TheRealLefty

About a year and half ago, I began to hear reports from some Club Racers (mostly tail draggers) that many guys, including the then-president of PCA Tom Bobbit, were phasing out their Fuchs racing wheels over fears of age degradation and some reported failures at speed.

Haven't heard much on this topic since. False alarm or accepted fact?

lee101315

How do they fail? They are the best factory rims for the 951 / 911

dime1622

I could only see failure if the wheels had gone through a lot of stress. But long before failure you'd notice that the wheels would not be true.

TheRealLefty

I think the concerns were coming from the fact that there is for the most part no such thing as a "new Fuchs wheel" especially for active racers who don't want or need to pay NOS restoration prices. Guys running very narrow wheels on early Speedsters and the like were essentially racing on 50 year old 5 wheels...hard duty at higher than street temperatures and stresses, literally hundreds of mounts and dismounts, torques and re-torques over the years and an occasional whack here and there.

Don't know first hand whether there were some actual failures at speed or whether guys were finding stress cracks, but there was a buzz a while back and then I haven't heard any more about it, hence the thread.

2bridges

nope. I have never bought it. I inspect mine, but expect a failure rate of zero.

a cast aluminum 20yr old wheel is a whole nother deal, and people run them all the time. Those are what I would expect failure with

KuHL 951

You got that right. I had an old American Racing Torque Thrust wheel toss a 8" x 6" section off the inner edge at 70mph on the freeway completely collapsing the right front and bending an axle. The main issue with a forged wheel like a Fuch is stress corrosion cracking from corrosion between the steel hub mount and back of the aluminum wheel. It's not common on track cars with original wheels stored indoors but many people buy used wheels from cars that had road salts always working on that critical interface.

theedge

Good for them, retire the Fuchs and get something thats not so ugly

Rich Sandor

I had an 8x16 crack across 2 spokes a couple years ago. I didn't hit any potholes or anything.

tommye

This is how it starts........
This car is (obviously) not being tracked right now!

Tommy

2bridges

Thanks for the pic

Curious - this a 951 wheel or 911? have curb rash? or ever been repaired that you know of? Car in a wreck?