911rox

Is the centrelock wheel one you'd be able to change on the side of a road (ie if you carried a spare) or is this why we are getting the TPS as standard, so you know when to get it towed home??? I'm guessing its no ordinary wrench that cracks one of the babies???

cgomez

A loose center lock would be obvious in the first 100yds you drive the car..... while a 5 lug can be easily dirven on 2 nuts and then sudden kapputZ!

Carrera GT

If you look at the Carrera GT or any of the pics in other recent threads on the topic, there's a Porsche "special tool" which is basically an enormous socket with internal gearing to "multiple" the work of turning the lug wrench. To achieve the required 400 ftlb or so, with say a 3 foot lever and most people capable of producing perhaps 60 or 80 pounds of force, the tool need only double or triple the work. Having played with one for only a few minutes in the paddock one day, it seems to reduce the movement about six to one. I'm guessing you could search back through the very early Carrera GT forum posts to find people discovering this new toy. Most owners don't buy it because jacking up the Carrera GT is a non-trivial exercise anyway. A hard core Carrera GT driver, Fayence, had the whole shebang, which comes in a very tidy case. The shop tool is just an enormous torque wrench with an extension hand reaching about four or five feet total with a one inch drive and I imagine most shops have this on hand for working on track cars or replacing the hub nut for example, so the special tool is a rarity.

Carrera GT

The centerlock has a "lock" (a radial pin) as the name implies. The engineering corollary of "having one out of five fail" is "you're five times more likely to fail." As for roadside service, not a big deal and a puncture is a rare thing at best (for which there is AAA and fix-a-flat) but brake work at the track would be the necessity, so hopefully they've brought the price of the tool within reasonable limits.

fjpdds

At a Harper Porsche, my local Dealer, we had a PCA Tech session a few years back. They pulled out the CGT "special Tool" for the wheel hub. Porsche required them to have one in case a CGT showed up. At the time he said it cost them $1800. They have yet to use it here in Knoxville, but it is really cool looking, and in a beautiful case. They keep it locked up, and would love to use it once!

911rox

Thanks Carrera GT, I'll do a bit of a search... Curious to see what one of these things looks like...

911rox

I'd take 5 lugs given the choice.

Centrelocks look great but the equipment required to get them off seems hardcore and its availabilty locally is likely to suck. Betting that locally, not even tyre shops will be able to get my wheels off for tyre changes, it'll be a visit to Porsche each time...

With the 5 lugs, my Milwalkee and breaker bar would keep their job...

Terry L

One of our Riesentoter instructors (former Penske chief engineer) has driven 2 cup cars with center locks in our DEs. I can recall one occasion when a wheel was slightly off but seemed to mount properly, causing him to return to the pits after a lap or two to fix the problem. So it does appear that the wheel can be mounted erroneously at a slight angle. Instead of the pricy Porsche torque multiplier, he used a huge torque bar which he had marked at intervals and on which he could stand to apply the necessary pressure.

Carrera GT

I expect Porsche will make the tool affordable for $100K car buyers. For the street, it goes with the car, for the track, it's sitting in the paddock. The cost of the Milwaukee or any other half way decent battery impact would equal the tool.

Standing on a lever might be semi-viable on the size of nut used on the Cup cars, but the design of the street centerlock is not going to allow people to be getting silly about a 200lb guy leaning on a four foot lever.

Surely the whole idea of the tool is to remove the guesswork of when you have a wheel properly mounted and torqued.

Real questions would be related to the durability and negligence aspects. After all, any time I visit a DE, there's always at least a few people I spy who'll do a session and park their car and walk away for the debrief or whatever, come back, jump in and do their next session. Did you check your pressures? Did you check the torque on the lug nuts? Inspect the pads? Look for fluid leaks? At least lift the hood and just eyeball the engine? I do wonder if those centerlocks might need to be snugged up a click between sessions at the start of the day or between brake checks, etc. Or if we can trust the car at a typical high end wheel and tire place -- will they use the tool properly. What happens when someone overdoes the torque? Cross-threads the nut?

This reminds me of seeing the F1 pit crews using electric torque wrenches to remove the wheels ... I'm sure those puppies cost a royal fortune, but it surely would be nice to have ...

From a marketing perspective, I think Porsche might be playing games -- they have the technology and they've done their DOT dues to get these things on the road and underwritten by their liability carriers and written into their warranty and product documentation. Porsche has sunk the costs and now they're raising the bar for the likes of Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini all to groan and concede "alright, let's get centerlocks on our 2010 models ..."

mooty

pick them based on wt, the type of wheel you like and looks.
there is no safety issue with either. if you are dumb enough to fk up one system, you will fk up the other just as royally.

mooty

pick them based on wt, the type of wheel you like and looks.
there is no safety issue with either. if you are dumb enough to fk up one system, you will fk up the other just as royally.

tcsracing1

i like the centerlocks becuase it another step towards the cup car.....

will the cup centerlocks work with the street centerlocks?

cello

OK, thats interesting. I would have thought that the fitments would preclude cocking the wheel and that that would be one of the benefits of the lock; ie for pit stop accuracy and timing.

Cupcar

Below is picture of the current Turbo option centerlock wheel

GrantG

Nice - I wish they put the Red fasteners on the Right side of the car R for R, instead of the other way around (don't know the German word for Red, but maybe doesn't start with "R"). They do that with RCA audio cables...