Originally Posted by Edgy01

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As with all things, you get what you pay for.

Forged wheels--the authentic Otto Fuchs wheels (which happen to be made for the 997 cars now, too) are more expensive to produce--by a long short. They are forged which makes them able to shed a lot of the necessary thickness typical castings require just to keep from breaking. Forged wheels have a tendency to BEND instead of break, and pressure castings are somewhere in the middle. Castings break much more easily. What is the most common negative factor is the growth in weight to accomplish the same thing that Otto Fuchs does with his forgings. The investment in forging equipment is many times higher than castings. As soon as Porsche introduces a new wheel design any guy in China can borrow one and put it inside a sand mold and collect enough aluminum to cast a wheel. Without good pressure castings, cast wheels feature a lot of porosity, which makes a couple of things happen--(1) the wheel has trouble holding air, and (2) the wheel cannot be finished like a true forged wheel can--high polish, or an anodized aluminum look for which Fuchs are famous.

I have shaved easily 5 pounds off each rear side with authentic Otto Fuchs wheels for the 997. Porsche has been steadily getting away from weight savings and moved more to styling, and providing a variety of wheel designs for their customers. They noted that many aftermarket wheel dealers were never asked about weight savings--more interest was for the 'look' than weight. Of could, there are customers that recognize the added benefit of weight savings and seek out the lightest wheels that are available. Those, coupled with PCCBs, producce the lightest un-sprung weight capability of these more modern Porsches. But all of that comes at a price, to improve handling.

Ask for TÜV or DOT safety certification on wheels of which you are suspect.

Originally Posted by bhvrdr

Often times you do not get what you pay for. Of $7,000 Porsche forged wheels on my car and guess what... they weigh about the same as any flow forged or even cast wheel out there.

Nowadays there are forged wheel manufacturers that are popping up overnight literally and they seem to have no long-term reputation and many of them I do not even see meeting any type of quality standards as far as certifications are concerned. Remember when HRE were the wheels to have and it's not uncommon to see track related failures of those Wheels.