Meet The Eighterham: Will Adding Extra Wheels Make A Caterham Seven Faster?

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The concept of only adding additional wheels to a automobile to make go speedier is just one that&#8217s so basic, it appears to be stupid. But very really serious engineers, like those people at the Tyrrell F1 workforce in the &#821770s, have set major considered into earning it do the job.

The team at the Driven Media YouTube channel has published the most recent in its sequence of more than-the-prime tire checks to decide if only introducing four wheels to a Caterham 7 will make it faster. Dubbed the Eighterham, it characteristics duallies at all 4 corners.

To make it, the crew merely purchased some steelies, welded them together, and put in them to maximize the volume of rubber on the road. They declare they are 350 segment width tires thanks to this modification, which compares favorably to a set of properly-sized Michelin Pilot Sport tires, which would have a 250 section width.

Read through Much more: Fitting A Road Auto With F1 Tires Is not As Fantastic Of An Strategy As You Could possibly Believe

Whilst the wheels are undeniably wider, they&#8217re also pretty a little bit heavier. Irrespective of the simple fact that they don&#8217t in fact weigh the wheels, the group indicates that the additional mass is substantial.

So can a sizeable boost of rubber on the road counteract a considerable improve in unsprung body weight? Effectively, on keep track of, the reply is certainly. With a set of standard Avon tires on the vehicle, it completes a lap of their take a look at keep track of in 31.6 seconds. With the new double-width wheels, though, they handle to established a lap time of 31.1 seconds, slicing half a second off their time, which is a really spectacular feat on a track that short.

Off the keep track of, however, the auto is a bit of a nightmare. Although a Caterham is by no usually means a huge car, the Eighterham struggles to transform as sharply as it after did. It even has a challenging time fitting into parking spots because of its prodigious width.

Not like the F1 tires that this crew beforehand tested, although, the duallies in fact can be utilised on the road and don&#8217t involve tire blankets to be handy on the track. They also cost drastically fewer, so which would you get?

Screenshot Driven/YouTube

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