Skip Wolfe

CCW makes a nice three piece although not at the price you are looking at. You can find BBS Racing wheels used for a decent price - find the centers and then mix and match the halves. They are crazy easy to disasssemble and rebuild.

Geoffrey

Exactly, I think I have about $2k on average in my 3 sets of wheels from buying used centers and used wheel halves.

Mark in Baltimore

I thought that having a manufacturer do custom work on their wheels takes some of the "cheap" out of the equation. What do I know?

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm just having fun. Please don't take my comments as an attack.

M758

Chad this is one reason in 944 spec we limited the class stock 15" wheels. Unlike spec miata cheap wheels are hard to find. So we just run the stock ones which cheap and relativly lightweight. Given what we do it works perfect.

Now for a non spec class looking at 17 wheels. I think your only "budget" option is CCW. I think the problem Porsche racers tend to like to spend money to get perceived value. Racers of other marks tend to be ok with spending less on other brands. Sadly the 5x130mm bolt patter for the Porsche wheels makes it hard to crossover and sales are just not there to keep the costs down for us.

For now stick with stock and just start looking. Wheel weight is important, but for now it would make all the difference in the world. Plus they are really easy to change one you figure out something.

Chads996

Here's the ironic part. Most of the wheels shown are created without the lug pattern or offset machined in. Example: Tire Rack has the Kosei K1's manufactured specifically for their BMW track crowd. They buy a certain allotment and have them machined by Kosei.

I have contacted D-Force to do the same thing for us. I am curious to see how many would need to be purchased to have these made machined to fit the cars I mentioned.

Waiting on hearing from them.

C.

M758

Mark,
Firstly on a track car who cares how they look!!
Second those those wheels are used sucessfully on on Porsche race cars so the idea that you can't have it strong, light and cheap is a myth. It can be done. Sadly they just don't make a Porsche fitment. Too bad since there is no reason to believe the Porsche fitment would cost any more (other than due to small production run) or be any weaker.

Chads996

I have recevied a response from Tom Merrifield (President of D-Force Wheels).

He mentioned that he is presently looking into Porsche fitments and expects them to be available by next spring. However, he said to have a set made for us, we would need 60+ wheels fabricated. In other words, 15 sets. So, I inquired into the pricing and setup if I got 15 people to purchase a set of these:




Wheel Details: (LTW5)

Size Weight
17x8.5 16.2 lbs
17x9 16.4 lbs

18x9 (or possible 8.5) 17.8 lbs
18x10 18.8 lbs

(pricing example: Bimmwerworld's price for 17x9 is $259.99)

I have requested a pricing structure as well as details if 18x8.5 sized wheels are available. I should learn more shortly. More to come. Stay tuned.

C.

Geoffrey

Are they forged for cast? They look like a weak design to me.

schwank

Don't worry Chad, you're not the only one.

I have thought long and hard about trying to get someone to make a 16 or 17 fitment for 944's. I have called everywhere and they are not offered. Would probably take a decent initial investment but I don't doubt one could sell 100 wheels pretty quick to Cup racers and others if they were light and cheap enough.

FWIW, Cup racers at ITS spec max out at 16x7 so that makes it a bit more difficult. But I couldn't find anything in any size really, other than stock Porsche wheels.

Larry Herman

They look very much like these 5zigen wheels that my son ran on his EVO 8.



At one event where I was in the car, he broke 4 out of 5 spokes on the right front wheel and was very lucky that it was in a slow speed corner.

At the event was a guy who made wheels for GM, and he said it was a classic failure, and then went on to describe the involved amount of testing that GM does on their aluminum wheels. He speculated that the wheel probably would not have passed even the first test. IMHO most cast wheels are weak, and for the street only. I would not risk my life to them unless they were TUV approved. Then I know that they would be strong, but probably heavy too. That strength has to come from somewhere.

Mark in Baltimore

Joe,

I absolutely care about how my car looks. If I didn't, I'd put a set of moon discs on. IMO, the car has to look right.

Geoffrey

Or race a BMW...

AudiOn19s

Isn't OZ racing making their Ultraleggera in porsche fitment now? Doesn't that fit the bill for cheap and light?

The d-force would be cool too but I don't think they'd offer enough savings over the OZ's to warrant going that route. Not to mention if they're only makint a limtied run and you bend a wheel there could be a pretty big wait time to get another one.

Andy

Mark in Baltimore

At least for the 993, the OZ's are $830 per wheel, so I'm not sure I'd consider $3300 for a set of wheels to be cheap.

AudiOn19s

I don't think we're talking about the same wheel.

TireRack lists the 18 x 8's at $375 and the 18 x 10's at $399.

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/Wheel...All&sort=Brand

**edit** Einke NT03 is anoteh great light / inexpensive wheel in this sector.