THSCC Forums

For some reason I'm in the market for new rallycross wheels, and don't know much about wheel construction. Cost is a big factor, and I can't pay more for wheels than the entire car cost, so the special rally racing wheels are off the table. I've checked craigslist, and there just aren't any 14" wheels available.

So how about these? The price is right, but would they disintegrate under the rigours of rallycross? People said steel wheels would work, and I bent my Forester's steel wheels first time out.

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/WheelClo ... sort=Brand

Thanks...

_________________
"Build a man a fire and he'll stay warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll stay warm the rest of his life."
'93 Subaru Legacy DIRTBOMB
'98 BMW M3
2013 Rallyx Co-VP

Find some aluminum Subaru wheels off craigslist. Might have to look each day, but you'll find them. IMO just get some Subaru ones. At least the
You'll know they bolt up and fit correctly. Not much guess work. Plus you can find a ser fairly cheap.

_________________
'11 RallyX VP
1998 Integra Type R - track fun
1999 Subaru 2.5RS - dirt fun

michael, I have a spare set of subaru steel wheels if you wanna buy them.

_________________
02 2.5 RS, 02 Honda Insight CVT, 04 PT GT 5spd, 71 340 Dart

It must be weird to be normal...

Michael - I have eight 14-inch Legacy factory aluminum wheels with no tires. Dirty and scratched, but not bent. Never raced. You'd probably paint them black anyway, right?

I'd sell for $10 each. I was just planning to scrap them for the value of the aluminum.

They look like this:
http://car-part.com/images/interchange/W68677B.gif

You could pick thru and decide which ones you want.

_________________
91 RallyX Audi Coupe Quattro
89 A-Team Astro-van demo derby winner at 2011 NC State Fair (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MrZqwENRqU)
Broken 89 Subaru GL-10 RallyX turbo wagon - need to sell it and all my parts cars

Micheal your running 14's????

_________________
[color=#FFFFFF][/color]http://www.usedmiatapartsonline.com for all your used miata parts needs
http://www.wagnersauto.com for your salvage needs
2000 miata se Estreet,going to rally
2004 mazdaspeed miata bsp #77
shifter kart also(someone buy this $1500)

I don't think there's a wheel that can't be bent - I'd chalk this one up to just hitting a rut wrong. I'd still hold by my comment that steelies are your best option for the buck - still running mine (15" Forester steelies) and I don't think they're bent (but I use them almost exclusively for rallycross so it'd probably be hard to tell if they're tweaked a little bit)

_________________
Dustin Fredrickson
-- I'm a nobody --

There have been several instances like this noted over on www.dirtyimpreza.com so when i got my wheels i went with aluminum's just cause.

the early legacy 15's like i have can be found at u pick it yards for cheap. Just a thought

_________________
[color=#FFFFFF][/color]http://www.usedmiatapartsonline.com for all your used miata parts needs
http://www.wagnersauto.com for your salvage needs
2000 miata se Estreet,going to rally
2004 mazdaspeed miata bsp #77
shifter kart also(someone buy this $1500)

Well, this is the second set of steelies that I've ruined. Two of the wheels from my Forester were bent after just one rally, so I'm going to go with something else this time.

Richard, it looks like you've got just what I'm looking for! What's the width on those? I've got 185/65R14 street and rally tires, six of which are practically new, so it would be fantastic to just swamp all of 'em to aluminum wheels. The dirty and scratched doesn't make a difference; maybe some silver paint would cover it up?

_________________
"Build a man a fire and he'll stay warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll stay warm the rest of his life."
'93 Subaru Legacy DIRTBOMB
'98 BMW M3
2013 Rallyx Co-VP

If you're gonna spray them, might as well spray them a funky color.... Like fluorescent orange

_________________
'11 RallyX VP
1998 Integra Type R - track fun
1999 Subaru 2.5RS - dirt fun

I like that idea! Yellow would work too.

_________________
"Build a man a fire and he'll stay warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll stay warm the rest of his life."
'93 Subaru Legacy DIRTBOMB
'98 BMW M3
2013 Rallyx Co-VP

According to car-part.com, they are 5.5 inch width.

Are you in Chapel Hill? I'm in Apex on Hwy 751 near Jordan Lake.

_________________
91 RallyX Audi Coupe Quattro
89 A-Team Astro-van demo derby winner at 2011 NC State Fair (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MrZqwENRqU)
Broken 89 Subaru GL-10 RallyX turbo wagon - need to sell it and all my parts cars

Nice!!! Yeah my second set of rally wheels are yellow. My track wheels are fluorescent orange. Im a fan of the funk.

_________________
'11 RallyX VP
1998 Integra Type R - track fun
1999 Subaru 2.5RS - dirt fun

Michael confessed to being a hack:
And Dustin believes in steel wheels, but we had two wheel centers crack on the Toyota early in it's career. Admittedly, we had 6 or 7 drivers practicing plowing at the time. Steel wheels are more flexible than aluminum wheels because the material is thinner. The more that the wheel flexes, the more the material fatigues, eventually leading to cracks. Aluminum wheels can also fatigue but the loads that the wheel can take before beginning to crack are generally higher. No long, boring engineering explanation here, but the thicker the wheel the stiffer,... and stiffer is better

I think that the only reason NASCAR requires steel wheels is that they can take a big hit and bend without breaking and sending debris onto the track. And everyone knows that in NASCAR, "rubbin' is racin".

An interesting comment from a past article on racing steel wheels concerned using Krylon paint on the wheels because the paint was brittle and would crack with the wheel and reveal the problem, whereas tougher paints would bridge the crack until it was too late.
Charlie G

_________________
1998 BMW Z3
1987 BMW 325is
2000 BMW
1996 F250 Turbo Diesel

Don't get me wrong, if a set of AL's was available cheap (like is listed above but in 15's so that my tires would work), I'd be all over them. Especially at that price. My statement is one more of cost and being "good enough" than anything - at the time we got our Forester steelies ($20/ea) I could not find AL's for anywhere near that price.

I'm pretty sure Sebastian has done his share of wheel bending on his fancy alloys...

_________________
Dustin Fredrickson
-- I'm a nobody --

We run 1995 Cadillac wheels on the Laser. I hope that gives some Drifting Ricer guy heartburn.

_________________
Rubbin' is Racin'