Wheel Choices

[Superman]

I started a thread about the Euromeister wheels and learned a LOT about wheel and tire sizes, traction, fender clearance, torque loss, etc. Rather than complexify that thread further, I thought I'd start another thread about what choices we have when buying wheels.

I want them to be cool-looking. I love the deep dish look compared to today's wheels on which the centers seem flush with the rim. I love the look of Fuchs, particularly the 8s and 9s. I want them to be light. Euromeister wheels provide everything I want except the weight part. Euromeisters are 25 lbs. Higher priced wheels are ten lbs lighter.!!! The choices seem to be:

Original 6 & 7 x 16 Fuchs - Boring. Decent aesthetic but not as deep-dish as I like. It's getting harder to find 16" tires. Cost: $0.00

Fuch 7, 8 and 9 x 16 - Cool. Lighter weight. However, they are still 16" and they are made of unobtainium. Crazy prices. Cost: $5-6K

Fikse - Great wheels. Light (probably, though I have not found weight data). Not the same deep-dish Fuch aesthetic that I am looking for. Spendy. Cost: $ 5-6K or more

Others - Braid, etc. Better aesthetic than I have seen in Fikses but still not 'right.' Lighter. Cost: $5-6K

Euromeister - Nice aesthetic! Heavy. Cost: $1K

Advise me. Where can I find better options? Euromeisters have everything I need except.....weight. Where can I find a wheel with Euromeister aesthetics in a 17" wheel that will not cost several thousand dollars? Alternatively, where can I find light weight wheels, even for several thousand dollars, with the Euromeister or Fuch aesthetic? (I know about Braids)

It seems we have fairly limited choices.

[Erbe_911]

Being in the Audi scene for a while, and more recently moving into this one, the deep dish lip look is "out" now and concavity is all the rage. Looks good on modern cars, but I agree with you that the Fuchs look suits these cars incredibly well.

I've done most of the same research as you and I decided to go with 16x7/8 Euromeisters when I replace my 16x6/7 factory setup. The economics can't be ignored, even if there's a weight penalty, and the look is great.


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[Sebscst]

7 and 8 Fuchs are not 5-6k you can easily find a set for under 2k. 9s get more pricey but unless you really need the extra rubber they look the same as the 8s the extra inch is to the inside so the wheel won’t look more “dished” good luck!

[Ayles]

I feel like your estimate of $5k for 7/8 fuchs is high. I set up an alert on craigslist and a set came up of very nice (no curb rash) 7/8s for $1600 in 2016.

[Driven97]

My 17x7 Euromeister weighed 17.6lb. That's not forged wheel light, but also not bad. I didn't measure a 17x9, but I find it hard to believe it would be 8lb more. I would expect right around 20lb.

Actually, I have a brand new unmounted 17x9 sitting in my garage, I could take it to work and measure it.

[Superman]

Originally Posted by Erbe_911

... the deep dish lip look is "out" now and concavity is all the rage.

I wish concavity were all the rage. Today's wheels seem virtually convex to me.

Originally Posted by Ayles

I feel like your estimate of $5k for 7/8 fuchs is high. I set up an alert on craigslist and a set came up of very nice (no curb rash) 7/8s for $1600 in 2016.

I cannot find deals anywhere approaching this set. I'm seeing single wheels for that price.

[Superman]

Originally Posted by Driven97

My 17x7 Euromeister weighed 17.6lb. That's not forged wheel light, but also not bad. I didn't measure a 17x9, but I find it hard to believe it would be 8lb more. I would expect right around 20lb.

Actually, I have a brand new unmounted 17x9 sitting in my garage, I could take it to work and measure it.

I'd be interested. Pelican says they're 25 lbs. Perhaps that is shipping weight.

[tirwin]

Originally Posted by Superman

I started a thread about the Euromeister wheels and learned a LOT about wheel and tire sizes, traction, fender clearance, torque loss, etc. Rather than complexify that thread further, I thought I'd start another thread about what choices we have when buying wheels.

I want them to be cool-looking. I love the deep dish look compared to today's wheels on which the centers seem flush with the rim. I love the look of Fuchs, particularly the 8s and 9s. I want them to be light. Euromeister wheels provide everything I want except the weight part. Euromeisters are 25 lbs. Higher priced wheels are ten lbs lighter.!!! The choices seem to be:

Original 6 & 7 x 16 Fuchs - Boring. Decent aesthetic but not as deep-dish as I like. It's getting harder to find 16" tires. Cost: $0.00

Fuch 7, 8 and 9 x 16 - Cool. Lighter weight. However, they are still 16" and they are made of unobtainium. Crazy prices. Cost: $5-6K

Fikse - Great wheels. Light (probably, though I have not found weight data). Not the same deep-dish Fuch aesthetic that I am looking for. Spendy. Cost: $ 5-6K or more

Others - Braid, etc. Better aesthetic than I have seen in Fikses but still not 'right.' Lighter. Cost: $5-6K

Euromeister - Nice aesthetic! Heavy. Cost: $1K

Advise me. Where can I find better options? Euromeisters have everything I need except.....weight. Where can I find a wheel with Euromeister aesthetics in a 17" wheel that will not cost several thousand dollars? Alternatively, where can I find light weight wheels, even for several thousand dollars, with the Euromeister or Fuch aesthetic? (I know about Braids)

It seems we have fairly limited choices.

