Brushless Radio Controlled Cars
News, reviews, tuning and hop-ups
W
Wheel -- Tires are mounted on wheels for stability and precision. Wheels come in
several different widths to fit tires of different widths.
Wheelbase -- The distance
between the front and rear axles of a car. A longer wheelbase gives a bit more stability,
but a shorter wheelbase gives quicker turning and better acceleration, because the
weight of the car is closer to the wheels (in relation to the long axis).
Wheel Offset
-- This is in relation to track width, but refers specifically to the wheels of the
car. The more offset a pair of wheels has, the wider the track and overall width
of the car will be. Most wheels are 0mm offset, meaning the edge of the wheel hub
that comes in contact with the axle hex adapter is exactly in the middle of the wheel.
Some of our sedan wheels feature an offset of 3mm, which widens the car a total of
6mm. While some off-road wheels are 1/2" off set which widens the vehicle a total
of 1 inch.
Wheel Spin -- Occurs when a tire loses grip, either during acceleration
(normally because of too much applied throttle), or through a turn (normally because
of a high side load on the tires.
Wide -- see width, wheel or width, chassis.
Width,
Chassis -- when referring to bodies or chassis designs, we often hear about width.
This is measured from the outside edges of the wheels, front and rear. Most hobbyists
will at some point worry about fitting a narrow body on a wide car, or a wide body
on a narrow car. At this time, most electric sedans are 180mm to 190mm wide, and
most Nitro sedans are 195mm to 200mm wide. Because of the extreme popularity of Nitro
sedans, many newcomers to Rc want to know if they can fit narrow bodies on their
car, bodies that aren't yet available in wide sizes. Sometimes there isn't a problem
with fitting, but this will vary from body to body. Most narrow bodies on wide cars
will have some wheel rubbing.
Width, Wheel -- another area where the term width; is
used. Many tires and wheels are 26mm wide, this is considered standard narrow or
narrow width. Early in the history of touring cars, some companies offered 31mm tires
and wheels, called wide since they are the widest ever offered for touring cars.
A few years ago, some companies offered 22mm super narrow tires and wheels for less
rotating mass. These were never legalized for sanctioned racing, and worldwide rules
organizations kept the tires between 24mm and 26mm, so the most recent development
in tires has been the 24mm mid-narrow tire and wheel, which is a great compromise
between the light weight of the super narrow wheels and the contact patch of the
narrow tires.
Wing -- As opposed to a spoiler, which has no space between the car body and spoiler
itself, the wing is raised off the mounting surface using posts of some sort. Most
wings have upright 'rudder' supports, or side plates, which help stabilize the car
in the straights.
To help tune your car:
A track with many turns and short straights
will need small side plates, which won't interfere with turning too much but still
give you stability in the straight.
A track with many straightaways or two or more
long straights could use larger side plates for more straight-line stability. See
angle of attack for an explanation of how to use a wing.
Wishbone -- An older name
for a suspension arm. Suspension arms used to be shaped like wishbone from a chicken
or other bird. Cars using a pivot-ball suspension still use wishbone-shaped suspension
arms because of the design requirements. Also used to refer to a double wishbone
suspension.
