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Solid Edge CAD Drawing
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I managed to get the wheel centers I designed for the 2006 car a few months after the car (Thanks Roy and Dr Jones!).
In preparation for the trip from Alabama to Houston I needed to get the car rolling for ease of transport. Here is some info from my search for the correct Weld Wheel Halves and Hardware to assemble the custom 3 piece wheels and a few images from the design process in 2006
- History on the 2006 wheel center.....Amtec was a machining sponsor and they were knocking our door down to machine something after the summer of 05. We did not have anything designed to send them but i had been toying around with the idea of custom wheel centers (~1lb weight saving per corner....4lb total). We sent them slabs of 7075 billet and they machined the wheels after the design was finalized. I played with several designs but the one that showed the most promise was essentially a copy of the split spoke BBS design that is so popular. It turns out it is popular because it is really light and strong. If you give the spokes a high lateral MOI you can make it quite spindly and still have good lateral load resistance. The Solid edge drawing is parametric with easy adjustments for spoke angle and width. I just played with the parameters until i had a good blend of aesthetics, lateral (function of Spoke thickness into wheel for good MOI), vertical, (Spoke width), and torque resistance (Spoke angle).
- The Weld wheel half part numbers are P851-3214 (2.25") inner and P851-3318 (3.25") outer
- Its been like 7 years........but i believe my load case was a combined loading of 3g of rear lateral weight transfer and 3g bump with maximum 1st gear torque load. The Lateral and Bump loads were applied to the bottom 4 bolt holes and the torque load was applied to all bolt holes. The wheel was constrained through the lugs.
- Hindsight is always 20/20......On a 3 piece design i would alter the wheel center to have threaded wheel half holes. This would eliminate the need for the bolts to be inserted from the inside and nuts on the outside.....oops......
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FEA Load Case: 3G lateral Accel; 3G Bump; Full 1st gear torque load
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| FEA of Final Design |
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Wheel Displacement at FEA Load Case
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Machined Center
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| Machined Center in Action (California 2006) |
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Calculating backspacing to order correct Weld wheel halves
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| Wheel Center Test Fit |
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