I have been thinking of buying either HRE 542R, 543R, or Techart Formula wheels. Word is the HRE's are extremely prone to bending, whereas the TUV approved wheels(Gemballa, Cargraphic, Etc) are not. The streets in Chicago are terrible. Any advise or first hand experiences? Also, I love the look of the deep dish. Anyone seen Techart Formula in person. They look so plain in pics, almost look like my sport technos, but more plain? How much do the HRE's weigh? I weighed a techart 20" rim and it was over 40lbs thanks

Lou

 

Techart are one-piece cast while the HREs are 3-piece forged...Forged wheels are a lot stronger than cast ones...I live in Boston where the roads for lack of a better word SUCK and have had no problems with my 542Rs

 

Hi Lou,
The Techarts look great in person (they really grew on me), after driving now for three weeks in the NYC area, the rims seem to be holding up just fine (even after hitting a few larger potholes).
I never had HRE's, but have herad from several people to stay away from HRE's in 19, especially for NYC driving.
A good middle ground maybe HRE's in 18's with an aggressive offset and tire size, I have seen pictures at 6speed that look very nice and really fill the wheel well (sorry, don't remember who's car).

 

Lou you have a 7 series for daily driving. I would go for the HRE's in 19 inch.

 

I heard the HRE is pretty strong, I'm getting my HRE 645R 22" in few months time, and the road in Boston sucks!!

 

I am getting these in 18" that will clear big brembo brake. Picture shows 19"

http://hobbystage.net/porsche/media....7703207-011373

 

I was under the impression that a good one piece cast wheel is actually stronger than multipiece wheels...Anyone know which is the real case??? Not looking for speculation...

 

So was I

 

forged is stronger than cast regardless of number of pieces...

 

just ordered 540r ' s on monday , they say it will be 5 wks to my door ...got them from wheel experts ...pleasure to deal with.


pretty aggressive lip 3 " in the rear 18's though

 

Who says multi piece forged are stronger than one piece cast????
From an engineering standpoint with the same force applied, a multipiece rim should bend before a one piece cast...simple physics...

Please provide credible evidence to your assertion that multi piece are less prone to bending. Any wheel experts online??? No pun intended!!

 

No problems so far with bending. Have inadvertently hit one decent sized pothole and thought for sure the wheel would be bent. But, it's still perfectly straight.

I think the paint is very prone to chipping. Would probably go with the polished center if I had it to do over again. But, they look great and I have a guy that can repair wheel paint imperfections easily and cheaply here.

 

Only the centers of the HRE's are forged, the rim halves are not. Even with forged centers, some of their wheel styles have issues with the spokes cracking. They had a recall and design change on all of their 547 wheels a few years back. A friend of mine had the pre and post 547s in 17" on his M3 and managed to crack the spokes on both of them. I've had a great deal of experience with HREs and unfortunately the majority of them have had issues, with most of them having trouble holding air. The 540s I recieved for my M3 were delievered to me out of round.
Oddly enough, I noticed a lot of people here have them and there are no complaints I can see. Although, a lot of you seem to sell them very quickly after recieving them.
In terms of wheel styles, I would say HRE is at the top of its game. But unless they have drastically changed their manufacturing progress in the past few months, they have work to do.
If you want a stronger/lighter wheel that actually has some track history, take a look at Fikse, Kinesis and Forgeline.

It is ironic that I am saying this because I am taking a very hard look at the 542s for my 996TT, hoping HRE has finally figured out how to perfect the wheel. But I am not too sure about that.

 

I thought the rim itself (outer) was forged too??
rockitman - I was referring to outers LOL - no arguing here and I am also an engineer so dont wanna blurt out a claim with no science behind it...
racer - whos your contact for refinishing the wheels? PM me plz

 

Mansour:

Did not mean to be argumentative... I was just pointing out that I would think the techart 1 piece cast would ultimately hold up better under abusive roads as compared to multipiece. I am changing out my stock 1 piece cast GT3 wheels with 3 piece Kinesis K58's next week when they come in. They will save about 19Lbs in unsprung weight as compared to my stock boat anchors. I am not trying to say which is better...only which wheel is probably stronger. Stronger does not necessarily make a wheel better. It comes down to what you like looks wise, their weight and what level of strength you are willing to live with. Cheers!!!