Hot Wheels for a VIP Car
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Nismo_Freak
- Posts: 10314
- Joined: Wed Jul 24, 2002 10:42 pm
- Car: 89 Nissan 240SX
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Nismo_Freak
- Posts: 10314
- Joined: Wed Jul 24, 2002 10:42 pm
- Car: 89 Nissan 240SX
The best looking most expensive wheel ever, will do nothing to take away from a poor looking fitment, period. That car is next to undriveable. Forgive me for my old-fashioned mindset, but if you modify what looks like a normal road car(what you and I would use for commute) to the point where you sacrifice more than you gain--putting looks before function-- you haven't gained a thing.
Maybe it just pains me to see a car setup to allow wheel fitment, while burning the book on suspension geometry, tire longevity, and ride quality.
Maybe it just pains me to see a car setup to allow wheel fitment, while burning the book on suspension geometry, tire longevity, and ride quality.
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one ton garage
- Posts: 464
- Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2004 9:16 pm
- Contact:
Most aftermarket wheels nowadays have a hub centerbore diameter of 73mm or so, so that is not an issue. In fact, the only few aftermarket wheels that are still made with centerbores to fit specific cars are those that are designed for those specific cars in the first place... such as TRD (for Toyota), STi (for Subaru), and Nismo (for Nissan) wheels made by Rays, for example.
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Falkdesigns
- Posts: 2738
- Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2004 9:58 am
- Car: 1998 Q45t ~ EXE
- Contact:
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one ton garage
- Posts: 464
- Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2004 9:16 pm
- Contact:
It also depends on where the car is located. In Japan, air susp is still relatively new and extraordinarily expensive, so when you see pics of slammed cars in Japan, they're usually sitting on coilover suspensions. At least half of the time, when you see a super sliggity slammed car in photoshooots from Japan, chances are it was just dumped for the photo shoot, BUT a good number of those cars are actually driven at those heights on a daily basis too. The city streets, and especially the fwys in Japan are pretty awesomely smooth, so they don't have as much to worry about as we do over here. BUT, in the city, a lot of their driveways and speedbumps are horrendously tall, but that's nothing some judicious angling of the car can't remedy. There's an art to clearing driveways and speedbumps in a lowered car too, and not everyone learns how to do it right, so they end up compromising their ride height to accomodate. Hmmm, in fact, I've found several japanese web sites with tutorials and pics to show the correct way to angle up and down driveways and over speed bumps, but no such luck with any US web sites....
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Falkdesigns
- Posts: 2738
- Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2004 9:58 am
- Car: 1998 Q45t ~ EXE
- Contact:
Not to contradict you, but I was in Tokyo for 10 days in November and the roads aren't that great. We took a road trip to Shizouka which is about 100 miles away, I'd say pretty comprable to Cali roads. I sure did see alot of amazing cars though! I think you are right about them often being on coilovers (I'd never go air personally). In this drifting video I have with some Cima's etc, some of them are slammed like that, and in that video of you and your friend, your cars are pretty dumped too! Can't wait to go back there in the spring.
one ton garage wrote:Most aftermarket wheels nowadays have a hub centerbore diameter of 73mm or so, so that is not an issue. In fact, the only few aftermarket wheels that are still made with centerbores to fit specific cars are those that are designed for those specific cars in the first place... such as TRD (for Toyota), STi (for Subaru), and Nismo (for Nissan) wheels made by Rays, for example.
The issue is having a proper hub-centric wheel. High end manufacturers such as my personal favorite, Fikse, builds wheels to order. BBS will build to order, so will others like Boyd Coddington, Budnik, Rays, CEC, DAZZ, HRE, RONAL, hell just about any high profile wheel company will build to suit. The way to go about doing this is knowing the right people.. (just like anything else)
The trick with common wheels is to get metal hub-centric rings to fit the hub properly.
Maxnix:True, it is a compromise, which is why "you gotta pay to play" and at $1k per wheel to start out, not too many people want to play. The most basic Fikse forged wheel, built to Infiniti Q45 spec in 18x8" retails for $999 and lead time is 4weeks.
Who wants to pay that? When you can get what is essentially the same looking wheel from ASA for about $700-750 less? Sure it looks the same but the devil is in the details..
No compromise means buying wheels built to order. Forged, built to exact hub bore spec, with proper offset for one specific vehicle ONLY.
Who wants to pay that? When you can get what is essentially the same looking wheel from ASA for about $700-750 less? Sure it looks the same but the devil is in the details..
No compromise means buying wheels built to order. Forged, built to exact hub bore spec, with proper offset for one specific vehicle ONLY.
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one ton garage
- Posts: 464
- Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2004 9:16 pm
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Hubcentric rings have been more an invention to try and mask a greater problem: improper wheel lug nut torquing. I've never used hubcentric rings my whole life, and have never had a problem. Before hubcentric rings were in existence, people (who torqued their wheels correctly) never had any problems for decades either. They only serve as a method of centering the wheels when first placed on the hub to prevent improper torquing when a person does not tighten their lug nuts in a star pattern. Once the lug nuts are torqued correctly, the ring does nothing. The correct way to tighten a wheel (hubcentric ring or not) is to affix the wheel to the hub in the air, then run the lug nuts by hand in a star pattern, then hand snug them in a star pattern, THEN lower the car and torque to specs. I actually even tighten my wheels in 4 steps, which might take an extra minute per corner, but like I said, you can't do something like this TOO right... oh yah, and no need for hubcentric rings if you do things right.