Some possibly sobering words from James Clay, pro racer and president of BMW tuning house BimmerWorld: “Every piece of metal in this world has a fatigue life.”
And that extends to the wheels on your car, too.
All those bumps, g-loads and, yes, even mountings and dismountings, continuously stresses the metal. How much stress can a wheel take before some kind of catastrophic failure?
That question, unfortunately, can be hard to answer.
A wheel could eventually fail after a few years of track use, or one might immediately come apart upon contact with a wall. Or one gently used might survive the full life of the vehicle.
“A wheel does have a lifespan, and unfortunately it’s not clocked on a mile basis,” explains Scott Weiss, marketing director at König Wheels. “It can last 10 seconds to an infinite amount of time.”
View all comments on the GRM forums
You'll need to log in to post.
