The new bling

[Majik]

I tell you what, you pick up a set of and a week later they are old news.

Clear wheels. Man nothing like getting a good look at a set of stock brakes.

[altiain]

Ehh... what?

Can you provide a link? I'd love to see what those are made out of (just to wonder what kind of use disclaimers come with buying a wheel where the load bearing section is made out of plastic).

[Majik]

I dont know if this is the same material or not.
http://beverlytang.com/archives/mate..._aluminum.html
It was posted in the same thread, but there is a debate about aluminum vs. aluminum oxide.

[Treibenschnell]

Damnit... I just read about an aluminium derivative that can be polished to a clear shine. Let me see if I can find the link...

[Treibenschnell]

LINKIE



Hmm... I somehow doubt it could be the same stuff in those wheels.

[channelmaniac]

OMG!

In a June 2004demonstration, an ALONtm test pieces held up to both a .30 caliber Russian M-44 sniper rifle and a .50 caliber Browning Sniper Rifle with armor piercing bullets. While the bullets pierced the glass samples, the armor withstood the impact with no penetration.

That stuff is cool! No more broken windshields from rock haulers... and soon, every ricer will have a clear hood instead of CF.

Anyone else remember Star Trek IV where Scotty gave the formula for transparent aluminum to the engineer in exchange for the plastic panels?

RJ

[altiain]

That's all well and good, but that aluminum oxynitride would be utterly worthless to make wheels out of. It is transparent (more like translucent, looking at the pics in majik's link), and it has high compressive strength... but very low tensile strength, just like common glass or concrete.

Think about it - concrete has incredibly high compressive strength, but what happens when you pull on it instead of pushing on it? It breaks very easily. Same thing for aluminum oxynitride.

Wheels need to be made out of a material with both high compressive and high tensile strength... and this stuff ain't it.

[Majik]

They might also be a show car only type of thing. Save them from having to take a wheel off to show off the polished lower control arm.