Drilling face of "rim"

[TexasTaxi]

I know you can lathe down the outside and inside of the wheel, to lighten it, but has anyone drilled the face of the wheel? I re-read our Pack rules, and the only wheel rule is that they have to be the wheels out of the box and you can not narrow the tread width.

After shaving, a little more weight could be taken out by drilling the face. Either small holes in the green spots, or slightly larger holes in the red spots.

 

[Kindintentions]

That is a good question. I would wonder about the risk of damaging the bore or hub when pressing down to drill through the face of the wheel. I assume the face of the wheel would have to be up facing the bit on the drill press, and you would want to clamp that wheel to the drill press table or a scrap piece of wood so it doesn't move as soon as you start drilling into it. The pressure you would need to clamp down the wheel to the table or a scrap piece of wood may damage the inner hub or bore.

However, maybe there is a way to do it not to damage the rest of the wheel. I would be interested to find out.

 

[Darkside]

Great way to find out is to give it a try... Weigh the wheel before and after to see how much weight it loses. Then, if you can, test it on the car to see if makes a difference. Worst thing that will happen is you wreck a 50 cent wheel.

 

[Castoro Racing]

I would honestly spend the time getting the other areas of the car right. IMO the speed you gain from a light wheel would be offset in this case by any impact on runout, roundness and added airflow.

Certainly if you have time test it out, but if it's any time crunch spend time elsewhere.

 

[Charles Studer]

Lighter the Balanced true wheel the faster. But +1 on Castoro. Bore and axles better the better dial the Whole car first.

 

[Mojo Racing]

Don't forget to account for unbalancing the wheel with your drilled holes... They will need to be the same distance from the center of the hub and on the same degree difference between each one, or you can instigate an offset to the balance in the wheel. Now... there is a degree of that inherent to the wheel, but this may make it worse and cause wheel jump if it is bad enough.

Unless you have a CNC drilling this for you, I would pass on the "drilling the spokes" option.

 

[Roadrunner]

I tried this once on a scout car. It was DQ’d. Drilling the sidewalls wasn’t prohibited, but lettering inside had to remain. Rules have since been changed to include no drilled sidewalls. Never got to run it, so I don’t know anything about how it might have performed. But maintaining good balance is certainly key

 

[Roadrunner]

Dug this out of the junk pile...

 

[Jupiter 2.9]

Dug this out of the junk pile...

That's just screaming DQ me the kid didn't build it, but it looks cool.

 

[Roadrunner]

Yeah, it’s tough to ignore that. We had another set of wheels, and were allowed to change them. So, we still got to race.

 

[Roadrunner]

I meant to say that it’s tough to ignore that it’s highly modified. Unlikely to fly under the radar...

 

[Jupiter 2.9]

he he he, always have a spare car.
Plan A might get dropped and plan B is pretty fast too. lol
Just make sure that mommy's car is the fastest for the family race, keeps the kid in check.

 

[B_Regal Racing]

I don't know who this Mojo guy is. Or this Castoro person, but there logic is sound.

 

[Mojo Racing]

Careful there @B_Regal Racing .... If people think I have any logic to my ways of thinking, my whole reputation is shot!