Has anyone developed ceramic wheel bearings for the miata? Supposedly there are rumors of this in spec miata etc. but never seen any evidence.
I know people have had the ball bearings REM polished.

 

Have fun blowing money out your *** on this. Chinese heat treated bearings with AMSoil race grease works. I've never had a fancy $200 ART bearing last longer than one weekend.

 

I didn't say I was going to blow a bunch of money on this, just curious after reading about the hub failures on the 949 cars at Thunderhill. Certainly a larger/better hub would be a better solution.

 

Are there larger (bearing) hubs imaginable that could fit inside e.g. Wilwood 11.75" hats?

The hub bit is not the most complicated part to imagine having fabricated, but is there room for a better solution?

Custom spindles with 1" drop, radial caliper mounting and tougher hubs may have a market, but they would be pricey.

 

If I can go an entire season on a repacked bearing, what's the point? I'm asking because I have not done a 24-hour race in my car and not sure why the 949 bearings failed.

The reason I'm so outspoken about ART is because I gave the guy $250, they lasted two days and he said , "sorry, but its not my problem". This was after he stopped replying to phone calls and emails, after he took my order, never charged me, and never fulfilled the order I requested for other parts. I know that FM is selling his hubs now and I hope they've brought quality up because I don't want to see shenanigans like ART's tarnish a good company like FM.

In ART's defense, which doesn't justify not refunding my money or providing replacement bearing (s), it looks like the grease failed and they were under-packed.

 

We're throwing around a couple of bearing ideas at TSE, but nothing solid yet. I'm using ART hubs in both cars and they work fine for HPDE and sprint racing.

 

There really is no point for me. Mostly just academic interest. I was just remembering a thread I read about spec miatas and the REM treated hubs from Jim Daniels(?) racing and someone made some comment about ceramic bearings etc and combined with the 949 Thunderhill experience it seemed like an interesting idea.

 

V8R had a setup at one time. Maybe you can bug Shandelle about making them again. They were pricey, but seemed like a sweet setup.

 

ART is a dick company. Their studs are ----...they didn't stand behind those (either set I ordered). They outright lied about selling spacers (when I have a receipt from them selling me a set), their blueprinted items are crap...

the list goes on... I'm with Trey here...ART can go to hell