On one of barrels on my three piece ForgeLine wheels for my other car needed to be replace, It was only $450 for the barrel. They come with a warranty that covers track usage and are used in many racing classes. I haven't checked yet to see if they offer the correct bolt pattern for our cars but they say they can fit any application. Supposedly made in the US. They were not $250 a piece though.

 

Aside from the fact that most wheel failures occur from poor quality control and not so much from excessive stresses from hard driving; you're missing my main point. Most wheel manufacturers don't engineer their wheels period, much less to perform well in a crash. And HRE does that.

Wheel design is the single most important factor in the small overlap test. If the wheel doesn't crush/fracture properly, it leads to the wheel and tire being forced into the driver/passenger compartment and crushing the occupants legs. Most people will never been in an accident where this comes into play, but for those who do, design is critical. I'm personally not willing to risk it.

 

So how do you know?

Are you stuck buying HRE's the rest of your life because thats the only company that you know of that engineers their own wheels to your liking?

Do you ask companies are their wheels engineered? If they are DOT and TUV approved?

Nothing wrong with being brand loyal. I get that. I know for a fact my fragile, $8K Forgiatos wouldn't have sustained that force as seen in that picture. I dented the hoop hitting the curb parking.

I still say get the wheels you like and 99% of the time, you'll be fine.

 

I've never bought a set of HREs, but when I buy wheels it will be from them. If any companies wheels were dot approved, they would be stamped as such. That being said, a $250 wheel isn't engineered with any of these concerns in mind, that price simply isn't high enough to pay for the overhead. I don't want a 1% chance of not being fine, so I'll not be cheap.

 

No doubt! I bought some very expensive Forgiatos recently and like I said and they are the most fragile wheels I've ever owned by far. I guess I have a bitter taste in my mouth about what quality means in terms of wheels. To me because the wheels are hand made, labor intensive, three piece wheel that uses better forged aluminum and such didn't necessarily equate to being safer or any stronger for that matter. In my experience, it simply meant a very expensive repair when city roads damage them.

I seem to be very hard on wheels mostly dents and curb rash, just never had one fail entirely from driving before.

Our outlooks are entirely different.

 

If you ring up Koenigsegg they might make you some wheels from Carbon Fiber.

 

I think I've seen those wheels before and they belonged to someone on this forum. As I recall they were on a Stratus Grey R.