Some time ago we posted a video of Russian mechanics crafting a tire out of electrical tape. That wasn't a roaring success, as the tire eventually let go and littered the yard with blue strips of plastic. But, what if you used sheets of paper instead?
The guys at Garage54ENG moved from electrical tape into A4 sheets, spending weeks forming a complete wheel out of 10,000 sheets of regular printer-issue paper and glue, using a Mercedes W124 and a complete powertrain to press them down. As they discovered, the resulting paper wheel sawed out of the glued sheets wasn't rigid enough by itself. So, they also cut the center off a spare Lada steel wheel, drilled holes in the newly formed paper wheel in the correct 4x98 bolt pattern, and secured the wheel in place with some custom-made long bolts. However, the offset looked a bit, well, off.
Initially, the wheel wasn't quite round, which made the testbed Lada shudder a little when the guys maneuvered it in the garage. Out on the street, though, the wheel gradually shaped and proved quite resilient. Another bonus with the paper wheel is that powerslides stretched it out slightly, giving them more width. The video guys were suitably impressed with their experiment.
