[DeTomaso] Hall Ultra Wheels

[Dave]

I agree with Mike. I can tell you first hand, it is not a pleasant thing to hear "ting- a- ling- a- ling, as the hardware thrashes around the inner fender  as 9 of the little nuts and bolts break off of the rear wheel on at a time. I was traveling about 70-75 mph, I remember looking over at my wife and saying "did you hear that"? Not knowing what it was, I immediately got off of the highway. About 3 blocks later a couple more broke & it sounded like a bomb exploded. I was traveling about 25-30 mph & I think I stopped the car in 15 ft. I don't recall the name of my Hall wheels, picture of front & rear wheel below.

I was very lucky to get off of the highway. The tire stayed intact, no fender or damage to the ZF case. I was truly very lucky. I found 3 of the 4 inner rims were severely cracked; a couple had zig zag cracks 6-8 inches long.  I knew what I was looking at.  For years I visually inspected wheels for cracks after cars qualified at Indy. Mike Drew convinced me to trash the wheels. I took them to a scrap metal dealer & got $50. Important thing was they would never go on the pavement again.
IndyDave
[cid:image005.jpg at 01CF24F1.519C4DB0][cid:image006.jpg at 01CF24F1.519C4DB0]

From: MikeLDrew at aol.com [mailto:MikeLDrew at aol.com]
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2014 10:12 PM
To: pcajthaml at gmail.com; jderyke at aol.com
Cc: detomaso at poca.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Hall Ultra Wheels


In a message dated 2/7/14 15 11 27, pcajthaml at gmail.com<mailto:pcajthaml at gmail.com> writes:



I am seriously considering changing the gold to black. (you can see how it has faded in my wheel picture - the plastic center is much darker than the aluminum wheel).


>>>Frankly, I wouldn't expend a bit of effort on these wheels.  They are already well past their sell-by date. :<(

Also note that they are made with a 15-inch wheel center mated to 17-inch rims, which limits the size of the brakes you can fit under them, for no good reason other than the fact that Hall had piles of 15-inch centers at his disposal when he was making them....

While I view Jack's blanket admonition against all three-piece wheels as a hysterical and unfounded overeaction, when speaking about Hall Ultra wheels *specifically*, I think his advice is right on.  So many people have had failures over the years--it's not a matter of if, but when.  Kinesis, Etoile etc. wheels are much better built and don't seem to have these kinds of problems, nor do factory three-piece wheels as used on Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari etc. over the years.

Mike
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