All cars have the wheel in common, though the wheels on our cars couldn’t be more diverse in form and construction. There’s an emotional element as well, as personalizing a vehicle often starts with changing the wheels, whether for aesthetic or performance reasons.
In motorsports, there are genuine, measurable gains to be had from swapping out the stock wheels for something lighter, stronger, larger or smaller. Aftermarket wheels can also open the door to other upgrades, like larger brake systems and wider tire footprints.
With hundreds if not thousands of options in any particular size, however, there can be a paralyzing number of choices. Budget plays a factor, of course, and certain wheel types have a reputation for being race-appropriate, but how can you really know what you’re getting? We asked a number of wheel industry experts three basic questions to learn a bit more about what makes the wheels on the race car go round and round.
“OEM wheels are actually some of the strongest you will ever have on your car. The wheel is so critical to safety that OEMs engineer theirs to be extremely strong, corrosion-resistant, and fitment-conservative to allow for extra room within the wheel well.
An aftermarket performance wheel will typically be lighter due to a higher level of manufacturing, like forging or flow forming. It will push the limits of weight in exchange for extreme durability. What a lot of people don’t know is that OEM strength and durability standards are generally triple those of the aftermarket. So make sure when choosing a performance wheel that your supplier has the testing information to back up the low weight.”
Eddie Lee
Mackin Industries/Volk Racing
“Of course racers are going to be looking for the lightest, strongest wheel for their money, but quality is extremely important. There are a lot of companies now buying wheels from factories that don’t have the highest quality control or the correct build specifications for a given application. Choosing a lightweight wheel is great, but maybe it’s not correctly load-rated for your vehicle.
Maybe the reason the wheel is so light is because they removed necessary material in areas that will now be susceptible to cracking and stress fractures.
Choosing a wheel that’s built by a company with years of experience, high quality control and an understanding of what applications it will be used for is key and ensures that the wheel is reliable and safe while remaining as light and strong as it can be.”
Scott Weiss
König
"The single most important factor when choosing a wheel is what the customer is going to be doing with the car. Someone who is looking for performance on the street using street tires doesn’t have to worry as much about strength and stiffness as someone who is going to the track every weekend with R-compound tires. And slicks are another significant step up over R-compound DOT tires.”
David Schardt
Forgeline
“Right now, hands down, flow-forming technology is one of the construction methods that offers the best overall benefits, and it’s something that König is extremely proud of. Flow-forming technology is a manufacturing process that shares similar properties to those found in the forging process.The end result is a product that is lighter, stronger and has greater elongation and shock resistance compared to a cast wheel. More importantly, we can offer these amazing product benefits to the customer at a price level that is still incredibly affordable.”
Scott Weiss
König
“A true fully forged one-piece monoblock wheel offers the greatest performance gains, as the 6061 material–heat-treated to T6 specifications–offers the greatest strength-to-mass ratio. The metal is stronger and deflects less under force, which is a performance gain in itself. Reduced deflection gives the wheel more fatigue strength as well. This allows you to machine the spokes thinner or simply use less material as opposed to a cast or flow-formed wheel.
"Forged three-piece wheels can have great fatigue and stiffness characteristics as well, but if you’re comparing the same design between a one- and a three-piece wheel, the one-piece forged wheel will be stiffer and typically lighter due to not having the bolts to hold it together.”
David Schardt
Forgeline
"There are so many new manufacturing techniques, like carbon wheels and flow forming–but the best and most advanced is mold forging. This is a technique used by Rays (Volk Racing) and BBS, the only companies capable of manufacturing with this technique in-house. It allows a wheel to exhibit extreme lightness and durability. Unlike traditional machine-forged wheels, the grain structure of the high-end aluminum is organized throughout a mold-forged wheel.
"Carbon wheels are super light, but durability comes into question: Once there is an impact beyond the carbon strength threshold, the structure will crack and break. A mold-forged wheel will still retain air in the tire, so the wheel performs better than all other wheels while retaining a safety element as well.”
Eddie Lee
Mackin Industries/Volk Racing
"Trust that the wheel brand has the integrity and desire to ensure that their product quality and service are held to the highest standards. Trust that the brand has the expertise and experience to design and manufacture your wheels to the highest quality and with the appropriate specifications needed for your specific application–racing, street performance or luxury. You can easily spend a lot of money on wheels that are not only inferior to your OEM wheels, but may be completely unsafe, either due to a lack of technical knowledge, poor quality of manufacture, or use in incorrect applications.”
Alan Peltier
HRE Performance Wheels
“Design and weight are equally important. Several TSW wheels are manufactured using a production technique called rotary forging, where the rim of the wheel is forged at high pressure while the wheel is spun at high speed. This alters the molecular structure and enhances the strength of the alloy. The weight savings is on the outer rim of the wheel, which dramatically reduces rotational mass and enhances vehicle performance.”
Linda Schmidt
TSW Alloy Wheels
“A true race wheel has several advantages, weight usually being the top dog. [Reducing] rotational unsprung wheel mass is one of the best ways to gain cheap horsepower, increase handling and improve braking all in one package.”
Wade Huisman
Keizer Wheels
Photography Credit: J.G. Pasterjak
