Bob Rouleau

George - sorry too many posts for my feeble mind I guess. The cracking/breaking problem with replicas surfaced quite early on. The real Fuchs are now old and time and stress takes its toll. I don't know for sure that wheels suffer from metal fatigue but, that's my guess, along with corrosion.

This weekend I was watching historic ferraris race. I admire those guys. I am not sure I would be going 150 MPH in a 50 year old car ..metal fatigue affects more than just wheels - brake pedals and linkages come to mind!

38D

The difference is the likelyhood of cracking. I ran the same set of Fuchs on my slick shod 914/6 for 5 years (and the PO ran them for anothre 5 years). No issues whatsoever, and probably did 200 track days during that time. I have seen multiple sets of replicas crack and fail at DEs. Could a Fuch crack? Sure. Should they be inspected often for cracks? Absolutely. But IMHO real Fuchs are far less likely to fail than a cast replica.

Larry Herman

All wheels are prone to crack and fail, some more likely than others. We just experienced a front wheel failure on a 1 year old Japanese wheel (on my son's Mitsu EVO 8). Fortunately it happened on a low speed, high load corner, and we were able to stop immediately. 4 out of 5 of the spokes failed. Previously, the wheel was in perfect condition, and visually inspected before the event.

Like any other part, the strength must be matched to the application. I am sure that this wheel would have been fine on a 150 hp 2200 lb Honda Civic, but it was insufficient for a 300hp 3200 lb EVO 8 on R tires.

The risk isn't worth the gain you get by saving a few lbs. And you have to factor age into the equasion. I have seen a few older BBS centers fail too. I especially would not consider running older wheels on higher HP, heavier cars. And as far as the forged Fuchs/cast replicas go, the replicas were prone to failure when they came out 30 years ago. The forged Fuchs were not, although once again, I would not be trusting my life to a 30 year old wheel.

Geo

OK Bob, thanks for the further explanation and hanging with me on this one. I know I was being a bit of a pain, but the question begged to be asked, even if rhetorically.

I know understand what you driving at.

BTW, I am not terribly worried about my Fuchs. Any wheel could be a problem and like others I'll just have to keep inspecting them.

ltc

One other point to consider regarding replicas......

Mille Miglia C2 Turbo 17" replica wheels have an issue at DE Tech lines, as a 'soft socket' (one with a plastic sleeve on the outside) won't fit. Apparently, the diameter/taper of the lug nut hole in the wheel isn't exactly the same as an OEM wheel.
It just tends to clog up things when they can't verify early morning lug nut torque.

Bill Gregory

As stated, Fuchs were forged. The original cast copies were sized with the same diameters and metal thickness as the stronger forged Fuchs, which caused the casting to be more prone to cracking.

Bob Rouleau

Lewis - My fancy OZ 3 piece Superleggera wheels have the same problem. We gave up using soft sockets on our tech line because the problem is relatively common.

agio

Why not settle on "take offs," rather than "knock offs?" I have a 2002 996 and use 17" original Boxster S wheels. The price, if you can get your hands on them, are reasonable--and they're Porsche OEM's.

TT Gasman

I'm trying to find some 18"hollow spokes or '02 Carreras, it's not easy, very hard to come by. WE has squat right now. I'm probably going to get the CCWs.