MJones

19x8.5 23.5lbs
19x12 31lbs

rmag

Is that with or without the US non-optional TPMS sensor

MJones

Naked wheels

cosmos

Wow, thats a heavy wheel.

khaug

Madre de Dios, that makes the combined wheel/tire weight 53.5# for the fronts, 58# for the rears. That's headin' toward GMC Suburban territory! Is this yet another subtle sales tactic for the lower unsprung/rotating mass of the PCCBs?

Cupcar

At the SEMA show I stopped at the BBS stand and noted that they are really big on promoting their lines of "die forged" wheels for strength and ligntness.

With the Porsche history of using BBS wheels,and the fact that Porsche introduced forged wheels to the world for cars in 1967, I wonder why Porsche does not return to using lighter forged wheels rather than the heavy cast wheels they are using.

Racerron

Money!

Cupcar

And us, the market.

Porsche continues to market cars making the highest profit per unit of any manufacturer.

If the market demanded it, Porsche could add the wheels and still make profit.

Heck, they could sell the GT3 for the price of a normal 997 and still make a profit I bet; I read their profit margin is no lower than 25% per car and stretched to 100% on an GT2.

Ford is happy to make 5% on a Taurus.

No wonder Porsche just paid for 20% of Volkswagen/Audi!!!

NJ-GT

These are great news. Whatever wheels come from Porsche won't be the lightest.

The car can lose 40 lbs on wheels (Mag wheels) and 15 lbs on slicks. That's a 55 lbs unsprung weight reduction, amazing.

icon

they didnt just pay for 20% of vw.
they chose to keep the price lower instead of providing better wheels, since wheels are easily replaced.

Cupcar

You are right, I should have said "aquired" not "paid".

Actually Porsche own 27.4% of VW and plan to raise that to 29.9% over the next 5 years. They can't own 30% since this apparently triggers a bid to take over the company. Here is an article from 2 days ago on this Autowired Automotive News Article

As far as the GT3 pricing, it is what the market will bare rather than some calculation based on the manufacturing costs.

If the market will pay X for the car without forged wheels, the higher the profit.

The market is the market and Porsche exploits it like any good business.

Cupcar

I checked and the only BBS 19 inch wheel I can find a weight on is a 19 X 9 inch at 20.8 pounds, not much less than the 19 X 8.5 inch Porsche wheel.

Also there are no BBS forged wheels that are wider than 11 inches, I wonder if this represents a limit in their manufacturing process.

cosmos

This again is another reason why NOT too get PCCB's when you can just get lighter wheels.

hellgelb

Anyone know the weight of the 996GT3 wheels? IIRC, the new 19's were mooted as being "no heavier than the 18's". 31 on the back sounds heavy...

FWIW Manthey's (BBS Racing) MM2 19's are 18.3 / 20.5 front / rear.

Brian Himmelman

OZ Superforgiata front 16lbs and rears 20lbs TOTAL 72 lbs

reduced from stock -37lbs