Tomster
Beware of idiots
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I recently received a set of the Signature SV902 wheels from Terrance @50 Deep. I placed the order on Feb 19th and sent the deposit. The new wheels were delivered to me on March 29th which put them right at the 5 week lead time as Terrance had indicated. Dealing with Terrance was a pleasure, he is a great communicator and provides a quality product.
For those of you who don't know of the Signature SV902's, they are the fully forged, CNC cut wheels made to order. As far as I know, they are the lightest wheel you can get (outside of the OEM carbon fiber wheels on the R). Speaking of OEM carbon fiber wheels, you are probably wondering why would anyone want to replace the carbon fiber wheels on an R model and replace them with aluminum wheels? Well the answer is simple. For a while, you could buy replacement OEM carbon fiber wheels for about $2500 each. Something happened that caused the price to skyrocket recently. I know, because I had a front wheel suffer some cosmetic damage to the ceramic barrel lining. Me, being as fussy as I am with my R's, I sought out a wheel replacement. I called around and found the MSRP of the front wheels are now over $6,000. This particular R had no road hazard warranty and a warranty claim was denied. So, fortunately, I was able to find a Carbon Revolutions trained repair facility to repair that wheel. The cost to get the minor cosmetic damage on the wheel repaired (to include shipping, container, repair, and insurance) was about $1,000. I will do a separate writeup on that repair for my fellow R brothers.
So, You are probably thinking that I should have simply bought the road hazard warranty, right? Well, Ford refused to sell me the warranty that covers CF wheels for my newest R, JR357. There was no way I was going to take a chance and drive around and hope for the best. I reached out to Terrence and found the perfect solution to maintain the R look and still have the lightest possible wheel for my R. An added bonus and one of the primary reasons I went with Terrance and Signature is caliper clearance.
Anyone who is familiar with this story probably knows about the 6GR wheels. I know, I have a set. Unfortunately, they were off my R when I had a pebble get caught between my caliper and CF wheel. The problem with the 6GR wheels is that they are spun forged (google form flow or spun forged wheels and compare to fully forged). A fully forged wheel is stronger, and because of that, less aluminum can be used making it lighter and leave more room for clearance between the calipers and the drum of the wheel. I measured the clearance between a 6GR wheel and the Signature SV902 wheel. See the photos for the results.
6GR caliper clearance
Signature SV902 caliper clearance
Weight is also a factor. One of the greatest performance enhancements we as 350 owners can do is install lighter wheels and stickier tires. The SV902's with Continental Contiforcecontact tires (305 front and 325 rear) weighed in at about 53 pounds per corner. The stock OEM CF R wheel weighs in at about 47 pounds per corner. I plan to add the titanium lug nuts, so that should help to bridge some of the gap in the weight difference at each corner. I believe that the Cup2's on the OEM CF wheel are lighter than the Continentals I have on the SV902's, so that will also bring the actual wheel weights closer. I'll try to weigh a Cup2 vs the Continental later and post the results.
OEM carbon fiber wheel weight with Cup2 tire
SV902 wheel weight with Continental Contiforcecontact tire
So, fast forward to delivery day, March 29th...… I picked up the wheels at UPS in the morning and I inspected the packaging. I couldn't help but notice the care that was taken to make sure they would arrive in perfect condition. I was amazed how well the wheels were packaged. A lot of attention to detail went into how the wheels were enclosed to ensure no damage occurred while in transit. I give Signature an A+ in that department. Have a look....
Next, I ran over to my dealership (who has the Hunter touchless tire machine) and I had my "go to" tech (Ryan) mount the tires and balance the wheels. Ryan is the only guy there who I trust to service my wheels (especially CF). I gave him a set of TPMS-39's, a set of tires, and of course, the SV902's.
Ryan did an excellent job. He took his time and did it right. Not a scratch anywhere.
I spent the next morning washing all the beeswax off the tires and the wheels. It was time to take the factory fresh carbon fiber wheels off JR357 and install the new Signature SV902's. Terrance didn't have his titanium lug nuts back from production yet, so he loaned me a set of his prototype lugs so that I could have a look first hand to see how they would look with the new wheels.
