SCIENTISTS: We’re Hard At Work on New Ways to Make Big Wheels Look Small
Please enjoy Jonny Lieberman's review of the Lexus IS convertible at Autoblog. Beautiful photo copyright Drew Phillips/Weblogs, Inc.
Physicists and materials scientists are hard at work on ways to make big car wheels look small, regardless of their actual size. MetaCars spoke with researchers at the Research Institute for Research, who told us all about their new programs.
“The emphasis is on coming up with a car that no matter how big the rims are, they look small in its wheel well,” said lead researcher Arthur Masterson, PhD.
This technique has recently gained attention with models like the Lexus IS350C pictured above, which has what are functionally very large 19″ wheels. “The beauty of the IS350C is that they look like middling 14″ steelies,” Masterson said.
But the reality is that the Research Institute for Research has only just begun. “The Lexus is a good example of current technology. What we have coming next though will blow your mind. I have a prototype Honda economy car at the office with 22″ rims that might as well be rolling on soup cans,” explains Tom Weitz, a scientist at RIR.
Weitz tells MetaCars that through a combination of better body design, advanced lightweight ceramics, forcefields, holodecks, and small doses of LSD, they expect to be able to make wheels up to 30 inches in diameter look small. Weitz continued “The best really is yet to come. The government has been generous giving us grants that we can use for research, which we then privately patent.”