Clear polycarbonate car wheels hit for $2,000 apiece
By Cyrus Farivar 
posted November 2nd 2006 1:17PM
posted November 2nd 2006 1:17PM
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posted November 2nd 2006 1:17PM
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Um, Scratches?
Its gonna suck having to take them off every week to clean the brake dust off the inside!
Pretty cool looking thought!
Your right about the scratching part, Little kids will have a hayday carving into these rims. Also how safe is this, what if your riding over a train track or pothole and this thing breaks and drops the whole front end of your car to the ground. Oooops
I know its polycarbonate but I have seen a metal rim snapped in half from a pothole, I would think twice about gettin these...
what kind of heat can these things take? wouldn't the brake dust get baked into the wheels?
This is 2" of polycarbonate glass. The same 2" Polycarbonate glass used on the space shuttle; heat is no problem for them. They would be a bit hard to scratch, Aerodynamics of the vehicle will keep most rocks and stones from even getting caught up in there, unless you actually /try/ to scratch them.
As I said in an earlier post, their biggest problem is chemicals. Brake Cleaner, Alcohol, anything like that will shatter them. It's quite ironic how they are bulletproof, heatproof, etc, yet a few drops of a chemical cleaner will shatter them to pieces.
Hey at least someone is trying to be different...
If I see one more set of BBS rims or spinners I'm going to club myself to death
with a baby seal i hope.
don't you mean "dub" yourself to death?
PS if you can drop $4000 on a set of rims you can probably spend a few hundred a year to pay some kid to clean them every couple of weeks :P
Actually at $2000 a piece it would be $8000 but you still got your point across
Try $8K for a set - it's $2k per wheel.
Where's the brake dust gonna go?
yes yes.... weve figured that out already.
My concern (beside the valid points about scratches and especially brake fade due to heat buildup) would be these things shattering. Metal rims can break, but generally will bend or become warped if you hit a nasty pothole/curb, etc. With these things, there doesn't appear to be any room for flex, only clean breaking.
Definitely over the top. Imagine what they would look like with a set of spinners.
Does Fellowes make little static screen protectors for these? Cuz I'm pretty sure they wouldn't make it down my street before a little rock flew up and made a lovely mark on them. Also, how cool would it be to write with a dry erase marker on these. Lol, I could draw rims ON my rims!
My concern is just being too damn cool!! I mean seriously, this is over-rimmin. You've got have a limit on pimpin'
And/Or static faceplates?
Show use only - It's a no brainer.
pfft.. No video screens? How lame..
polycarbonate - temperature resistance, impact resistance and optical properties
brake dust and scratches, yeah, that sucks
with spinners? do you mean clear spinners? they'd look transparent, but once the dust settles and scratches appear they could look neat
If you get these you better get some sexy-looking rotors cause that's what you'll see if your view isn't obscured already by the brakedust and/or scratches.
Still cool idea though.
My guess is that these are for show only. For the very reasons described in the comments above...dirt, brake dust, scratches, pot holes. A show car doesn't have to worry about any of those.
I think these are more for show than actual road driving...even though some people will use them for that...
i never thought i would see wheels that looked worse than the LED embedded ones. but here they are.
See, you need to embed small LEDs in the back of these so you can send out messages through your wheels. Like the spinning LED clocks Marketing VPs stare at.
Reminds me of the hub-less wheels on the Nike One concept car...
see
http://www.diseno-art.com/encyclopedia/archive/nike_one.html
This type of plastic wheel tech is not new. My old 89 Shelby CSX VNT (only 500 made) had “fiberride” wheels. That car was a STONE COLD MUSTANG KILLER!!
http://www.shelbyregistry.com/graphics/89csx.jpg
I think we'll be seeing a majority of these on show cars. Cars that will never drive down the street.
Can they make transparent tires to go with it?
These'd make sense for brake and tire manufacturers. They could show their wares unobscured and without the distracting bling on working cars.
I suppose someone will have a PC behind one by the next tech trade show.
