Hi Josh,
Look at this.. while you had fun at the club tonight I responded to your post. Heh, Anyways.. answers below-
Juice said:
My BRS wide body is under way and I am in the position that I must lose my current WORK wheels in favor of something much wider and truly show worthy without the need for spacers. The problem that I am having is my personal taste in wheels leans more towards function (leight weight) than crazy chrome visuals with spinners and 22" DUBS. Most of the wheels that I have found that come in larger/wider sizes are somewhat tasteless. And forget trying to look wheels up by car type - there is no NSX Wide body category at tirerack.com. :wink:
To me, it sounds like your primary criteria is still mostly aesthetic, and function may be a coincidental by-product of that methodology as your preference is not to have blingy looking polished/chrome wheels. I understand that unless you'll be doing a FF3 photo-op.
Frankly, function implies a minimalist approach anyway, strong/light weight design, proper size specially fitted for the elected tire / contact patch that is needed for the application/specs, easily maintainable, etc... where as I believe you may be just working in reverse trying to match the form factor of a convertible wide body show car (pri 1) without as much regard to performance (pri 2).
Put more clearly- obviously there is clearly no functional need for 305's+ on the rear of your specific street convertible (aside from it looking good with the new BRS kit) as you haven't provided any valid performance justification why your current setup or a normal comparable aftermarket setup is insufficient as it would be inhibiting your vehicles performance.
That said, if you just want to get a handle on all the wheel offerings- Enkei, Kinesis, Work, Volk, BBS, Racing Hart, Speedline... there are loads of available manufacturers with solid offerings that meet your stated requirements- (strong 1/2 pc aluminum construction, 10/10.5/11/12+ inch sizing, low offset, 5 lug bolt pattern) with the only real issue so far as I can see being real-world performance compromises, appearance, and cost. If your going to ditch the spacers and have a BBK, offsets also may also become a limiting factor in some specific cases.
The good news is that as mentioned several manufacturers custom make wheels to order so you can get whatever you what- custom widths, offsets, finishes, etc... and depending on your diameter tires are fairly readily available. It's all just time, potential aggravation, and money.
Juice said:
To the point- Do manufacturers of racing wheels such as WORK or RAYS ever work with clients to create wider versions of their rims? What all would have to be done? I don't want some CNC machined wheel that will bend the instant I hit a pothole so a forged wheel would make more sense, but again most custom wheels are machined vs. the standard forged racing wheels.
Absolutely- often big-ticket clients request them for racing, it just takes big budgets. Center lock volk mags are used in JGTC frequently, ALMS teams field some nice looking BBS racing wheels on those C5R's, etc... all are as wide as it gets upwards of 345's. If these are what you are eye balling then most of these are specialty runs made just for the specific client's application and center lock hub/brake specs, etc... often times with minimum purchases requirements of 10 sets or more.
Juice said:
I'm clueless here. Can somebody start pointing me in the right direction?
I guess the bottom line is more information is needed to get a handle on what is going to satisfy your needs as a customer. Priority one is what available tires do you want to use? What size/brand spacers are you using? Also, what designs are aesthetically acceptable (e.g. what do you like you have seen), do they have to be single piece forged aluminum or are some 2pc models acceptable to you?
You know off-topic but I have a set of low offset wheels/street tires here that I do suspect might just fit the bill for you that with some heavy persuasion I may let go depending on when my new ones might arrive. We'll have to sync up again then and I'll send you some pics.
