed to win back a few more kilograms. But the apotheosis of the weight reduction was the interior door cards, which were only partially sheathed, exposing the locking cables.

However, Bentley engineers, in their quest to liposuction their fat Continental, took less drastic measures and left him with ordinary door panels. But the result of their work is still impressive.

Method:

The Bentley diet meant a point gutting of the cabin: the second row of seats disappeared from the back, and new chairs with a carbon fiber base appeared in front. Designers also got rid of heavy wooden panels, replacing them with lighter titanium and carbon fiber ones. A few more kilograms were won back on a simplified audio system, the number of speakers in which was reduced to six. Even the exhaust system of the new car is made of titanium, which made it possible to lose another 7 kg of weight, and new alloy wheels and carbon-ceramic brake discs won back a few more kilograms.

As a result, the total weight of the all-wheel drive coupe was reduced immediately by 125 kg and still exceeded 2.2 tons. However, even in Bentley there were standard glasses. But the French from Renault, wanting to further reduce the weight of the car, went further.

Method:

Towards the end of the release of the charged Megane RS hatchback, the French from Renault made a modification focused on the racing track. Engineers got rid of the rear seats and soundproofing, left only the driver's airbag and even deprived Megan of fog lights, rear wiper and headlight washer!

We managed to throw off another 5 kg by installing polycarbonate side windows. This material is often used in racing cars, but due to its thinness and brittleness, it is almost never found on ordinary road cars. Even EuroNCAP specialists made claims to the glasses, but later they nevertheless agreed to give their approval for the certification of 450 cars, provided that even more security systems appear in the brand's model line.

The resulting car turned out to be impressively fast on the track, but Renault's relief reserves were not used to the end. In contrast to the Porsche engineers, who sought to create the most lightweight car with the most powerful engine in the range.

Method:

To solve the cherished task, the designers of Porsche took the most powerful supercar from their line 911 - rear-wheel drive GT2, equipped with an engine with two turbochargers. Relief went on all fronts: instead of a heavy lead-acid battery, a lighter lithium-ion battery appeared, the car was deprived of the audio system and air conditioning, and the place of regular electric seats was taken by sports buckets from the 911 GT3 RS. They even reduced the amount of anti-noise mastic and the thickness of the floor covering, and new aluminum levers appeared in the suspension.

The 620-horsepower boxer "six" was also put on a "diet" and equipped with lightweight pistons, connecting rods and a flywheel, as well as a composite intake manifold and a titanium exhaust system. Even the wiring - and that was lightened to save a few kilograms. The side windows, like on the Megane, were made of polycarbonate. The new front fenders, air intakes and rear-view mirror housings, which were made of carbon fiber, also contributed to the weight reduction.

The hood of the car was also made of the same composite material, on which, for the sake of even greater weight reduction, they did not attach the heavy metal coat of arms of the brand, but limited themselves to ... just a simple sticker. However, the “diet” gave excellent results: the Porsche 911 GT2 RS has an amazing power-to-weight ratio (only 2. 1 kg of car mass per horsepower), passes the Nurburgring Nordschleife in just 7 minutes 27 seconds and is the most powerful production Porsche 911 approved for public roads.

Instead of a conclusion

Of course, all the methods given here for rationally lightening the weight of a car have been used by engineers from different companies for a long time. Progress has stepped far forward, and modern cars, immediately equipped with compact and lightweight turbo engines and composite monocoques, are far from the designs of past years. Therefore, do not rush to throw out the seats from the car, douse it with acid and drill holes in it in the name of saving fuel and improving acceleration - perhaps it is you who will come up with a better idea.

See also:

history practice tuning

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