I think I replied to your previous thread about Linea Corse wheels. Only sold as a set of 4 from Pelican.

[Ayles]

There are some crazy light wheels from Jongbloed and it looks like they now do a Fuchs replica in 15, 16, 17 and 18 diameters. They had a set for sale on rennlist for 2800 in 16”. I like some of their other wheels as well.

Originally Posted by Superman

I started a thread about the Euromeister wheels and learned a LOT about wheel and tire sizes, traction, fender clearance, torque loss, etc. Rather than complexify that thread further, I thought I'd start another thread about what choices we have when buying wheels.

I want them to be cool-looking. I love the deep dish look compared to today's wheels on which the centers seem flush with the rim. I love the look of Fuchs, particularly the 8s and 9s. I want them to be light. Euromeister wheels provide everything I want except the weight part. Euromeisters are 25 lbs. Higher priced wheels are ten lbs lighter.!!! The choices seem to be:

Original 6 & 7 x 16 Fuchs - Boring. Decent aesthetic but not as deep-dish as I like. It's getting harder to find 16" tires. Cost: $0.00

Fuch 7, 8 and 9 x 16 - Cool. Lighter weight. However, they are still 16" and they are made of unobtainium. Crazy prices. Cost: $5-6K

Fikse - Great wheels. Light (probably, though I have not found weight data). Not the same deep-dish Fuch aesthetic that I am looking for. Spendy. Cost: $ 5-6K or more

Others - Braid, etc. Better aesthetic than I have seen in Fikses but still not 'right.' Lighter. Cost: $5-6K

Euromeister - Nice aesthetic! Heavy. Cost: $1K

Advise me. Where can I find better options? Euromeisters have everything I need except.....weight. Where can I find a wheel with Euromeister aesthetics in a 17" wheel that will not cost several thousand dollars? Alternatively, where can I find light weight wheels, even for several thousand dollars, with the Euromeister or Fuch aesthetic? (I know about Braids)

It seems we have fairly limited choices.

Maxilites. I have them in 8 & 9 x 16. They are a bit lighter than the Euromeisters. They look very nicely made and balanced out well. Sometime this weekend I'll strap them onto my car, now that it's running again.

I'll post pictures once I get things up and running. Let me know if you want to have a look in person.

[Cevan]

Euromeisters are heavy? Compared to what? My 17x7 and 9's weighed ~18 and 20 lbs.

[darrin]

superman -- imo, there are plenty of good options available in the 205/55-16 and 225/50-16 sizes used by stock 6 and 7 inch wide fuchs (and there will be for quite some time as, unlike the 245/45-16 tire size (which is increasingly hard to come by), these were popular tire sizes for multiple cars.

One other option to consider (and very inexpensive) is adding spacers to your existing wheels so that, like many of the other wheels you're looking at, your rims will be closer to your fender lips (giving the illusion of a deeper dish wheel). Adds little weight and should be easy to sell if they don't do what you want. I haven't gone this direction (bought a set of rash-free 16x7 and 16x8 wheels for around $2k a few years ago) so can't help you with spacer width, but believe you'd be looking for around an inch in the rear, perhaps a bit less up front.

[Bill Verburg]

Originally Posted by Driven97

My 17x7 Euromeister weighed 17.6lb. That's not forged wheel light, but also not bad. I didn't measure a 17x9, but I find it hard to believe it would be 8lb more. I would expect right around 20lb.

Actually, I have a brand new unmounted 17x9 sitting in my garage, I could take it to work and measure it.

