Originally Posted by Fabrik8

See, this is how misinformation starts.

So track wheels are strong but brittle, and street wheels are malleable but weak? So the brittle wheel has better fatigue resistance under high loads than the malleable wheel does? So a wheel which can take much less abuse without brittle failure can also take much more cyclic fatigue too? Wow. You've got the concept of fatigue exactly backwards.

Track wheels are lighter than street wheels because they don't need to stand up to continuous daily use for years. They can be inspected whenever necessary, so fatigue resistance isn't as much of an issue. Along the same lines, many track wheels have to go through a much more rigorous inspection after manufacturing to detect flaws, voids, basically anything that will cause safety issues under high racing loads. They have a certain service life too, unlike street wheels which will practically last forever if not damaged. Street wheels can take more abuse because they're built stouter, not necessarily because of metallurgical reasons.

Track and street wheels usually have virtually identical manufacturing processes and materials, for the good brands at least. You're basically trying to say that something like a 12 pound forged and heat treated street wheel can take more abuse than a 9 pound forged heat treated track wheel because of different metallurgy, not because the street wheel has three more pounds of metal for reinforcement?

You're making a lot of generalizations about things which are much too varied to make generalizations about.