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Heavy Metal Drums

Saving Weight Where It Counts With Aluminum Rear Brake Drums
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Picture a flywheel, 10 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch thick. Also picture a shaft, 1 inch in diameter, and 50 inches long. Both will have the same mass, but the flywheel will have 100 times more rotational inertia than the shaft, purely due to the location of the mass, farther away from the axis of rotation.
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Here are the aluminum drums next to the stock iron drums. The aluminum is used on the heat sink (fins) around the outside of the drum and the mounting face. Since the heat sink weight savings is at the farthest point from the rotational axis (axle centerline), the improvement in rotational inertia will give a greater performance effect than just the pure weight savings alone.
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It's difficult to see now with the drums sandblasted (and painted), but checking out the inside of the aluminum drum shows a cast-in iron liner used for the friction surface. In other words, the aluminum drums will not wear out any quicker than the original cast-iron drums.
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Using our old fishing scale (yes, we had a life before GTO restorations consumed every minute/dollar), the factory cast-iron drums weighed in over 13 pounds each.
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...and in this corner, weighing in at a featherweight 8 pounds, is the Aluminum Contender...

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Pontiac Solstice Research
Pontiac Solstice Get updated on all your car buying needs from safety features, to specs, to crash test ratings and options. Get all the information you need if you are interested in buying a new car like the Pontiac Solstice. The L4 standard engine in the Solstice gives you 173 horsepower with an estimated 22 mpg. It has a comparable trade in value which should come in handy when you go to shop for your next car. The Pontiac Torrent and the Pontiac G6 are other vehicles that might interest you.

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