Bryan

I was looking at a French website that had information on the 944 Turbo Cup cars produced circa 1988. The car came with 17" Speedline wheels or 16" magnesium wheels. The cars pictured had Speedlines or phone dials. Ergo, the phone dials were some special magnesium version? Anyone know anything about these wheels?

I'm assuming standard phone dials are cast aluminum and not magnesium.

Bryan

PorscheG96

[quote]Originally posted by Bryan:
<strong>I was looking at a French website that had information on the 944 Turbo Cup cars produced circa 1988. The car came with 17" Speedline wheels or 16" magnesium wheels. The cars pictured had Speedlines or phone dials. Ergo, the phone dials were some special magnesium version? Anyone know anything about these wheels?

I'm assuming standard phone dials are cast aluminum and not magnesium.

Bryan</strong><hr></blockquote>
True. The Magnesium wheels are a lot lighter but not as strong...so you wouldn't really want to use them on the street. They're super rare and expensive!

deni durrell

you should look at that thread in the 944 turbo discussion area.. quite a bit of discussion about those cars, surprised to not see "Rothmans Challenge" posting there.

Brian Wilson

That is crazy wierd. I would like to have a set!!!

Just a question, magnesium wheels... Watch out when they get wet, everyone cover your eyes!!!

When I went to paris for labor day weekend, I was just walking along a back street, and guess what drove by.... It was a 944 Turbo Cup!!!

I was so excited. At the time I didn't know anything about cup cars. Crazy, just had to share.

Danno

[quote]Just a question, magnesium wheels... Watch out when they get wet, everyone cover your eyes!!!<hr></blockquote>
I think that's lithium....

aka 951

If they catch on fire you can't put them out with water. Mg actually burns in water.

GeorgeK

I have a few sets for my Cup car. They are indeed some magnesium alloy. They are 8 and 9 by 16 inches, and come from a special mold, not the same as the std Turbo phone dial. VERY light, but I use them for the track, not the road - they don't like potholes.
GeorgeK

Bryan

Cool. Standard late offset turbo phone dials are 7x16 and 8x16, so the Cup "mags" are an inch wider too. Do they use the same offset as the regular turbo phone dials? I assume they use 225/50 and 245/45 tires as opposed to the 205/55 and 225/50 of the standard ones?

GeorgeK, can you post some pics of what they look like?

Bryan

brh986

[quote]Originally posted by PorscheG96:
<strong>
True. The Magnesium wheels are a lot lighter but not as strong...so you wouldn't really want to use them on the street. They're super rare and expensive! </strong><hr></blockquote>


Ruf makes some magnesium wheels for the boxster - they're $8-9k I believe.

brh986

[quote]Originally posted by Danno:
<strong>
I think that's lithium....</strong><hr></blockquote>

no that's sodium

Luke

sodium, lithium, potassium, and every other in that family react the same with water. The heavier that atom, the greater the reaction.

good thing they dont make wheels out of Francium

bs

i think luke is right on that one... i beleive these are the "group 1" atoms... alkili metals or "rare earth" or some such; i'm straining my brain to remember freshman chemistry here. if i remember right, francium is to unstable to be isolated.

as for mag wheels, a friend of mine has a friend who works for ford and managed to get him a set of 15" magnesium wheels with a bolt pattern that fit his miata. damn, i bet those things weighed in around 3 or 4 pounds a peice.

the thing about magnesium is that it can somehow oxidize itself... ie it can "burn" with no exposure to atmospheric oxygen, hence it burning underwater.

found an old magnesium gearbox in the back of a lab at school once... a big hole saw and a drill press made a nice pile of shavings pretty fast. funny, a propane torch isn't hot enough to light magnesium, had to get out the acetylene. ahhh for the days when i had all those toys to play with.

jim968

I've got a roll of magnesium tape in the lab; use it when teaching non-ferrous metals.. yes, you can light it with a Bic. It's about 3/16" wide by .015" thick. Burns _real_ hot & white, but doesn't have enough mass to burn for very long (like long enough to submerge it, darn it!).

Not recommending anything here, but if you have some old unused flashbulbs (anybody remember those?), you can break them open & extract the magnesium wire from the inside. Makes a quick, hot flash, some white smoke, and leaves a tiny bit of white oxide behind. (If you burn the house down, don't call me...)

Jim, "it's a wonderful day in the neighborhood, a wonderful day in the neighborhood....."

Steve Cooper

I've had the pleasure to burn some old VW magnesium engine blocks in the past. It takes a good starter fire, say a two-three foot high stack of seasoned 2x4s with the block snuggled inside. Use a sledge hammer to break off a corner of the block, once it gets hot and a bit malleable, then the freshly exposed magnesium will catch. It doesn't burn in a fast POOF. It takes a bit of coaxing. Once it does ignite, welding goggles aren't a bad idea. The heat isn't much greater than the starter fire itself, but it is very bright. It's kinda eery to see a nightscape illuminated in the pure white light from of a mag fire.

one man's magblock is another man's maginferno

Steve Cooper

GeorgeK

Bryan,
Here is a pic of one 9X16. The mould is not the same as the std 16 inch phome dial rims.
<a href="http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/i-1.JPG" target="_blank">http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/i-1.JPG</a>