18-inch wheel rims in IndyCar Series in the future for revolutionary

[Therius94]

The real pictures of 18-inch rims.

The trend of 18-inch rims in open-wheel single-seater formula auto racing now has been grown because of revolutionary. Firestone Firehawk IndyCar Series tires current generation will slowly to end of life after 2022 including current conventional classic wheel rims. I would love of IndyCar Series using 18-inch rims in the future as a reference of road-relevance. The 18-inch wheel rim in motorsport usually used majorly in sports car racing (including endurance) and touring car racing. NASCAR Cup Series also will expected to switch to 18-inch rims as Gen 7 Cup cars officially arrived.

Your opinions?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Therius94

The real pictures of 18-inch rims.

The trend of 18-inch rims in open-wheel single-seater formula auto racing now has been grown because of revolutionary. Firestone Firehawk IndyCar Series tires current generation will slowly to end of life after 2022 including current conventional classic wheel rims. I would love of IndyCar Series using 18-inch rims in the future as a reference of road-relevance. The 18-inch wheel rim in motorsport usually used majorly in sports car racing (including endurance) and touring car racing. NASCAR Cup Series also will expected to switch to 18-inch rims as Gen 7 Cup cars officially arrived.

Your opinions?

I haven't read anything that suggests IndyCar will switch to 18'' wheels. However, with everyone else switching and a new chassis coming online in 2024/25, I don't see why the wheel manufacturers would want to make a special case for IndyCar and continue with the current wheel spec. The cost alone, just for one racing series would be hard to justify.

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I haven't read anything that suggests IndyCar will switch to 18'' wheels. However, with everyone else switching and a new chassis coming online in 2024/25, I don't see why the wheel manufacturers would want to make a special case for IndyCar and continue with the current wheel spec. The cost alone, just for one racing series would be hard to justify.

The cost to switch would be enormous.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by peebee2

The cost to switch would be enormous.

Why do you say that?

[broadrun96]

The costs to redevelop the oval tire would be far greater than wheel manufacturers continuing with a currently developed and known design. There is not much cost in continuing the build that is not recovered from sales

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

The costs to redevelop the oval tire would be far greater than wheel manufacturers continuing with a currently developed and known design. There is not much cost in continuing the build that is not recovered from sales

Tyres though, will have to be redeveloped for the new chassis anyway, as the loading will be different from the current chassis, as will be the suspension. Also if every other major series are switching to 18'' tyres, would the sales to one series, continuing with the old wheels, be enough to keep production open just for that series?

[broadrun96]

I'm gonna guess most of the manufacturers don't rely on racing teams only buying wheels so sales to race teams aren't their big production effort. But there hasn't been much talk of new and it's not like Bridgestone is building an F1 tire so fire Firestone isn't pushed for 18s.

[bjohnsonsmith]

As I initially said, I haven't heard anything but if there were to be a switch to 18'', I would expect it to coincide with the new chassis.

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Why do you say that?

It’s not F1. You’d be chucking millions of dollars of good wheels in the bin. You’d have to develop all new set-ups for all tracks, massive budget cost. You’d need new damper programmes, new brake programmes, new aero programmes.

And that’s before the new manufacturing / R&D costs.

There’s no problem with continuing to manufacture the current stuff, the tooling is all there and paid for.

[AnnoyedMoose]

It's never as simple as just the cost to the teams though. A lot depends on what the audience wants to see and whether younger viewers are turned on or off by wheels and tyres that are alien to what they are used to on their own cars.

Daft to those of us who are of a more practical nature but marketing budgets and hence sponsorship swing on such things.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by AnnoyedMoose

It's never as simple as just the cost to the teams though. A lot depends on what the audience wants to see and whether younger viewers are turned on or off by wheels and tyres that are alien to what they are used to on their own cars.

Daft to those of us who are of a more practical nature but marketing budgets and hence sponsorship swing on such things.

Guaranteed ZERO fans have ever said that, that is 100% marketing speak and cannot be backed up by any data. F1 tried and couldn't provide a lick of it

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by peebee2

It’s not F1. You’d be chucking millions of dollars of good wheels in the bin. You’d have to develop all new set-ups for all tracks, massive budget cost. You’d need new damper programmes, new brake programmes, new aero programmes.

And that’s before the new manufacturing / R&D costs.

There’s no problem with continuing to manufacture the current stuff, the tooling is all there and paid for.

All the above will happen anyway, with the development of the new chassis. So if IndyCar does switch to 18'' wheels, it will coincide with the new chassis.

[Toecutter]

18 inch wheels are not "revolutionary" lol. If the series wants more stopping power with bigger rotors then they would be needed otherwise big rims is purely a waste of money.

[V8 Fireworks]

Originally Posted by peebee2

It’s not F1. You’d be chucking millions of dollars of good wheels in the bin.

Also Indycar already uses 15" wheels. It's not like F1 who banned 15" or 16" (or larger) wheels in the early 1980's. Some F1 cars were using 15" wheels on one axle or the other, but they were banned.

That's a 15" front tyre.

- Sir Frank Williams, 1981 testing @ 18:20

So the wheels used in Indycar aren't as comically small as the 13" wheels used in F1, so I guess there is less imperative to change. Ironically those 1981 fronts are lower profile than what F1 will be using in 2022 IIRC (as total diameter has been increased considerably to along LMP1 lines)...

[Toecutter]

Why stop at 18 inch? Put some 22s on them. LOL

[broadrun96]

24" faux wire wheels with ultra-low profiles, make them really pop.

I get the 13" wheels with Pirelli and before that Michelin. They were tired of a completely different construction method to any they can actually use, the sidewall was a large portion of the suspension and meant a different theory to the build. But moving Indy to a different wheel seems like a change without a point. Firestone already know how to build this tire, they are not radically changing it each season and it's been fairly consistent for multiple seasons. Yeah, there are tweaks but nothing big.
Pirelli has has changes requested every year, and so far made a tire teams don't want to use within spec. Then we get failures and finger pointing. Indy has those teams pushing the envelope but are usually called out for being outside of the Firestone specs rather than Firestone being the bad guys. It's a system that works and is known, when your budgets are as tight as Indy teams that's a good thing.

[Adam43]

Personally, I don’t see a reason for the change either. Apart from why change, I much prefer the look of a high sidewall tyre.

But there is a general thought that more wheel less tyre looks good. Ruins many a car.

Swinging sixties in the UK dictate a minimum of 60% profile. Love it.

[broadrun96]

There definitely needs to be some sidewall especially trucks and open wheel cars. Sports cars ok, I get it but the rubber and look is terrible. But the 4wd trucks with 24s and 2” wide tires looks dumb, especially as most have bald junk tires. Pointless buying the 4wd to do that but your money wasted.

[Adam43]

Yeah. Pointless.

Of course, we could just have spats and then it wouldn’t matter. Well on the rear anyway.



https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/a...e-art-of-noise