NASCAR magnesium components

Magnesium used where short service life is acceptable — 500-mile race-distance argument.

Yeah, a NASCAR vehicle is worth how much, about a half a million to a million dollars, right? You can afford it, and you only have to drive it for 500 miles. Sort of like a cruise missile — it has to last for an hour and a half, the engine in a cruise missile, limited time life. So NASCAR. But there are actually a lot of people driving around on magnesium wheels — mag wheels — on a car. Turns out most mag wheels today are actually aluminum. In the old days they were magnesium, and they would start pitting after a year. They'd put clear coat on them and all this other stuff, and they would still start pitting when they're made out of magnesium. So they mostly make them out of aluminum, but they'd love to make them out of magnesium, and they did make them out of magnesium.