Ford’s Shelby GT350R, which the company says is the most track-capable Mustang that has ever been released, will be the first auto from a major automobile manufacturer that will offer carbon fiber wheels as a standard feature. Thanks to Ford and its Australian supplier Carbon Revolution, the new Shelby Mustang GT350R will be offered with carbon-fiber wheels as standard, reducing dramatically the unsprung weight and the rotational inertia of the wheel itself, further improving the response time to driver’s inputs and having a general positive impact on handling and performance. That’s right, Space Shuttle technology is taking the all-new Shelby GT350R to levels of performance that are out of this world.
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But this is not where Ford stopped with these wheels.
Thus Ford put these wheels through some very severe testing and analysis to make sure they would withstand every day life in addition to punishment on the track.
For decades aerospace companies have treated turbine blade materials subject to extreme heat with ceramic coatings to help improve durability. Their wheels have been used by Redback Racing during their racing endeavors in the Targa Tasmania and even Jay Leno himself gave it his nod of approval when a set where featured on Jay Leno’s Garage in August past year.
During track testing for instance, braking temperatures in excess of 1600 degrees showed that the carbon-fiber wheels needed some additional thermal protection. A thermal barrier coating system developed by Carbon Revolution uses this same technology. They use a plasma arc gun to liquefy a ceramic material, and then the wheels are coated at critical points around the inner wheel “barrel” and on the back of the spokes.
But that’s not the end of the story with regard to testing. According to them, a comparable aluminum wheel weighs in at 33 pounds while a carbon fiber wheel weighs nearly half that at 18 pounds. This also reduces rotational inertia by as much as 40 percent.
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“The GT350R wheels and tires were developed to be the most track-capable parts we’ve ever produced”, said Adam Wirth, chassis supervisor, Ford Performance. For Ford, switching to Carbon Fiber wheels enabled them to save 52 pounds over the entire weight of the vehicle. While Ford hasn’t announced an MSRP for the 2016 Shelby GT350R Mustang, leaked pricing information has it starting at $63,495.