9x17 @17.6# is Forged wheel light, my 8x17 K5 Kinesis(forged 5 spoke centers) are 18#, the 9.5 are 19#

I tied to collect wheel data years ago, it's hard and often confusing w/ contradictory info
everyone's scales are a different
most are weighed w/ tires and balance weights then extrapolated to the wheel weight

But please do post what you get, I suspect many or even most of the weights published on sales web sites are shipping weights or estimates

For instance Pelican lists 15#as the weight of multiple sizes of Braid wheels, If you dig deeper there are non-credible high weights, but if these non credible weights are divided by 4 , you get credible weights for the individual wheels.

ex. Braid 17 x 9.5 in ET from -30 to +71 are listed @74#, divided by 4 and you get 18.5 which is 1.5# lighter than my forged 9.5 x17 but is at least credible as being in the ball park

[kyngfish]

I've had my car for several years now and I've had the same struggle. With the limited HP the 3.2 has, I felt like adding even a little unsprung weight was moving the wrong direction, plus, especially on the impact bumper cars, plus the 17 inch fuchs wheels look odd to me, but that's just personal preference. So here is the distillation of my knowledge on "light" options from cheapest to most expensive:

- Minilites - relatively light. You can keep Fuchs up front and only buy 2 so at like 300-400 per wheel you can spend ~800 - ~1400 and have the width and dished look. The main reason for not pulling the trigger is the cast vs forged (I think they are still light because the spokes are hollow) and because I'm not sold on them looking right for impact bumper cars. Happy to be proved wrong.

- 8x16 Fuchs - If you already have fuchs, this feels like the best option. I hardly see them at ALL anymore though. A few times last year I saw them for 1200-1500 and passed. I shouldn't have. ~1500

- BBS RS - these look good and pop up now and then for 1200 - 1500. Usually in 7 and 8. Up to you if you like the gold, but if some pop up when I'm feeling like spending the money this might be the way I ultimately go. In terms of weight/performance/look/period correct - these are a goldilocks option (IMHO) - ~1200-1500

- 15s - the 15 inch 7s and 8s Fuchs are lighter, and have a lot of "pros". I think 16 looks best on the impact bumpers, but maybe not? The narrower diameter also enhances the "dished" look. They come up now and then very affordably for the set ~1500

-Fifteen52 - their outlaw fuchs models are forged, and they have a few cast options for relatively cheap, though they aren't really my bag in terms of design. I've heard mixed reviews, but I've never seen them in the flesh. ~2800

- Fikse Fuchs - this is where things get dicey. Singer uses these and they're gorgeous. I just think 17s don't look right on cars up through the 964. ~5000

- Fikse Other - I LOVE a ton of the Fikse models for the Porsches. The FM5, FM10, I've seen on Porsches and they look fantastic. Still 17, but they're absolutely awesome, but expensive ~5000.

Honorable mentions: Gotti, Braid, Linea Corsa, Jongbloed all have wheels that fall within these price ranges, but none of them seemed particularly compelling at the price-point for me. A few of these are great for racing, but I'm looking for an all-around solution.

I've spent like 3 years occasionally obsessing over this topic, and this is pretty much all I've found. My biggest issue with the topic, is that you can get 90% or more of what the 5k Fikses will give you with the BBS, so if the delta is $3500+ what else could I do with that $3500 on my car? To me, the opportunity cost is too high. I'd rather put that into better engine components.

[Cory M]

Just buy a pair of 16x8 Fuchs and move your 7's to the front.

[Jdub]

Great to see you again Super! Though you had disappeared from this BBS with Leland and (sadly) Warren.

My 7" / 9" were not that expensive (2.5K w/ Toyos) but I agree the 8" is a fine replacement and looks the business. There really is nothing like the look of polished petals with a dull black on a set of Fuchs. Good luck and let us know how it looks (or drive up to JohnW's summer Swap Meet?).

[universeman]

I bought 16x8 Fuchs off classifieds here for $900, sent them to Rick Hart for refinishing, once he sent them to me I sent him my 7s to refinish, when I got those back I installed them and sent him my 6s.

Sounds like more of a pain than it was, I went from 6-7 to 6-8 to 7-8 in stages while driving the car the whole time. Rick does awesome work at a great price and fast turnaround.

[pampadori]

How do you feel about these Rotiform FUC's?
3 pc and forged. Whatever dish depth you want within reason.
http://www.rotiform.com/fuc-w-24777.htm

[Ayles]

Just a word of warning though, if you are hunting for 8" Fuchs for the rear don't accidentally buy the 951 part number.

[Driven97]

Looks like if you're feeling especially froggy you can get a Forgestar F14 in sizes that might fit. Wheel may look a little too modern on an impact bumper car, but that's personal preference.



You'd probably have to do some work to get an 8.5 under the front, but I have 17x9 that I made fit so it's at least possible. 17x8.5 / 17x9.5 would be a lot of meat. They're reasonably light, made to order to customer specs, and can probably scrape in under $1600 for a set of 4.

That's probably what I would try today if I got to start all over, I'd get them in bronze or gold with 225/255 Rival S 1.5s.

I hear the lead time is pretty long, like order now if you want them for next season long.