Quote:
Originally Posted by Obioban
"spun forged" is a marketing term... for wheels that are cast 
Funny (less so for people that fall for it), but true.
Stock wheels are also not strong on the scale of wheels, so them cracking (not common) doesn't mean yours are well made. Just that both aren't.
The wheel finish coming off is also just a sign they were poorly made.
Top quality wheels are 8000 ton forged. There's only three forges in the world capable of that, and all of them are located in Japan-- BBS, Champion (who makes wheels for RAC), and Volk.
"spun forged" is cast, albeit one of the better casting processes. It's what BBS uses on the CHs and the e46 ZCP wheels. Because it's not as strong as forging, they make up for it by using more metal. E.g. BBS CH's are 6-12 lbs heavier for a given size than BBS RG-Rs.
Also, any wheel you can order "custom offsets" for means it's not optimized for any design... so I'd look at that as a downside. Better to get a wheel that's specced for and optimized for a given offset.
Wheels are, and always have been, choose 2 of 3 (if you get a good wheel-- bad wheels get you less than 2 of 3):
1) Light
2) Cheap
3) Strong |
I agree with most of what you say, but there are a lot more than three 8000 ton closed-die presses in the world. Maybe there are only three companies in the world doing it that way, but Aluminum is relatively easy to forge, so the tonnage on the forge doesn't necessarily equate to the quality of the wheel.