So once all the wheels were replaced, I took a step back and admired how nice everything all turned out. I could go on and on about how happy I am with the wheels, but the pictures tell the whole story. Im looking forward to getting the titanium lug nuts delivered to me and put them on these works of art.
Anyway, without any further adeau....
For those of you who don't know of the Signature SV902's, they are the fully forged, CNC cut wheels made to order. As far as I know, they are the lightest wheel you can get (outside of the OEM carbon fiber wheels on the R). Speaking of OEM carbon fiber wheels, you are probably wondering why would anyone want to replace the carbon fiber wheels on an R model and replace them with aluminum wheels? Well the answer is simple. For a while, you could buy replacement OEM carbon fiber wheels for about $2500 each. Something happened that caused the price to skyrocket recently. I know, because I had a front wheel suffer some cosmetic damage to the ceramic barrel lining. Me, being as fussy as I am with my R's, I sought out a wheel replacement. I called around and found the MSRP of the front wheels are now over $6,000. This particular R had no road hazard warranty and a warranty claim was denied. So, fortunately, I was able to find a Carbon Revolutions trained repair facility to repair that wheel. The cost to get the minor cosmetic damage on the wheel repaired (to include shipping, container, repair, and insurance) was about $1,000. I will do a separate writeup on that repair for my fellow R brothers.
So, You are probably thinking that I should have simply bought the road hazard warranty, right? Well, Ford refused to sell me the warranty that covers CF wheels for my newest R, JR357. There was no way I was going to take a chance and drive around and hope for the best. I reached out to Terrence and found the perfect solution to maintain the R look and still have the lightest possible wheel for my R. An added bonus and one of the primary reasons I went with Terrance and Signature is caliper clearance.
Anyone who is familiar with this story probably knows about the 6GR wheels. I know, I have a set. Unfortunately, they were off my R when I had a pebble get caught between my caliper and CF wheel. The problem with the 6GR wheels is that they are spun forged (google form flow or spun forged wheels and compare to fully forged). A fully forged wheel is stronger, and because of that, less aluminum can be used making it lighter and leave more room for clearance between the calipers and the drum of the wheel. I measured the clearance between a 6GR wheel and the Signature SV902 wheel. See the photos for the results.
6GR caliper clearance
Signature SV902 caliper clearance
Weight is also a factor. One of the greatest performance enhancements we as 350 owners can do is install lighter wheels and stickier tires. The SV902's with Continental Contiforcecontact tires (305 front and 325 rear) weighed in at about 53 pounds per corner. The stock OEM CF R wheel weighs in at about 47 pounds per corner. I plan to add the titanium lug nuts, so that should help to bridge some of the gap in the weight difference at each corner. I believe that the Cup2's on the OEM CF wheel are lighter than the Continentals I have on the SV902's, so that will also bring the actual wheel weights closer. I'll try to weigh a Cup2 vs the Continental later and post the results.
OEM carbon fiber wheel weight with Cup2 tire
SV902 wheel weight with Continental Contiforcecontact tire
So, fast forward to delivery day, March 29th...… I picked up the wheels at UPS in the morning and I inspected the packaging. I couldn't help but notice the care that was taken to make sure they would arrive in perfect condition. I was amazed how well the wheels were packaged. A lot of attention to detail went into how the wheels were enclosed to ensure no damage occurred while in transit. I give Signature an A+ in that department. Have a look....
Next, I ran over to my dealership (who has the Hunter touchless tire machine) and I had my "go to" tech (Ryan) mount the tires and balance the wheels. Ryan is the only guy there who I trust to service my wheels (especially CF). I gave him a set of TPMS-39's, a set of tires, and of course, the SV902's.
Ryan did an excellent job. He took his time and did it right. Not a scratch anywhere.
I spent the next morning washing all the beeswax off the tires and the wheels. It was time to take the factory fresh carbon fiber wheels off JR357 and install the new Signature SV902's. Terrance didn't have his titanium lug nuts back from production yet, so he loaned me a set of his prototype lugs so that I could have a look first hand to see how they would look with the new wheels.
So once all the wheels were replaced, I took a step back and admired how nice everything all turned out. I could go on and on about how happy I am with the wheels, but the pictures tell the whole story. Im looking forward to getting the titanium lug nuts delivered to me and put them on these works of art.
Anyway, without any further adeau....
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