Tailshafts: Aluminium VS Steel

It’s all about weight, strength, harmonics and of course cost.

Yes it’s true, mild steel in the same spec as aluminium is stronger, but pound for pound aluminium is actually the stronger material whilst not being much more expensive. That’s why aluminium is so popular in anything that requires light weight and high strength, such as stuff like fighter jets and Silvias and Skylines.The typical tailshaft is 3” thin wall steel and here’s some of ours from days gone by:

Power is sexy but we all know light weight is key to speed: take for example any 1000cc sports bike today, all of them make around 200hp but will annihilate 99% of cars on the road.

They’ve figured out that any weight saving after the flywheel is almost the holy grail because it does not negatively affect drivability like a lightweight flywheel or crankshaft does: after the flywheel it’s all cream and chocolates. Using a bigger and thicker aluminium tube in the application of tailshafts, you reap the following rewards simultaneously:

• Decrease huuuuuuge weight
• Increase strength
• Increase max RPM
• Improve harmonics

 

HOW MUCH WEIGHT?

In our favourite cars the Silvias and Skylines we saw a weight reduction of 42-52%!

Let me put that into perspective in terms of the mighty R34 GTR: The Alpha Omega Racing MONSTAR Tailshaft saves you a MASSIVE 6.70kg of weight and not just plain old weight but rotational weight!

Racing rims strive to save grams – yes they’re talking GRAMS and not KILOgrams because fast racers know even a “small” rotational weight saving equals massive performance gains. Don’t believe us? Check out the Volk Racing TE37 SuperLap Edition in size 18×10.5″, Rays Engineering boasts a saving of 400grams over the non-SuperLap edition. Compare a set of TE37SL @ 1.6kg rotational weight saving for ~$3500 and our rotational weight saving over 4 TIMES that for a fraction of the price.

• MONSTAR Tailshaft = 7.3kg
• OEM R34 GTR Tailshaft = 14.0kg
• Rotational weight saving = 6.7kg = 52%

Once we introduced aluminium tailshafts nobody ever bought the steel version, so we stopped steel tailshafts.

 

Because of the incredible rotational weight saving, higher strength and better harmonics we choose the 1-piece 3.5” aluminium tailshaft. Basically, you’ll get both faster acceleration and deceleration performance, the engine will feel “revier” with increased transient throttle response.

 

Doing a gearbox conversion?

What’s the point of paying so much for a new steel tailshaft when it doesn’t give you any performance benefit at all? All it does is connect your new gearbox to your old differential.

I would spend a little extra on a lightweight 3.5″ aluminium shaft to get a large performance upgrade whilst you’re there.

 

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