I just heard this story about a guy with a lotus race car who changed his rims... and all of a sudden his wheel bearings started burning out... supposedly there wasn't enough air flow to the bearings and they were heating up too fast... has anyone heard of this happening before???

From airflow? never heard of it. I have heard of wheelbearing dying from putting the wrong offset wheels (using the same backspaceing, but wider rims...)

From airflow? never heard of it. I have heard of wheelbearing dying from putting the wrong offset wheels (using the same backspaceing, but wider rims...)

So if they're wider, wouldn't (depending on greater offset) lose some airflow to the brakes and consequently the bearing heat.
I would assume there are two heat gradients.
One from bearing to rotor and a second from caliper pads to rotor.

Well, the sort of failure I've experience with isn't due to lack of air, but rather from the wheel centerline no longer being over the wheelbearing... (tried to google a diagram for you, failed.)

Seems a little extreme to do that just from loss of airflow... but who knows I guess it COULD happen... murphy's law dictates