Lets see if the Mods will make this a sticky!
Since there are so many wheel options out there and a ton of confusing and inaccurate information being posted, I thought it was time to get a Wheel Matrix completed. I am hoping we can all chip in, gather the info and that someone can put it into a spreadsheet.
It can contain information like warranty, country of manufacturer, how long the company has been in business, wheel production per year, models, weights, color options, OEM compatibility, material, custom options and Price. It would really be helpful if we could collect photos as well. I would love to see the manufacturers jump in and provide the info and help put to ease some of the major concerns.
Since this is the communities thread, add, delete and make what ever changes you want. I just want to see a one stop shop for all wheels.

 

I think this has been done a number of times already? Alas its not a sticky but a quick search will net you some good results with plenty of vendors posting pics.

 

that is the problem, they just post a pic. I want accurate info on these companies. So many with similar names, who are they? Where are these wheels made? Do you know their warranty policy? Its time for a matrix otherwise its easy, I will just buy HRE wheels at least I know who they are.
I don't even bother opening those threads anymore, pretty pictures, no specs, no pricing, no availability, no time to ship. Thanks, but no thanks.

 

From an old post:
I would recommend choice 1 to 4 below -- all have great reputation. My choices are based on the following criteria: forged, lighter than stock (VERY IMPORTANT!!), no lip, cost ~5k or below. And yes I've looked at a lot of wheels -- have a fetish.

1. Champion RS171, RF67.
2. HRE P40 (mesh - my wheel), P43 (11 single spoke), P47 (Ferrari like - 5 double spoke), P41 (9 double spoke).
3. PES GP7
4. Porsche has recently released the RS Spyder Wheel with center bolt. A little boring to me but it's OEM and the center bolt is cool. No body knows the weight, whether it's forged or cast, and how user-friendly the center bolt is. So the jury is out on this one -- be careful.
Among those 4, you should be able to choose a design to your liking. I would also recommend that you stay with stock size, 19".

There are others: Dymags, Manthey, Neez, etc., but all these are in the 8-9k plus range. Champion recently released a couple of new forged wheels but they look strange and/or boring (to me). There is a new player in the US, AMT. Sounds like the real thing but the design is only ok to me -- check it out to see if it's to your liking.
My latest love is HRE P41 & P47 BTW.

 

Yes it is forged , it is a option on the TT as of this month

Next to the Dymag it will be probly one of the lightest...

The center lug is TI and if you purchase this with the PCB this might be the way to go..

Gee-Bee

 

I love the center lock system the wheels hmm not the best looking but I will like to have center lock with HRE etc wheels.

 

I guess if the bold statement above is true I see absolutely no reason for a matrix!!

Let's see where this goes and I'll see what I can contribute. It sounds like a great idea if it doesn't turn into a mess. The problem for me with a matrix is that it is never going to tell the whole story. For example, I can design a wheel that is load rated to SAE 600kg and make it weigh 17lbs. That may only be 65% of what I currently design our wheels to, but nobody is going to know that. They're only going to look at the weight and talk about what a great wheel engineer I am, when in fact all I've done is just under rate it for the application and it won't come close to passing TUV... but nobody will realize it. They'll just think I'm awesome when in fact I'm just being irresponsible (I don't do this BTW so rest assured).

I can give you a little info on HRE if you want. I'll try to give you some useful info that most might not know instead of just marketing fluff but let's see if I'm even close to successful.

Our wheels are made in Vista, CA. The company was founded in 1978 but the current management team has been in place since 1998. Our warranty is 2 year-finish, lifetime-structural. Our Monoblok is made from 6061-T6 forged aluminum with flow-formed barrels. The 3pc is 6061-T6 centers and usually 6061-T6 spun rims. Sometimes the rims are spun 5454. We currently buy our 3pc rims from suppliers in the U.S. but we have purchased an extremely "impressive" spinning machine from Germany to do this ourselves... in time. We also don't forge our own wheels which seems to be the newest thing we're being criticized about. We use Aluminum Precision Products for that. They are the premier forging house for wheels in the U.S. (and the most expensive). We have tried others to try and save money but they couldn't meet our quality standards and it just ended up costing us more money in the end with all the wasted time and rejects.

