Thread: Game changer - very interesting ABC news article

OMG - there's arsenic in it, we can't have that! Won't someone please think of the children!!!one

Harold Willis, 1920s motorcycle racer coined descriptive and funny names for things.
He called magnesium alloy "electrified dirt", probably after Elektron, a Mg alloy brand.
We call camshafts "knockers" and "double knockers" because of him.

Jordan

VW have already used Magnesium in their engines. Childhood memories of scraping it off and lighting up the back yard at night with home made mini magnesium flares. Now days kids think playing with computer games is more fun

The trouble with the old style magnesium as I understand it, is that it can get minute stress fractures which then corrode, and although all looks well, it's not safe.

I read an article which showed this to good effect when some F1 racing car driver took a very rare and expensive classic Jag museum race car from the 1980 's (?) out for a demonstration run on a circuit in the UK and had only got it up to about 90 MPH and the wheels literally fell to pieces. The car went off the track and was severely damaged. The driver was lucky to get out in one piece.

But that's the trouble with old magnesium. It looks OK but it can be weak as.

I believe magnesium wheels are not allowed by road authorities for this reason, and current alloy wheels are all aluminium based.

Rob