Volkswagen Group Testing Carbon Fiber Wheel Prototypes

Buried within a Press Release sent out to announce ThyssenKrupp and Maxion Wheels’ collaboration on Aluminum/Carbon Fiber Wheel development, the pair mentioned that prototypes were currently being testing by the Volkswagen Group vehicles. In itself, the prospect of a Carbon Fiber wheel is certainly nothing new, but the technology being tested by the Volkswagen Group certainly is.

The group is currently at a very interesting spot in both the development of future hypercars aimed at replacing the now-deceased Porsche 918 Spyder and Bugatti Veyron, and unmatched efforts to increase fuel efficiency and develop hybrid drivetrains. One tried and true method of achieving both goals would be lowering overall vehicle weight, more specifically reducing energy-draining rotational mass. The extensive use of both Aluminum and Carbon Fiber panels have worked to help in this quest, so Carbon fiber wheels and a more widespread use of Carbon Ceramic brake rotors would be the next logical step.

Volkswagen certainly wouldn’t be the first to employ this technology on a road-going production vehicle, as Koenigsegg has been using Carbon wheels on their hypercars for the past few years, and Ford is including a Carbon wheel as standard equipment on the Shelby GT350R- a feature which is said to reduce unsprung weight by 13lbs per corner when compared to an aluminum equivalent.

As for a time frame for production availability, Thyssenkrupp and Maxion Wheels are still tight-lipped, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see them on the Veyron replacement, and slowing trickling their way to the more attainable models.

For more information, check out the full Press Release, here.

The post Volkswagen Group Testing Carbon Fiber Wheel Prototypes appeared first on VWVortex.

from VWVortex http://ift.tt/1Ia2J15
via IFTTT

Comments

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier. The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow. While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something . To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it. Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait. So with this in mind, we lined our G...

Volkswagen Group Records Best Ever First-Half-of-Year Sales

With 5.5 million vehicles in customer hands after the first six months of 2018, the Volkswagen Group is seeing the best performance of its history. Group deliveries increased significantly in all core regions,” said Fred Kappler, head of sales for the Group. “Our core brands recorded strong growth in the first half year.” For the year-to-date, all of Volkswagen’s brands had sales bumps. MAN, SEAT, and Skoda led the sales charge with performances 24%, 17% and 11% better than the previous year. The big sellers, too, had strong sales periods, with Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Audi, and Volkswagen sales rising 3.5%, 4.5% and 6.3% respectively. That last figure is particularly good new for the board, since Volkswagen alone sold more than 3 million vehicles in the first half of 2018. As Kappler stated, the numbers are equally good when you break sales down by region. Brazil and Russia were the most improved markets (22% and 20%, respectively), while strong sales in Europe and China (u...

Project Golf SportWagen- Intro

I’ve never really been one for SUVs and crossovers. The current offerings aren’t the body-on-frame, go-anywhere specialty tools I remember from my youth, and what they lack in capability, they also lack in on-road performance. The current crop isn’t terribly good at handling or being efficient, which in my opinion are major components of our ideal driving experience. So when it comes to space or utility, I usually look for something of the wagon variety- and it seems that I’m not alone. We hit quite a few shows around the east coast each summer, and we see modified Jetta SportWagens at nearly every event. Even amongst common consumers, these cars are highly sought-after. They don’t depreciate much, making even early Mk 5 2.5 versions expensive in comparison to other Jettas or Golfs of the same vintage. This year, Volkswagen launched their latest SportWagen, which is now billed as a Golf. In many ways, this latest SportWagen is the best yet and it has certai...

Vorderman Volkswagen

Search This Blog