vove

I have heard that Kinesis can easily crack at the track do to the stress and here is a post to prove it. If I track, I would only consider using Fikse, BBS or Porsche wheels. HRE's and Kinesis are strictly for the street, IMHO.

Midnight Rider

But what if you push hard on the street at times, for instance, in the mtns!!!!!!!!!!!!

Arkay

What about Forgeline wheels? I considered them when I was planning to turn my M3 into a club racer and while they are not as well known as HRE or Kinesis, their wheels seem to be involved in various levels of amateur and professional motorsports.

RJFabCab

One of my Profil 10's had some hairline cracking on the inside of the wheel... a disaster waiting to happen. The forged center was perfecto. Fikse to their credit, fully repaired the rim at no charge. They said they had a "bad batch of aluminum" come through.

I know stories of hairline cracks in stressed Fikses, but no catastophes like the Kinesis pictured. As BBailey said, inspection is the best key to prevention.

That's truly disturbing about that Kinesis center, especially in what is supposed to be a strong, thick spoke design. I hope nobody was injured.

A few shots of the Fikse damage...

vove

Good question, I guess you can be our guinea for this one.

I guess Fikse and factory Porsche wheels are not immune either then. That would only leave BBS left for the track, unless someone has cracked them too.

bet

On my former 993 I found a similar hairline crack, as pictured above, on the inside edge of one the rear 18" factory turbo twist wheels that came on the car from Porsche when I was preparing to go for my first DE. Regular inspection of wheels is very important. This is becoming even more important as wheels get even bigger and utilize even stiffer and short side wall tires.

JimB

Dell,
Sometimes you can see cracks but part of the maintenance for racing wheels is to have them x-rayed from time to time.

For the track, I like Jongbloeds first and BBS second. I like Jongbloeds because they are great wheels and have great customer service. Try and get someone from BBS racing on the phone. Call Jongebloed and you're likely to talk to a part owner.

Having said that, as I mentioned before, BBS, Jongbloeds and other light racing wheels require regular inspection and maintenance like retorquing wheel bolts, etc.

I don't think everyone should panic about their wheels but I do think you need to wonder what was given up to make a street wheel so light.

Just my 2 cents.
Jim

vegasgolf98

That was my wheel and my car. I'm glad you posted the picture. I have it on my camera phone and have no idea how to download it here.

I was shocked. I am counting my blessings that it happened on the slowest part of Spring Mtn. I was wearing a HANS device and had no problems. To their credit, Peter Stacy of Kenesis and John Brown of Wheel Enchancement flew out on Monday to review the tire and my damaged car. Luckily, no one had to visit my wife to explain why I died or was crippled.

We do not know 100% why it failed. We can guess that it might be related to the process of powdercoating the heating of the wheel when the powder coat was stripped off due to a previous problem with the Kenesis powder coat. I will post more information once we know facts.

BTW, this wheel WAS inspected by one of the best Porsche mechanics in the world and myself prior to the event. There were no obvious signs of impending failure. The wheels had only been used for four D/E's previously. No time trials, no races etc. I'm lucky it failed on the track and not in some canyon.

I had two friends have recent bolt issues with their Kenesis wheels, so I was on the lookout. The bolts were fine in this model, so the evidence leads to the powder coating process. Peter Stacy indicated to me he has never had this kind of failure on his wheels, even under racing conditions.

To LV Dell, if I had "gone off" under driver error I would understand your feelings, but this was a serious wheel failure that resulted to a lot of damage to my car. We were going to try adding a different wheel, but the other wheel had large cracks in it and seemed ready to fail as well. This would of delayed the event further. Did you want to drive it in that condition? So, the call was made for a flat bed -the only solution. The car was flat bedding as soon as possible using my tow hook, and one hour of the delay was lunch-no track time lost. You lost maybe one run group only. I hope you never have to experience any kind of problem yourself.

I guess you'd have been pissed if you were at the track in Fontana last week and missed track time? This was a serious wheel failure and could have been fatal under different circumstances. Get your priorites straight and know all the facts before you accuse the track organizers of slow reaction. They did all they could under the circumstances to get the track open quickly and so did I.

TD in DC

I am glad that you are ok, and I would hope that, depending upon the findings of the investigation, that someone would help you fix your car ($$$$$).

Awhile back, I posted that the tracks rats had been telling me not to powdercoat wheels. This may not be the cause of your failure, but I know that I trust track rats more than salesmen when it comes to things like this and I will not use a powdercoated wheel. (now, watch someone tell me that the finish on my Diamond Black BBS RS-GTs is powder coating Doh)

redduck996

dell,

would love to tag along with you one of these days.. let me know the next time you go out..

JimB

Vegas,
Don't be too hard on Dell. I've both caused and experienced delays on the track. They look very different from the two perspectives. The comment about Ben's tragedy was pretty uncalled for.

I'm glad you're ok. I had a wheel fail a couple of years ago as I turned under the Billy Mitchel Bridge at Road America. It can be pretty scary and mine wasn't as bad as yours.
Jim

vegasgolf98

Thanks, I appreciate it.
I would say that is wise advice in light of what happened.

Up to this point in time, Mr. Stacy and Mr. Brown have been very considerate and have acted and met my preliminary expectations.

vegasgolf98

I did not mention Ben specifically, but it was indeed called for and I wanted to provoke deep thought.
Where are people's priorites. I thought as a track community and especially as Rennlisters we had an affinity.

LV Dell had NO concern for me, and my well being only his Goddamn one run group of track time. Selfish. Sorry, but I'm calling a spade a spade on this one. If you don't agree, that is your right.

LVDell

Totally different situation. As for your situation, I was just echoing the sentiments of everything I heard in the paddock (and my feelings as well). It was frustrating and poorly cleaned-up.

Not accusing you b/c that is unfair since I wasn't in your shoes. I feel horrible for you and wouldn't wish that experience on anybody. Honestly, I immediately thought what if it was me. I felt bad.

But........I am blaming the track and crew for taking so frickin long. We got started 30 mintues late in the morning and then lost 3 sessions before lunch b/c of this. Not fair to anybody!

PM me and we can discuss it offline. Also, I can get you the pics so you have a better res photo for your records since you said the pics you had were on a cell.

LVDell

You must have posted while I was just typing up my last post.

To address this accusation...I did have concern for you. Ask anybody in the paddock that I talked with about how concerned I was and hoped nothing bad happened to the driver. I felt horrible and hoped the situation wsa nothing more than car damage and no driver injury.

Please don't take my comments out of context.

All I was doing was venting my frustration for "cleaning" up the situation which was poorly executed.