altonj

Then you use some of these dies.....

altonj

Mounted on one of these to form the parts.....

altonj

You end up with some of these....

altonj

ooops. I mean some of these, which you send out to get heat treated before spinning them again....

altonj

Once re spun, you polish them and cut them to size and drill the correct pattern in them on one of these....

altonj

Then you have a finished rim shell.....

Forgings come in all sorts of profiles, custom or one "off the shelf". APP and Centerline are two major suppliers of forgings for one and three piece wheels.

Here are a couple of different forgings for three piece wheels....

altonj

You mount them in one of these, cut the profile (design) into the wheel you want, cut the shell reference, hub pad height, OD, center bore, lug pattern and seat, bolt circle, and lightening pockets all to your specs. Then you finish if the way the customer wants with paint/anodize/powdercoat etc....

altonj

I can post assembly intructions as well as I do have a few sets of yet to be assembled wheels here that I can post a demo on......

Cheers

Dave 86 930 Fl

I'm not a racer, but I do DE my car @ Sebring a lot and strength was a primary concern when looking at selecting the right custom wheel for my car. I also looked at all of the race cars at the Rolex/ALMS events and Forgeline was very well represented at the track. That said, I ordered some Forgelines from Dave Schardt and I've been very pleased with the entire experience.

333pg333

Thanks altonj for posting all that. Very interesting indeed.

Dave, your 930 is one of the best looking that I've ever seen...but you knew that. lol

I'm going to order some Fikse MachV in Race black. I'll post a pic of them on the car when it's all done.

altonj

My pleasure.... If anyone else wants more detailed pics, or info, let me know, I would be happy to provide it.

Dave, your car looks great, nice wheel choice. Very good look the car.

Patrick, enjoy your Fikse's. We run them on our Cayman in 19 for street and 18 for track, and on our 996 too.

Cheers

333pg333

Thanks Jeff, and yes if you have some more pics and info to hand I would be happy to watch and learn. Interesting stuff.

btw I'm just going to run a cheaper set of wheels for the street. They will require spacers. How do you feel about running them just for the street? To calculate the thickness of the spacer is it just a matter of subtracting one offset from the other? Or is that just too basic...

Jeff Curtis

I don't believe I ever, or will I ever "dismiss" the use of cast wheels. As this thread serves as proof that there are some good candidates out there. Keep in mind, I bought all my forged racing wheels back when the few options were Enkei, etc. and that just wasn't going to happen in my book!

Technology and quality in the cast wheel industry is apparently catching up. The Apex wheels are quite popular with the BMW crowd in my area as well, the anthracite color is awesome. I'm actually using the same color on a set of 18" Arristos (factory) for my 20th AE GTI...love the carbon/titanium gray look.

I love my Fikses because they were the first wheel I immediately fell in love with, yet couldn't afford. After several years of admiration I broke out the CC and made the call to have a set made. They are currently my high-priced rain wheels...as my "normal" wheels are 18" CCWs.

The CCWs are tough, I've been hit RR and LR...both by an over enthusiastic BMW driver attempting a VERY low-percentage pass. They didn't bend but being that they're annodized black...they look like hell. I'm probably going to get one of them prepared/recond. by CCW and try and talk John into making me another one at a good price.

John, are you reading this?

Charles A. Toupin

Wow! Very interesting information. Thanks AltonJ!

c.

altonj

Assuming the same width, yes the spacer needs to make up the offest difference. If the second set is a different width then you need to decide if you want the wheel centerline in the same location on both sets, or the outer lip edge in the same spot for both sets. Either way, it is a simple math question.

Cheers