Carbon fiber wheels have been present in the automotive industry for some time now, but they remain an exotic element reserved for only a handful of manufacturers.
Ford says its Shelby GT350R features the first mass-produced composite wheels, weighing a mere 18 pounds (8 kg) each. But before that, Koenigsegg was the only car maker in the world manufacturing these types of rims for production cars, and the Agera was the first to get them.
It’s predecessor, the1,500 hp and 2,000 Nm of torque Regera benefits from what Koenigsegg and his team have learned after developing the previous model. It uses the same “hollow” principle, but now the designers also had a saying on their final shape. As it turns out, the new wheel isn’t just pure engineering, although it seems like it.
Now, lighter and stiffer wheels are desired by those looking to reduce the unsprung weight of a certain vehicle, because it helps minimizes rotational inertia, vibrations and so on, but they’re rarely used in motor racing, Why? Because metal alloys have some advantages over CFRP wheels during long stints, including proper heat dissipation.