Volkswagen Motorsport partners with Wheels India to develop new forged alloy wheels for the Vento TC4-A touring car
The Volkswagen Motorsport India developed Vento TC4-A touring cars will make their competition debut this weekend during the second round of the MRF MMSC National Racing Championship being held near Chennai. In a related development, Volkswagen Motorsport has tied up with Wheels India to equip these cars with new forged alloy wheels, replacing the earlier cast wheels.
The forged alloy wheels are said to have the benefit of stronger structural rigidity with an un-sprung weight benefit of about 1.5 to 2 kilograms per wheel over a standard cast wheel. The forged alloy wheel is approximately 60% stronger than the cast wheel.
This is achieved because the grain structure of the material for a forged alloy wheel is denser than a cast alloy wheel, resulting in better strength and lower weight. Wheels India Limited will design, develop and manufacture the forged alloy wheels at their manufacturing facility in Chennai.
The Vento TC4-A has already broken the record for touring cars at Kari Motor Speedway, went it set a time of 1min 7.892sec during test runs during the last race weekend.
Speaking on this new partnership, Sirish Vissa, head of Volkswagen Motorsport India said that the addition of the forged wheel has had a considerable impact on weight savings and this, in turn, has been a major performance upgrade. With further calibration the expects to improve performance in the future. He went on to say that this is a great step by Wheels India to develop and manufacture high performance and robust forged alloy wheels in India that match the performance and safety standards required for motorsports. Since 2010, they have imported wheels from the UK and Germany and now they finally have a local supplier that develops high-quality wheels for motorsports.