Forgeline carbon barrel wheels

[SoCalTim]

The HRE wheel video on Jay Lenos garage has good little chat about the HRE carbon barrel:

[ame]

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[lemers]

More CF options will translate into cheaper CF wheels down the road.

 

[Colleton]

Way too steep a price for aftermarket wheels. Aren't the R wheels cheaper than that?

 

[AndreiD]

$15k for a set. i'm not brave enough to run those on my daily. one bad pothole or curb and it will end in tears...

Indeed...it seems those are even more expensive than the stock R (full carbon) rims?!

 

[Darkane]

Indeed...it seems those are even more expensive than the stock R (full carbon) rims?!

Much more. Full set of R can be had for under 10.

Wait until production stops and I can almost foresee the price in the 6-7 area.

 

[Stuntman]

I don't doubt that they are a quality wheel at all. But Ford is the one who provides the specifics to them for those applications, i.e build us a wheel in this size, with this stiffness, etc. etc. It isn't on Forgeline to R&D to determine whether X amount of stiffness or strength is adequate for the application.

Considering the wheels in the OP are a two piece affair, it will inherently never have the same strength as a single piece barrel/spokes design of the OEM R wheels. I imagine though for most this is a null point regardless, but I was only commenting on the fact that the posted wheels were "stronger than the R's carbon wheels". :cheers:

I don't think it works that way. Plus, most of the Forgelines spotted on GT350 mules are 3-pc.

 

[SHELBY GT350R]

Forgeline sends out there wheels for independent testing. They are tested to the point they fail. Many times that rate is approximately 10,000,000 miles and more which no vehicle can obtain. You can sleep easy at night running these wheels.

 

[Tank]

Just wait a couple years when the GT350R is done production. Ford will clear out remaining wheels for cheap.

In 2008 Honda released a special Mugen Civic Si for one year. It has amazing 18x7.5 forged wheels that were only 16.5lbs. Long story short they cleared them out for $800 a set after the one year run. They're $800-900 a wheel regular.

Guess I'm having a hard time envisioning Ford allowing a significant build up of R wheels...

 

[Darkane]

Guess I'm having a hard time envisioning Ford allowing a significant build up of R wheels...

I don't think it's a build up of excess inventory per se, but clearing the remaining inventory.

Even if they have 100-150 sets, that isn't a lot but it actually is right.

I still wouldn't buy a set for 6k, but you never know it could be a collectors item if the market tends to go more mixed alloy/composite direction and in time lowered the price.

Mind you a lot of people don't realize the GT350R carbon wheels are a mixed material build also including an aluminum collar center section.

 

[J_Maher_AMG]

I don't think it's a build up of excess inventory per se, but clearing the remaining inventory.

Even if they have 100-150 sets, that isn't a lot but it actually is right.

I still wouldn't buy a set for 6k, but you never know it could be a collectors item if the market tends to go more mixed alloy/composite direction and in time lowered the price.

Mind you a lot of people don't realize the GT350R carbon wheels are a mixed material build also including an aluminum collar center section.

I wouldn't bet on any sets being leftover at the end. I would be shocked if they have a single set left in inventory that are "leftover" per se. We think we see a lot of R's being produced now, but the numbers are still very small compared to other cars. It is very easy for Ford to know exactly how many they will produce and simply request the correct number of wheels for such a small volume.

Even if they did, for whatever strange reason, accidentally order too many wheels, I imagine they'll simply sit and remain in storage until someone needs to replace a wheel or another wants to buy a set. Good forged wheels are a minimum of ~$4,000 a set, and carbon wheels are far more costly to produce. I hope the price does come down more in case I ever damage a wheel, but I don't see them dropping under $2,000 a wheel anytime in the near future, at least until more commonplace cars begin utilizing the tech.

 

[Demonic]

@Hack @Donkey

@Demonic

Not sure where you are getting this information from. Can you post a source?

I'd like to see this info as well. I spoke to them at pri and forgeline had their testing data on hand
It's likely as strong if not stronger than the almighty R wheel.

That info came from talking to CarbonRevolution directly, and they also talked about it themselves in the video they first posted when their wheels were being tested on 911's prior to the R. The difficulty they said is not making a wheel lighter, but making it light while still stiff enough for the barrel to resist unwanted camber changes when being loaded by a 3500 lb car. They have also said that when making a two-piece wheel using just a carbon barrel, the interface becomes an additional unpredictable rigidity point during the stresses of tracking a car. As J_Maher_AMG said, the testing for a wheel to meet OEM standards for structure on a vehicle is entirely different from what the aftermarket boutique wheel manufacturers have to meet.

Highly unlikely. There may be a very select few companies that genuinely make tougher wheels than very high end OEM wheels, which the R's certainly are, but they are far and few between. They simply don't have to hold up to the same levels of durability or standards that are mandated internally for OEM wheels.

Simply put, almost all aftermarket wheel companies don't have the R&D money to test and implement their highest quality feels in every facet like an OEM does to ensure the required compliance under very high G loads. They are far more concerned with "just making it light weight" than they are with the other technical data that is just as if not more important.

This ^

Probably not since R production is constantly waiting on the supply of wheels from CarbonRev.

Forgelines have been seen on many GT350 prototypes and they are used on the GT350R-C & Mustang GT4 racecars, so they are probably pretty good...

Just because a company makes a race-oriented wheel doesn't mean that all their wheels are therefore race-oriented. It's pretty clear from the design of the front face that this series is more aesthetic-oriented.

 

[Hack]

That info came from talking to CarbonRevolution directly, and they also talked about it themselves in the video they first posted when their wheels were being tested on 911's prior to the R. The difficulty they said is not making a wheel lighter, but making it light while still stiff enough for the barrel to resist unwanted camber changes when being loaded by a 3500 lb car. They have also said that when making a two-piece wheel using just a carbon barrel, the interface becomes an additional unpredictable rigidity point during the stresses of tracking a car. As J_Maher_AMG said, the testing for a wheel to meet OEM standards for structure on a vehicle is entirely different from what the aftermarket boutique wheel manufacturers have to meet.

Just because a company makes a race-oriented wheel doesn't mean that all their wheels are therefore race-oriented. It's pretty clear from the design of the front face that this series is more aesthetic-oriented.

So what you have is a statement from another company in the wheel market that competes with the people offering the carbon barrel products. Got it.

 

[Demonic]

So what you have is a statement from another company in the wheel market that competes with the people offering the carbon barrel products. Got it.

Well yeah. I originally said the CarbonRevolution wheels were designed not just for weight but rigidity. You guys asked who said. I never said the carbon barreled Forgelines can't be stiffer. Until we see any testing comparing the two we won't know. My original post was just to say that weight isn't everything. Not sure what you want from me lol :shrug:

 

[Hack]

Well yeah. I originally said the CarbonRevolution wheels were designed not just for weight but rigidity. You guys asked who said. I never said the carbon barreled Forgelines can't be stiffer. Until we see any testing comparing the two we won't know. My original post was just to say that weight isn't everything. Not sure what you want from me lol :shrug:

I'm not trying to attack you personally and I apologize if I came off that way. I just was trying to understand whether there was actual test data out there comparing the two wheel construction types. :cheers:

 

[gearhead2685]

Everyone talking about the production of the GT350R carbon wheels?

I bet they use them or at least an option for them on the GT500 too.

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