'Superfast' wheel designs.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

OH, thank's Alex, that was quick.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[motorman]

OH, thank's Alex, that was quick.

GHOSTHUNTER.

I found my loupe that's why, what can you tell from the wheel mould numbers, they seem to be early numbers from my understanding?

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Yes, certainly 1970, but interesting to see they are all 'Solid' design not quite reaching production for the fitment of any 'Hollow' wheels. This particular example seems to be close to it's early 1970 production issue date and with that 'F' box more or less confirming this. Regards the box, I am assuming it is an 'F 2' with the longer text along the front (be even better if it is 'F 1').

GHOSTHUNTER.

[SMS88]

Something else to consider when dating batches of wheel moulds would be the treaded edges which appeared on some 11.2mm SF wheels as well as the centre ridge or lack of it on the tyre.

[motorman]

Yes, certainly 1970, but interesting to see they are all 'Solid' design not quite reaching production for the fitment of any 'Hollow' wheels. This particular example seems to be close to it's early 1970 production issue date and with that 'F' box more or less confirming this. Regards the box, I am assuming it is an 'F 2' with the longer text along the front (be even better if it is 'F 1').

GHOSTHUNTER.

It's is this box Kevin.

[motorman]

Something else to consider when dating batches of wheel moulds would be the treaded edges which appeared on some 11.2mm SF wheels as well as the centre ridge or lack of it on the tyre.

Mick i assume your description of the centre ridge is the ridge that can be seen in the image below?

Was this ridge line an unavoidable consequence of the plastic moulding process or a specific design feature to lessen the friction of the tyre on the track in competition with the hotwheels of the time?

I ask this because i have seen other superfast wheels including wide wheels were the raised ridge is clearly a design feature to make the model faster on the matchbox track. The ridge on the tyres of this #55 are somewhat less pronounced and therefore may not have been a particular wheel design feature on these early SF's?

[GHOSTHUNTER]

My understanding is as you say, the slightly off-centre ridge we can see on a lot of these wheels is for the minimum contact area between the wheel and surface it rolls on. The tools were designed cleverly to take this into account and the natural mould join was used to create this ridge.

Here is a simple diagram I have just thrown together in 'Paint'.

Narrow, Solid 'Superfast' wheel..jpg (11.46 KiB) Viewed 1605 times

GHOSTHUNTER.

[SMS88]

My understanding is as you say, the slightly off-centre ridge we can see on a lot of these wheels is for the minimum contact area between the wheel and surface it rolls on. The tools were designed cleverly to take this into account and the natural mould join was used to create this ridge.

Here is a simple diagram I have just thrown together in 'Paint'.

Narrow, Solid 'Superfast' wheel..jpg

GHOSTHUNTER.

Yes I agree this ridge was created to minimise surface friction - variations point to an evolution of wheel mould design that should help compare timelines of new 11.2mm wheel moulds to the smaller sized versions too with Cortina GT solid 9.5mm wheels being out Christmas 1969 and the earliest 10.5mm wheels following early in 1970 for perhaps firstly the 53 Zodiac

[GHOSTHUNTER]

I think all the wheels have some sort of attempt at creating an area of minimum contact and it might be nice to have diagrams of all of them, until then, here is the 'Hot Wheels' original called the 'Red Line' and they put the minimum contact ridge inboard.

'Hot Wheels' low friction design.jpg (11.12 KiB) Viewed 1592 times

GHOSTHUNTER.

[Matchboom]

Hi. My 2 cents. SF 55A blue roof light, solid wheels with treads : 3 D - 12 D - 3 D - 24 D.
SF 55A red roof light, solid wheels without treads : J 8 - J 23 - J 40 - J 8.