Our design, engineering, machining, powdercoating and assembly are done at our 60K sq. ft. facility in Vista which everyone is welcome to visit. We're not the biggest but we're proud of what we've accomplished and how we do things. Our engineering/production/quality control processes were audited by TUV and we received TUV Verification status in May 2008 for our facility allowing us to send wheels to Germany for TUV testing and certification. The M40s and P40s have been sent and have rec'd their certifications... and yes we do have the TUV serial number and logo along with the certifications in-hand to prove it. Testing is done either at STL in Ohio or in Germany for TUV. We now design and test to TUV specs... not SAE. An owner of one of the other competitive brands your talking about but didn't name (one we actually like hence his ability to get a tour) stopped by yesterday and his first words when stepping out back into our shop... "Wow." Sometimes I forget as I tend to focus only on the faults.

Our parts are sourced in the U.S. except our titanium assembly bolt for the C-Series which come from Alcoa of Germany. The stainless assembly bolts we use for the rest of our wheels comes from Automotive Racing Products (ARP) in SoCal as they're the only ones we could find that could make stainless strong enough. I assume a lot of you are familiar with ARP bolts if you're into racing. We pay a fortune for all of this so I have no problem telling our competitors as they'll most likely pass once they get a quote and realize the cost is 4-15X the price of normal bolts.

We don't typically build stock but rely on a build-to-order model. This allows for custom fitments and custom finishes. Lead-times used to be 4-6+ weeks for a typical HRE wheel, but in 2008 we focused on bringing that down to under 2 weeks for in-house finishes. We made a set of wheels today in 5 hours because they were going to Barrett Jackson and the customer gave us incorrect specs and we didn't realize until we went to bolt the wheels on the car. Not the norm obviously, so we were pretty proud of ourselves. We thought we had done a good job getting them ready originally in 4 days! Getting wheels ready in 5 hours was pretty cool. Getting "scrap" ready in 4 days wasn't. Please don't expect a 5 hour turn though as that was an extremely unusual situation. I'm sure all our dealers are going to expect 4 day turns now too!! We also have a dedicated customer service department that does nothing but deal with repairs, refinishing, warranty, etc. This is a very important part of our business, hence its dedicated resources.

We have entirely too many wheels styles for me to start listing specs tonight which I'm sure is what you really want, but I can get more detailed later.

Anyway, if you can pick out any useful info for your matrix from all this utter blah, blah, blah, go to it. Otherwise... just buy HRE!!

Lot's of smileys. Too bad I'm not that funny.

 

Very well said Alan..I'd love to check out the facility one day (considering you guys are just up the street from me!!!)

 

Impressive write up, thank you!

Got HRE 540's on my 911TT now.. couldn't be happier w/ the look. One fault I did find however is that when it rains, water pools up in the wheel causing a 'studder' at high speeds (55+mph). Has this been fixed or am I stuck with it? Anything I can do?

 

i love the cf five from 360 on the 997tt
also the hre p40 monoblock looks great aswell


if i had a 997tt, it would be white
dropped, 360 19" cf 5, with a small lip up front, huge lip in back, center in CF, lip in high gloss black, with a white pinstripe to accent it..

also yellow PCCBs...

 

HRE _Alan... appreciate that write-up...i just ordered a pair of the P40 in charcoal gloss from Ben @ WB...heard they came out of powder coat ystd....can't wait! Great Product!

 

Short of changing of wheels no. Should of when with the with the C series wheels.

 

The trouble with these wheel threads, they usually deteriorate (IMO) to an unending string of high res pictures, often of the same wheel...If the various wheelmakers would chime in as HRE has that would be most welcome.
That said, I love my Champion RS 171s!

 

Great info Alan, you guys build the best wheel I have seen by far.