Vehicle: Car: Tire: Appearance
Frozen Chrome   (0)  [vote for, against]
Mount strobe lights under car to showcase rims whild driving.

For all the expensive patterned 22 inch rims.

1. Attach a ring of leds to the brake caliber

2. Attach a magnet to the rim

3. mount a sensor on the brake caliber

4. using the sensor and the magnet, determine the speed of rotation of the rim

5. Based on the speed of rotation of the rim, adjust the strobe light to cause the rim to appear still, or move backwards, or forward slowly.
-- senatorjam, May 24 2003

'baked on rice-burner center-caps http://www.wheelstrobe.com/
[thumbwax, Oct 17 2004]

Tireflys http://www.autodire...com/WheelLights.asp
Another version of wheel light that attaches to the valve stem and flashes on and off. [jurist, Oct 17 2004]

Spinning rim kits http://crite2000.zo...ry/spinningrimkits/
This may be the exact opposite of Senatorjam's idea in that instead of showcasing the rim at rest, the rim never appears to rest. [jurist, Oct 17 2004]

Not so sure a backlight would work very well. For maximum effect, probably better if the strobes were mounted on the backside, under the lip, of the wheel opening. Pulsed LEDs of sufficient number could work.

Another possibility is to mount a sufficiently bright white reflector on the outer interior of the wheel well and fire a single strobe into that for a nice, soft-light, look. Really ideal with things chrome.
-- bristolz, May 24 2003


Blinking lights on hubs or valve stems have been around for a while (see link). The newest cool think in wheel rim technology for upscale street cars seems to be the Spintek or Davin spinning rims that appear to keep spinning after the car has come to a complete stop. In fact, they are so "cool" that a driver in Los Angeles was killed last night and his Lexus car-jacked presumably because his wheels were outfitted with the eye-catching rims. We're still waiting for them to add lights to these look-at-me rims.
-- jurist, May 24 2003


Another one? I thought he got iced 3 days ago.
-- thumbwax, May 24 2003



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