Clarity Uncovered: Wheels

Aerodynamic wheels covers have been in the news lately with the new Tesla Model 3, but it isn’t the only car to use such a device to improve air flow over the wheel.  The turning spokes of wheels really churn up the air and at high speeds can add a significant amount of drag to the car.

Unfortunately, they don’t always look as nice as a set of classy wheels.  We have seen the Model 3 without the wheels covers, and they look like a pretty generic set of alloys.  The Honda Clarity also has removable wheel covers, but how do the wheels look underneath?

I cleaned my garage some today and brought out the trusty old jack.  Loosened the lug nuts and lifted it up.  After removing the 5 lug nuts completely the wheel cover still didn’t come off immediately.  Removing the entire wheel and it was easy to tell that the covers were held in place with many plastic snaps all around the wheel.  Squeezing these releases lightly from the back freed them and the cover came off after that.  You must remove the lug nuts as they hold the cap on in the center.

So how do the wheels look without the cover?

Terrible.  They went right back on.  Here is a closeup of the snap holding them on.