Jump to content
SAU Community

Three Piece Wheels

n15m0

By n15m0,
in General Automotive Discussion

 Share

Recommended Posts

51jay Mentor

51jay

Posted
Posted

1 piece wheels are usually cast and usually heavy but probably better for all round on road use.

The 2 and 3 piece wheels are usually much better quality, forged and much lighter ie my 18x 9 Weds Sports Racing wheels with 265 35 tyres are lighter than the stock 16x6 with 205 55.

djr81 Grand Master

djr81

Posted
Posted
Hi,

Just want to get an opinion from those in the know.  Whats the big deal with three piece wheels anyways? Or two piece for that matter?  how are they better compared to one piece wheels tht can be bought at wheel shops in oz??

Cheers

Jon

A two piece rim is as good as a three piece, so don't get too hung up about it. A three piece allows the manufacturer to vary the rim offset& width without having to utilise a heap of different production options.

A two piece will usually be lighter than a one piece, because the transition from the centre section to the outer section is not dictated by casting considerations. One of the key criteria (for me anyway) when buying rims is their weight. The lighter the wheel - the lower your unsprung mass which is all to the good. You will find much of what is sold in the local tyre shops is ex China & some of them (Not all!) can be quite heavy. As with most things - you get what you pay for.

djr81 Grand Master

djr81

Posted
Posted
I always wanted to know that too. What arre the advantages of lighter rims?

Put simply, the main advantage from lighter wheels is a lower unsprung mass. The job of the springs/dampers/roll bars is to keep the wheel/tyre on the road surface. Obviously the lighter the wheel/tyre combination the less work the suspension has to do to keep them on the road. End result: more grip.

A secondary benefit is that it can reduce the vehicle mass as a whole. A light set of 17's can be up to 10kg lighter than an equivalent set of 19 or 20 inch rims.

MacGuyver Mentor

MacGuyver

Posted
Posted

I always thought that 2 and 3 piece wheels weren't as strong as say a forged single piece rim. I have forged Buddy Club P1's which are pretty light and tough as! Aren't say 2 piece rims composed of an interior piece welded on to the outer part of the rim? I'll bet it isn't easy to fix 2 or 3 piece rims, depending on the type of damage you have of course. 2 and 3 piece are much lighter but also usually more expensive!

"Games don't affect people. If Pacman affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms munching on pills and listening to repetitive music."

djr81 Grand Master

djr81

Posted
Posted
I always thought that 2 and 3 piece wheels weren't as strong as say a forged single piece rim. I have forged Buddy Club P1's which are pretty light and tough as! Aren't say 2 piece rims composed of an interior piece welded on to the outer part of the rim? I'll bet it isn't easy to fix 2 or 3 piece rims, depending on the type of damage you have of course. 2 and 3 piece are much lighter but also usually more expensive!

"Games don't affect people. If Pacman affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms munching on pills and listening to repetitive music."

2 piece rims have the centre section bolted to the outer, not welded. I have had mine repaired, you just have to unbolt the outer section first.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Kapr
      "Cheap" bolt on turbo on RB25DET NEO

      By Kapr · Posted

      You are selling this? I have never bought something from marketplace...i dont know if i trust that enough. And the price is little bit "too" good...
    • Watermouse
      "Cheap" bolt on turbo on RB25DET NEO

      By Watermouse · Posted

      https://www.facebook.com/share/19kSVAc4tc/?mibextid=wwXIfr
    • Kinkstaah
      Airbox for +T

      By Kinkstaah · Posted

      It would be well worth deciding where you want to go and what you care about. Reliability of everything in a 34 drops MASSIVELY above the 300kw mark. Keeping everything going great at beyond that value will cost ten times the $. Clutches become shit, gearboxes (and engines/bottom ends) become consumable, traction becomes crap. The good news is looking legalish/actually being legal is slighly under the 300kw mark. I would make the assumption you want to ditch the stock plenum too and want to go a front facing unit of some description due to the cross flow. Do the bends on a return flow hurt? Not really. A couple of bends do make a difference but not nearly as much in a forced induction situation. Add 1psi of boost to overcome it. Nobody has ever gone and done a track session monitoring IAT then done a different session on a different intercooler and monitored IAT to see the difference here. All of the benefits here are likely in the "My engine is a forged consumable that I drive once a year because it needs a rebuild every year which takes 9 months of the year to complete" territory. It would be well worth deciding where you want to go and what you care about with this car.
    • GTSBoy
      Airbox for +T

      By GTSBoy · Posted

      By "reverse flow", do you mean "return flow"? Being the IC having a return pipe back behind the bumper reo, or similar? If so... I am currently making ~250 rwkW on a Neo at ~17-18 psi. With a return flow. There's nothing to indicate that it is costing me a lot of power at this level, and I would be surprised if I could not push it harder. True, I have not measured pressure drop across it or IAT changes, but the car does not seem upset about it in any way. I won't be bothering to look into it unless it starts giving trouble or doesn't respond to boost increases when I next put it on the dyno. FWIW, it was tuned with the boost controller off, so achieving ~15-16 psi on the wastegate spring alone, and it is noticeably quicker with the boost controller on and yielding a couple of extra pounds. Hence why I think it is doing OK. So, no, I would not arbitrarily say that return flows are restrictive. Yes, they are certainly restrictive if you're aiming for higher power levels. But I also think that the happy place for a street car is <300 rwkW anyway, so I'm not going to be aiming for power levels that would require me to change the inlet pipework. My car looks very stock, even though everything is different. The turbo and inlet pipes all look stock and run in the stock locations, The airbox looks stock (apart from the inlet being opened up). The turbo looks stock, because it's in the stock location, is the stock housings and can't really be seen anyway. It makes enough power to be good to drive, but won't raise eyebrows if I ever f**k up enough for the cops to lift the bonnet.
    • BuiltNotBought
      Airbox for +T

      By BuiltNotBought · Posted

      There is a guy who said he can weld me piping without having to cut chassis, maybe I do that ? Or do I just go reverse flow but isn’t reverse flow very limited once again? 
×
×
  • Create New...