has anyone evey used magnesium wheels for street use. I knwo they are not as strong, but what kind of difference are we talking about versus aluminum?

I want to get the lightest wheels possible, and mag' seems ot fit bill, but I never see any street wheels made of it.

Thanks

 

Tecnomagnesio has some wheels made out of cast magnesium. Turns out the weight is comparable to Volk TE's. I say go w/ Volk, they're cheap, strong, and looks good. Or if you got the dough.. go with Volk Mags..

 

Tecno's wheels are not all mag...they're a magnesium alloy. Magnesium alloy wheels are not used much on the roads due to expense and slight brittleness. Strength is preferred over lightness for road use. Obviously, for racing, lightness is preferred. The C5 Vette has a mag wheel option, so the C5 is the only road car I know of with mag wheels? FWIW I think the option is $2500 or some crazy number!!! The C5 "bronze" mags look great on a black C5

 

Tony drives his TE37 MAGs on the street. The damn rims retail for close to $1500 each.

 

alloy is better than pure element. Do you think that titanium that's used for automotive is pure ? Nope. About the only thing that's used pure is carbon fibre(the fibre itself). Almost all metals that's used are alloys. And the don't differ much in density.
Yes, there are strong and light wheels out there.. how bout Forged Mag that Volk has. And those mag wheels that's used for racing, they're strong due to more stress. Speedline also makes mag wheels that I know of. Good luck finding cheap mag wheels though, they're about twice the price of forged alum. with probably only 10-20% lighter.

 

I believe in this case (i.e. magnesium), it is not.&nbsp Early magnesium parts on race cars were too brittle and cracked.&nbsp The metal engineers figured out that other alloys (especially copper, iron, and nickel) decreased strength and caused accelerated corrision.



-Ted

 

anyone have pics of the te37 MAG wheels on a rx7??

 

They look the same as the regular TE37 except for two things:

1. They have a TE37 MAG emblem on them

2. They only come in a dark blue.

 

hrmm I always thought the spokes were fatter

anyways I still want to see a pic!

 

Nope spokes are the same.

Mackin has only brought two sets in the the US. One is on Tony's car the other is on a BMW.

 

I've got these on my car.

 

Speedline is the only company that I know of that makes TUV approved MAG road wheels.

Although race cars use MAG wheels, it not a good idea to use them on the street. If magnesium ever caught fire, it's hard to put out. Water can't be used to put the fire out initally. If water is used, a hydrogen explosion may occur; magnesium grabs the hydrogen from water and left pure oxygen to add to the fire. To put out fire on magnesium, powder must be use first before water is applied.

--Joey

 

uhm, fire trucks use magnesium components. Is that a reality that the solid magnesium wheel may catch fire? I have a magnesium fire starter and you have to get shavings to start. And in school they use VERY thin strips of magnesium. Never seen anything thicker than paper used.

 

I heard back from speedline, they ar eonly planning to bring some 18" BMW wheels to the USA. At any rate, they have magh wheels to purchase but they are abupot 650$ each and up, plus shipping. Furthermore, he said for 18x9s and 18X10s weight vary from 19.5 to 22 lbs.

The weight suprised me, I figured they woudl be very light, I can get volks lighter than that for God's sake.

oh well, the thought sounded cool.

Thanks guys,

Philip

 

Yes, it can, but to ignite a SOLID block of magnesium would take a seriously hot spark - nothing typically can be found normally in everyday life.&nbsp We're talking oxyacetylene flame temps over 5000F!

Magnesium shavings and flakes ignite pretty easily. Ever seen race cars with magnesium (rims) bash into a concrete wall?&nbsp Nice spark show!



-Ted