Yep. I really want to spend $8k on these rims so I can get a clear view of my ugly ass rusting axel and shocks that sit behind the wheel.
I have a set of 24's on my Escalade that are made of metal. I know that before these things can be certified, they must be stress tested. I would assume that for rims being made in 22" and 24" this was especially important before they could gain street legality. I always imagine sooner or later something like this would be made and now that I see them, I hate em.
Now people can see the inside of my wheel well... because we all know how beautiful our suspension, break discs, and calipers are...
nice.
now i get to see even more of the rattle can paint jobs on rusty small diameter drum brakes, and the ragged edge of garage cut springs on the azz end of the neighborhood buzz punk rides.
and how long before one can buy ROTORS drilled in specific patterns?
its a slipery slope.
and people bitched about the apple g4 cube having 'cracks'. i can't wait for the complaints for this thing to start getting reported...
To those who are worried about these shattering. It ain't gonna happen. Did you read the article? It is a polycarbonate that is 2 (!)inches thick, I'm sure it could take much more of a beating than most light weight wheels. Besides, it's not gonna shatter. It may create a crack but I'm sure your hub will stay in the center regardless.
I think these wheels are really targeted for those who "roll" tho, so I wouldn't even worry about brakes fading. I mean, are you seriously thinking someone who buys these rims taking to the tracks? I didn't think so.
NOTE:
Harsh chemicals such as BRAKE CLEANER will shatter polycarbonate.
If you use practically any degreaser in your calipurs to clean them, and they contaminate the pads and then the brake dust goes onto the polycarbonate...well, lets just hope you're not driving when that happens.
at work we have these polycarbonate shields which are practically bullet proof to stop parts from flying off the machines if they brake...one day a coworker thought he should clean our lubricants off the polycarbonate with break cleaner...well, the rest is history, shattered to the ground.
Pretty cheapass rims... It's not even close to the "Asanti Jewel Stone Wheel Rims" wich are $250.000 each, plus you get a free Bentley if you buy all four... though they don't seem to have that offer anymore, pitty I was saving for those :)
these are obviously just for show. Say if you wanted your 300c to look as if the rims were floating.
Sure you may need to clean them quite often to keep them transparent, but you still need to clean chrome too. Sure rocks may be able to scratch it, but it's the same with chrome. No matter what, you should always clean your car's rims, and not bitch.
these would look great on a showroom car, in a showroom. and that is about it..
"Four of these will make you the coolest kid in town, for sure"
I thing I might be able to gather up enough cash for 2 of them....
If I could get 4 though... imagine these.. on my $800, flat black with bright green racing stripes, rusted out rocker panels, and dented all to hell, 1990 subaru legacy... Man, I'd have p*ssy waiting at my front door when I got home.
I'd have to get the 20s... a 3" body lift... some super-low profile tires... this just might work.
ENGADGET HAS SAVED MY SEX LIFE!
/sarcasm
Wheather they look good on a car would be personal taste but, like a black vehicle, the only time those wheels are gonna look good is when they're new.
these would look pretty nice on a black car and you can always add some lights to them or something for even more craziness. also has anyone here ever seen le mans? the brakes on the cars get all hot and when theyre racing at night they all look like they have red rims on because theyre so bright spinning, so start driving around at 200mph with your MB CLS63 so you can get some hotness on those ceramic brakes (another 20k)
NOPE, not for show!!
I saw a set on a Nissan 350 Z yesterday on my way to NYC.
I had to double take, and then speed up and catch the guy. When I got even with him, I could not take my eyes off his wheels!!
Everything was visible...suspension, brake discs, and calipers..
These look amazing...Seriously, Very COOL.
At $2k a rim, I'll pass, but boy, you gotta see these things live.
P.S. The guy driving looked like he needed the Rims to get women (kinda nerdy), but hey, whatever works.
Nobody seemed to mention possible melting? :P somebody mentioned brakes heating up and needing ventilation.. but.. nobody stopped to think of radiated heat from the brakes and the effect it'd have on the wheel..