Howdy all.
I had a rather lengthy discussion with a tecnical guy at American Racing
Wheels today concerning the unfortunate offset change on the AR24 wheels
from a Stock Class legal 35mm to the ever so slightly illegal 33mm.
The reason they gave for the change was that they were having a lot of
complaints about the 35mm offset wheels not clearing the grease caps on some
cars so they made a running change in the wheel specs and changed the offset
to 33mm.
I discussed the possibility and feasibility of taking the 33mm offset wheels
to a machine shop and having them mill off the offending extra 2mm of hub
material to regain the legal 35mm offset.
"Bad idea" is what they told me. I figured they'd say as much. The old
35mm offset wheels had a lot of extra hub material and they milled off
enough to smooth the surface and get the 35mm offset after the wheels came
out of the casting molds. Now they merely don't mill off as much material
so the newer wheels have the ever so slightly Stock Class illegal 33mm
offset.
The tech also said that as a result of not milling off as much material they
had to deepen the lug nut recesses and the conical seat that the nuts seat
against when tightened to keep the same amount of hub material thickness and
not require longer studs on some vehicles.
Bummer. I'm sure that extra 2mm of necessary stud length would really have
caused a lot of problems. ;^)
Anyway this will soon all be a moot point anyway as he told me that American
Racing will soon be discontinuing the AR24 wheels in favor of a new better
looking wheel named the Crossfire. The new Crossfire wheel will once again
have the desirable 35mm offset and weighs less than 1/2 pound more than the
14 pound weight of the old AR24 wheel.
IF you want to take a look at the new much better looking Crossfire wheel go
to: http://www.americanracing.com/wheelinfo/specs.asp?model=Crossfire
If that link doesn't work just go to www.americanracing.com and look under
the "Passenger car" tab. You'll need to go to the 2nd page of wheels and
then you can see the picture and specs of the new Crossfire wheel.
Best of all it'll cost only about $10 more. BTW, I called a couple local KC
stores and they only wanted $5 more for it than the AR24 wheels.
Well that's all for now. Looks like I'll be getting a 2nd set of race
wheels this spring. Maybe even sooner.
See you on course.
Eric Linnhoff in KC
#69DS TLS #13
'98 Neon R/T
<eric10mm@qni.com>
Baby you can drive my car
Yes I'm gonna be a star
Baby you can drive my car
And maybe I'll love you
Beep beep, Mmm beep beep yeah!!
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"Drive My Car" Beatles
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