Aluminum or steel flywheel

[DAVID GAGNARD]

Right now I have 2, 65 Mustangs, one is a 3200 lb. street car with a standard/stock steel wheel, 3.25 rear gear ratio, I can putt-putt around town in 2cd and 3rd gear at 1000 rpms all day with no problems, no jumping/bucking/spitting/caughing, that car is a pleasure to drive....

The other is a 2700 lb. road race car,3.70 rear gear, 13 lb. aluminum wheel and I can't putt-putt around the paddock in 2cd or 3rd gears at 1000 rpms, it'll buck and kick eveytime.....I wasn't going to put an alum. wheel on that car till the machine shop offered me a brand new one still in the box for 100 bucks, I couldn't pass up that deal......seems they had that and a few other parts along with a block they machined for a guy that never came to pick up his parts nor pay the bill, so the shop was selling off the stuff to recoup money.....

back in my dirt track days we tried an alum. wheel, the car did come off the corners a little crisper, then the track outlawed alum wheels, so we expiremented with taking weight off stock steel wheels... We were running a small block Chevy at the time and you could get stock steel flywheels at any junkyard for 5 bucks a piece.....we had 5 to 8 at one time....we drilled a bunch of holes in some and in one, we turned it down on a lathe and then drilled holes in it and got it down to 12 pounds....I was afraid it would explode, cause it was soo thin and didn't want to drive the car with in it.....I split seat time with a buddy and he drove the car with that wheel the last half of the season with no problems/failures........

I WOULD NOT recommend to anyone to do what we did, it was down right crazy/stupid and dangerous, but we were young and bullet proof, or so we thought....

Normally, small block steel wheels weight in around 30 pounds, aluminum from 12 to 15 depending on brand, I've seen some new steel wheels advertised in the low 20 pound range and to strike a happy meduim, I would use a lightweight steel wheel for the reasons DougD listed above.........

David