jphughan

Just dropped my car off at Finspeed for some measurements to give them a head start on offering GT4 wheels before their own GT4 arrives. I had a chance to chat with Daniel there and see the new facility they're moving into as well as a few examples of their wheels up close. I was VERY impressed with everything. Daniel is a track guy, as are all of his engineers because that's a requirement for working at Finspeed. They're also all required to be hands-on guys; the first part of his interviews is asking the candidate to weld something. I also learned a few interesting tidbits about how forged wheels are made in general and some of the testing that Finspeed performs on their products that sets them apart from just about everybody else. Daniel also shared some of his intentions for GT4 offerings as well as some upcoming plans for Finspeed in general. I'll let him post those in detail here if he so chooses, but I'll just say that GT4 track rats may have a very pleasant surprise courtesy of Finspeed, and Texas-based track rats in general should definitely keep an eye on these guys.

And on a random fun note, they had a couple of Texas Mile-focused cars there. My horsepower recollection may be slightly off here, but one was an R8 V10 shop car pushing 1400hp, and the other was a GT-R pushing 2800hp. On the latter, I asked if the outlets on the front bumper ahead of the wheels were to evacuate air from the wheel wells like the 991 RS, and Daniel said, "Nope, that's actually the exhaust."

If I decide to get a second set of wheels, it will now definitely be with Finspeed. Daniel seems a first-rate guy and it's clearly important to him that both he and his employees understand their customer base and share their love of motorsports by participating in it themselves, and in my experience that type of mentality tends to lead to superior customer service and superior products.

ShakeNBake

Yep - I'm interested to see how this setup works out. I would not want anyone else to try it until I shake it down at TWS in a few weeks. I think it will be OK, but I don't want to be the guy who said it worked when it didn't.

myBailey07

I had front's on with 20*ET50 and camber at -2.0 and 245 cup 2's. Got pretty bad cuts on both sides of the outer edges where I could see the body scraped the tires, but right side more so. I could never quite figure out where it was happening.

Hopefully with the 19's being slightly smaller and more aggressive camber you don't see the same. I am very curious to see what you experience.

BTW, had a pro drive my car without me in it for baseline data. Car is stock except for PFC 11's. He did 1:51:9 on the first hot lap out and slightly damp track and 9/10th's as not his car. Damn! Said car is good for 1:48 stock on a perfect day at 10/10th's...He also ran a baseline lap in a 991 GT3 shortly afterwards and ran 1:50:XX. Right about two seconds faster, which is what we would expect...

GAZZ

Did you see those joining tabs that stick into the wheel space under the guards?

ExMB

Based on your experience and setup would you therefore recommend:

1) a 20" ET55 front wheel
2) a higher front camber of 2.5 deg or more (extra 3mm tuck based on wheel center)
3) or a combination of both

for those that stay with 20" wheels? Pics of the cuts might be helpful for visualization.

Would it therefore be fair to say that a ET50, as advocated (?) by some wheel manufacturer's is OK for the "flush" look on DD cars but not necessarily for track applications? Disclaimer: not every track will be subject to extreme compression.

myBailey07

Here you go...

Car from front. 20X8.5 ET50


Front Right Tire. Looks like a sort of scraped off ring. At first I thought it was tire rollover, but it was too far off the side. Car did compress very hard on a rumble stip on the outside of a turn one time and thought that was it, but then I saw the left looked bad too.



This is the left. Looks like more definite cuts. I can also see the rubber on the inside of the cover and fenders where it worn off.



I did not see any of this on the car at either COTA, Harris Hill or DriveWay Austin. Only saw it this weekend at TWS when the car started being pushed pretty hard. So, yes, it's going to be very track dependent.

Conclusion:

I would not recommend the 20 ET50 for hard track use. They look absolutely great and much better than oem on the street, but now this might limit you on at least some tracks. Even some more camber alone won't fix this here (I think) and will mean aftermarket parts as the car is at max stock. So, for 20's for track I recommend staying with 20x8.5 ET55 if you do aftermarket parts to get more than 2 camber, but do ET60 to be safe, which is stock. Previous time at TWS car had no issues with stock wheels.

ExMB

Thanx

For reference I'm attaching my pics where I used a 1/2" spacer on OEM wheels (now ET48) with a camber of 2.6 as a test fit on 10-24-15.

myBailey07

The wider track definitely looks better and up front helps with understeer as well, but trouble is that if I look at your pics you're going to get cuts under full compression from the inside sharp edge of the fender flare even at the 2.6 camber. I might be wrong, but that's how it looks to me. Although I only saw it at TWS and I think the other Texas tracks I know you (we should be fine). I could never quite figure out where at TWS exactly I was having the issues. Might try a go pro on the wheel next time out...I'm also going to take my car to a suspension expert to make sure all is okay as I had a serious off last week and need to confirm something wasn't damaged that might have caused this...

electron mike

Yikes, those pictures are making me nervous going out on my ET55 OZs at COTA. Sorry you ate some cup2s, but thanks for sharing the info with us!

Any word from HRE on cutting another set of fronts for you to avoid the problem? I have a set of HREs on my M3 and their customer service has been excellent.

ExMB

I figured as much as well when I did the test fit with a spacer prior to ordering my Forgelines. The outside rep was trying to convince me to go with ET50 whereas Forgeline directly agreed with a ET55 for my application and setup. Plus I'm already throwing enough road crap down the side of my car (into the intakes).

The RL membership can now benefit from this experience since beforehand they just had a visual with guesses.

GAZZ

Anyone got any updates on the 18" F14 wheels fitting or not etc.

BGB Motorsports

Has anyone gone and purchased the 997 GT3 calipers that will have more space to clear a 19" up front or an 18" even? I know it's been discussed and I know we are doing it on race cars but have any of your guys given it a whirl personally?

mooty

^ no, but r deman did. apparently it works

BGB Motorsports

Agreed. I've done it to some club cars because the bolt spacing is the same. I was curious if any of you guys did it.

mooty

you get me a set of free 7.2 caliper, i am ready to fit them ;-)