randog

Sorry First World Problem. I’m sure this has been debated but I’m not a regular but I do really like this forum. Anyway, what are your thoughts?

1. Mounting new tires. Harder than aluminum?
2. If I hit a big pothole which wheel stands up best?
3. Aluminum rims you can straighten, and I have, it’s fine. But CF,…
4. What about stone chips. I’ve re- powder costed my c7 z06 wheels and it’s perfect. What about CF?

cheers!

Joefab

1. Mounting tires same as any wheel.
2. Carbon fiber wheels take potholes better than aluminum . Proven to take abuse better .
3. Degree of damage determines this question. Ive tig welded and remachined really F-up aluminum wheels. Carbon have no experience . But carbon composite supplies available and like a fiberglass boat or mclaren carbon tub repairs are possible along with sanding.
4. Simply repaint and or reclear coat- no difficulties on #4

BIGGEST benefit of carbon fiber wheels is statistically significant acceleration and handling improvement as the wheels are the heaviest parts of a cars unsprung weight . Acceleration and braking and handling are truly improved and documented before and after with no speculation. Kudos to Carbon Revolution Australia that manufactures the carbon fiber wheels for the FORD GT, FORD GT350R, FERRARI cars and now C8Z06 . Its truly incredible that C8Z06 went all-in for maximum road racing speed and fastest possible track lap time performance and offered Z06/Z07 package with these wheels. Kudos to Tadge and his engineering team.

Koenigsegg carbon fiber wheels- these guys in Sweden are incredible.


Here is an interesting before and after video. Carbon wheels versus lightweight BBS German aluminum forged wheels- no other changes made. GM C8Z06 has records of all this when developing Z06. old video from 2008. That car he describes is the ford gt350 .

ZO6ZO7isme

Get the wheel and tire package. Got it for my 9114S. $3000 lifetime coverage on any type damage with complete replacement, no questions asked.
in any case, wheels, tires, potholes etc. etc. become non factors.

combatninja

Erroneous. It's the tires that are always the biggest contributor to the car's sum total of rotating (and therefore, also unsprung) mass. At least when talking performance cars. I understand that there are econo sedans out there on steelies and little tires that break this rule but with modern performance cars, particularly anything with a carbon wheel option, the tires are going to be the heaviest.

hcvone

Had them for years on my porsche's, and also been using Forgeline carbon forged wheels (carbon fiber barrels bolted to forged aluminum centers) on my Z06's, ZR1's and tts's, they are super strong and seem to absorb the bumps better than my standard forged aluminum wheels, but they are expebsive, and if you are someone who likes to park to close to curbs, you may want to look elsewhere

fzust

Had them on the GT350R. It is most noticeable in braking. They are a thing. they do work as advertised and they are beautiful. Is it worth the $$$? That is an individual decision. Not a must have, but if $10K is pocket change to you, then of course get them.

rob62

Had they made the c.f. wheel better looking than the stock one my decision would be made.

Joefab

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Im not wrong because the tires are added to the wheel package chosen. Certainly, i agree 100% with you a heavy tire will compromise a super lightweight wheel and make the overall weight not ideal. For the C8Z06 with super large wheels the carbon fiber Z07 wheel is the current state of the art. Forged aluminum Cnc milled and machined are excellent choices too.

FYI- In the olden days BBS Germany made magnesium lightweight 3 piece wheels and when i was road racing i could certain feel the performance improvements. Guess what years ago BBS racing braselton Georgia discontinue MAG centers because of “reliability” . Meanwhile - Porsche offers magnesium wheels as a very expensive upgrade on the GT4 RS and GT3RS cars. Wonder what has changed in the metallurgy.

Kudos the Z06 for being brave and gung ho and offering carbon wheels. This is streetspeeds rear wheel and cup2 R tire. I bet a Hoosier race tire would be lighter but dont know if they make the appropriate size. A great weekend to everyone!


Rear C8Z06 carbon revolution wheel Australia

Wonder what it weighs no tire

Ford ferrari and now GM are customers .

Racer X

Using the above weight of 57 pounds, and Michelin website weight for the 345/25/21 sport cup 2R ZP tire weight of 34.1 pounds that means the wheel and balancing weights is ~22.9 pounds for the rear wheel.

DTOM

Keep in mind the suspension tune from GM is different for CF wheels

range96

Hey, 5 lbs of rubber is already missing from that tire!

combatninja

For reference, the stock split 5-spoke crappy base Stingray wheels are 32.7lbs in the rear at 20" x 11". These 21" x 13" are 22.9lbs. So you are 30% lighter while being much larger.

Glennm27

I can imagine there are many places that either won’t even touch these wheels if you asked them to mount new tires on them OR they’d say they can’t be responsible for damage that could occur. These tires have extremely short and very stiff sidewalls making them extremely hard to mount.
I personally would never get them, especially with all the real concerns you state in your post.

combatninja

Heard that. Can't wait for the first Discount Tire manager to have a coronary when he finds out the wheel his new kid just chewed up costs $5,000 to replace.

international blue

Connell Chevrolet in So-Cal said they had spent about $100,000.00 on a machine for the carbon Z06 wheels, and were excited to support the car.

Track tire trucks should also be more than ready for handling these too. With the goals of CR, I think this type of wheel will be "standard" in a few decades.

jvp

No it isn't. The steering tuning is.

randog

It shouldn’t be detrimental to the car if you use PS4s with aluminum rims on a Z07 equipped CF rim car should it?
I wouldn’t think so. Not sure. Anyway be damn lucky to even get a Z07 or any Z06 for that matter! I’m no 1 on the dealer list. They are the biggest vette dealer they say in the pacific NW. So I’m still hopeful but he doesn’t have an allocation yet. He’s got 54 people behind me.

blue_bomber697

Something you definitely need to consider here is who will be doing your tire swaps. A large majority of tire places will not touch these carbon fiber wheels. And the ones that will, still may have extreme difficulty in swapping the tires. Which is also a likely issue the base wheels will get as well, but they'll be even harder to change on the Carbon ones due to them being afraid to touch them more or less.

Emelia just had a shop spend over 6 hours trying to swap her tires to a new set of Cup2R's and they ultimately gave up. They put a different set of tires on I believe with softer sidewalls just to make it work.

vrybad

Is that really accurate?
That seems very heavy.
My factory TS rear 11.5" x 20 are around 26-27 lbs each.

Edit: did some poking, you are correct!
~32# rear
~26# front

Edit: Those GM weights appear to include packaging so there may a be 4-5 lbs reduction in these numbers.

randog

My plan would be to have the CF wheels with cup2s as they came from the factory and buy another set of aluminum rims with PS4s for street use. There’s a great shop here in Spokane called Advance Auto Fab. They do all the work on my c7 Z06. They can mount they tires on CF rims. I can change the wheels out in my shop then just drive to Area27