wire wheels/breaking spokes

[wangdango]

Hello,
I have been vintage racing an Austin-Healey 100 LeMans with the VSCCA for a bit over 17 years. We restored the car and first campaigned the car with Dayton chrome/s/steel 60 spoke (BN2 w/offset for brake drums),(shaved street radials), after a bit of a learning curve and gradually getting faster, over the years, the spokes started to break, guess s/steel only stretches so many times. We then moved to Dayton heavy duty 60 spoke painted wire wheels (painted ivory like the 100S). Well, now we are on our second, "go around," of starting to break at least one spoke per race/practice. Have had the wheels respoked/rebuilt just about every other year. SO, I am getting a bit tired of this process, but our club does not allow mini lites or the alloy dunlop "D type" wheel that is now being made either. Was told over this past race weekend of a process in NJ (we live in Garrison NY, and race mostly at Lime Rock), called crynogenics or something like that where the parts are brought down in temp 400+ degrees, which hardens the metal. Would like to perhaps pursue this. Any one have any ideas, thoughts, advice. I spend WAY TOO MUCH, time thinking about spokes breaking while IM RACING!!! What about a different style of spoke lacing, know Cobras have a different style and WAY more HP...
THanks in advance.
Ed

 

[dougie]

Ed - Running wires on a vintage racer means you should just about change out your wheels every other season that's a big expense. I've used the cryogenic process on specific motor parts crank, etc. I haven't heard anyone doing wires though. The process hardens the metal substrate, but like most hardening methods it may reduce the flexibility of the part; https://www.metal-wear.com/Cryogenic%20Processing%20and%20Racing.html

If your club regs mean wire wheels I would look at investing in a set of Borrani's; https://www.borrani.co.uk/,
the lifecycle of these traditional Italian racing wires vs. Dayton or Dunlop could be as high 5 to 1 depending on the weight of your car and the tires you run. The the serious UK vintage Healey racers are running Borrani and before I found my Superlite spline drive wheels I was leaning that direction. You might also try to petition your club to allow you to use a modern aluminum wheel for safety reasons. I was able to maintain my FIA GR 2 requirements by keeping the spline drive on my big Healey.

Dougie

 

[Michael Oritt]

"You might also try to petition your club to allow you to use a modern aluminum wheel for safety reasons."
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Dougie/Ed

I run with the VSCCA (they don't race) and always have a good time at its events, but bottomline originality trumps safety. For example the R&R's <span style="font-style: italic">recommend</span> but do not require roll bars or fuel cells.

My Courier was a VSCCA car when I bought it and I have kept it pretty compliant, still using narrow tires and drum brakes front and rear while most other Couriers use wider wheels and disc fronts.

Side intrusion bars (I have one) are apparently frowned upon because The Rules do specifically state: "Roll Cages are not appropriate or permitted in the VSCCA" and a side-intrusion bar is starting down that slippery slope that might result in increased chassis stiffness, etc. Nevertheless the folks who run tech seem never to see it and I do not choose to point it out.

FWIW I feel that my safety is increased when another driver's car is made safer: If I were involved in an incident with a car without a fuel cell and a fire resulted both of us are at greater risk of fire. The same could be said of Ed's problem and I would certainly support such a petition, though I don't think they will be asking.

 

[Hap Waldrop]

If you end up running alloy spline drive wheels, call me, I can help you out, we're clearencing these right now, I got 14x6 and 15x6 in stock.