Next SVT GT350 to get Carbon Fiber wheels

[Ry_Trapp0]

we talked with the CR guys at sema. i believe theyre 19s average about 15lbs per wheel. which is probably 5lbs less than your lightest lightweight forged wheels out there. (with big brake clearances). but for $15k a set....

and, carbon fiber is brittle. aluminum is flexible. automotive wheels actually flex a little while driving. carbon fiber wheels do not. at the first sign of stress where flexing would be needed, the wheel will break and be junk and youre then left needing to buy a new $3750 wheel. obviously if offered by a manufacturer then the pricing would come way down but it would still be prohibitively expensive, just like carbon ceramic brakes. everyone's excited to get them on their street car, until they need to replace them :uh oh:

now imagine how much flexing an aluminum wheel on a 6,000lb truck does when carrying a payload and towing. or even a Taurus with 5 adults in the car.

i could see them possibly being offered on a top of the line svt mustang but not as standard issue. much too soon. and on production cars? how happy would your average ford owner be if they had to buy a new wheel every time they hit a nasty pothole or curb, even if they were just a few hundred $ per wheel?

i could see manufacturers moving to lighter/stronger forged wheels on production vehicles like on the gt500s, mass produced in taiwan. but they would need to MASS produce them to make them cost effective for mass production vehicles. if there are 15,000 gt500s made in a year. that's 60,000 wheels. plus spares. so, say 100,000 wheels made for a one year run. and theyre still over $1k each (retail).

but, there are also now ways to produce light weight cast wheels which are far more cost effective to produce and probably strong enough to meet oem demands for passenger cars.

i'm DEFINITELY not going to argue with the guy that produces wheels for a living, but i'm more so curious to hear what you have to say about christian von koenigsegg's comments(curbing/pothole comments around 6:30)...
[video=youtube;PGGiuaQwcd8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGGiuaQwcd8[/video]
...hype/spin or is he actually talking some sense?

 

[93 347 Cobra]

September 28th is almost 4 months ago. Interesting to read the comments now that everything has been confirmed.