Rota wheels? Very interesting...

[ryansmith]

While on the search for my new wheels I stumbled accross this on another forum, it may already be posted here, remove if so.

Post #28

http://www.iwsti.com/forums/gd-tires-wheels/182933-so-rota-wheels-bad-3.html

Does anyone have solid proof Toyota use Rota wheels? I found this very interesting but you never know he may be posting photos at random, and none of this may be true.

 

[suprarx7nut]

There's a lot of unclear info there. My take is this: Rota designs their own wheels. They also use a manufacturing plant, PAWI, in the Philipines which many other brands and OEMs utilize.

Engineering, R&D, Design and testing are very different from manufacturing. Toyota may use the PAWI plant for manufacture, but I would imagine Toyota gives the plant very precise and exact directions on the manufacturing process AND Toyota does the design, research, GD&T, and testing of the products.

I very much doubt Toyota says, "Hey we need a cool 5 spoke wheel for the upcoming XXXXXX model. Rota, can you design and build a wheel for us? We'll check up in 5 weeks to pick up our new Rota wheels..."

 

[hvyman]

Ya I agree with above.

Especially rota.


There cheaper priced wheels. Nothing more nothing less. There no volks or some
Bbs enkei or something else.

 

[davidlkirby]

I've got Rota Impacts on my car, been rolling on them for 10 years now. Got them off a junkyard donor supra in 2000 i think...

 

[Canuckrz]

Type rota wheels into google images, draw your own conclusions from if Toyota would use them.

 

[#04]

^I own Rota's...

allowed me to move significant monies into the rubber column = high ends buns...


I always laugh when I see BIG dollar wheels running low dollar tires..

 

[te72]

I always laugh when I see BIG dollar wheels running low dollar tires..

I agree. You wouldn't believe how many cars I've seen on Ebay (MkIV, NSX, FD, etc) running Volks, BBS, Work, HRE, etc... and have them wrapped in Nexen or cheap Kuhmos.

NEVER understood that...

 

[Canuckrz]

Its simple really, a lot of people care about looks over performance. Same reason alot of people buy Rota's.

 

[Poodles]

While on the search for my new wheels I stumbled accross this on another forum, it may already be posted here, remove if so.

Post #28

http://www.iwsti.com/forums/gd-tires-wheels/182933-so-rota-wheels-bad-3.html

Does anyone have solid proof Toyota use Rota wheels? I found this very interesting but you never know he may be posting photos at random, and none of this may be true.

Rota is the main supplier for the OEMs in the Phillipines. Many manufacturers (including Toyota) manufacture cars in the Phillipines...

There's a lot of unclear info there. My take is this: Rota designs their own wheels. They also use a manufacturing plant, PAWI, in the Philipines which many other brands and OEMs utilize.

Engineering, R&D, Design and testing are very different from manufacturing. Toyota may use the PAWI plant for manufacture, but I would imagine Toyota gives the plant very precise and exact directions on the manufacturing process AND Toyota does the design, research, GD&T, and testing of the products.

I very much doubt Toyota says, "Hey we need a cool 5 spoke wheel for the upcoming XXXXXX model. Rota, can you design and build a wheel for us? We'll check up in 5 weeks to pick up our new Rota wheels..."

PAWI = Rota. They make and design wheels for the OEM and aftermarket.

Type rota wheels into google images, draw your own conclusions from if Toyota would use them.

Cheap wheels = more people buying them (especially idiot ricers) = more broken wheels. There's nothing wrong with Rota besides idiot owners going beyond their specifications (i.e. hitting shit)

 

[#04]

Its simple really, a lot of people care about looks over performance. Same reason alot of people buy Rota's.

^what?... my rota's perform perfectly, they are round and keep the air in the tire.... and they cost about 1/4 and have 1/8 delivery time if I bitch one... than a work etc..

 

[shipkiller]

rotas are fine. People are mad because they paid big money for "brand" wheels and they got to justify it by rumors that rotas are junk. While they are cheaply made, they have been known to resist normal abuse fairly well

 

[destrux]

Normal abuse yes, but if you are road racing where you might go off into some rough ground at high speed it's worth spending the money on forged wheels so that you don't break a wheel and damage the car worse.

OEM wheels are not always the highest quality wheel anyway. I'd put Rota right in line with OEM wheels as far as durability goes. I've broken OEM wheels before. They are not as good as a forged aftermarket wheel. I don't see switching from OEM wheels to Rota's or Drag's or any other name brand aftermarket cast wheel as a downgrade. Unless your OEM wheels are forged which is the case on some cars, the optional wheels on the Mazdaspeed3 are forged BBS, same with the STI and Evo.

The roads around here are very poor, and I've hit some big potholes with my Drag DR-31 wheels and have not bent or cracked them at all. I have Sport Edition F2 wheels on my Mazda, and haven't damaged those either (despite popping some tires thank to water filled ninja potholes).

I wouldn't buy wheels with no brand name though, or a name I've never heard of, like the ones you see on ebay for $300 a set. God knows they're probably made of zinc.

Cheap tires are much worse than cheap wheels... I HATE those no-name budget tires. If you're building a car for performance why put a low performance tire on there? You don't have to buy Michellins or Pirellis or whatever, but at least get some of the better Falken or Kumho tires (not the budget Falkens or Kumhos, there IS a difference).

 

[te72]

Here's another thing to ask yourself guys:

Brand Y forged wheel, 17x8 weighs how much? Now, what does knockoff brand X, 17x8 weighs how much?

I'd kick somebody's grandmother for a set of forged magnesium wheels for the widebody...

 

[ryansmith]

I am not taking sides, as I have never bought a set of after market wheels, that read was very interesting though.

So really if your looking for quality they should be forged your saying?

What about XXR wheels? I thought they were sportmax wheels? any opinions

 

[Poodles]

Normal abuse yes, but if you are road racing where you might go off into some rough ground at high speed it's worth spending the money on forged wheels so that you don't break a wheel and damage the car worse.

OEM wheels are not always the highest quality wheel anyway. I'd put Rota right in line with OEM wheels as far as durability goes. I've broken OEM wheels before. They are not as good as a forged aftermarket wheel. I don't see switching from OEM wheels to Rota's or Drag's or any other name brand aftermarket cast wheel as a downgrade. Unless your OEM wheels are forged which is the case on some cars, the optional wheels on the Mazdaspeed3 are forged BBS, same with the STI and Evo.

The roads around here are very poor, and I've hit some big potholes with my Drag DR-31 wheels and have not bent or cracked them at all. I have Sport Edition F2 wheels on my Mazda, and haven't damaged those either (despite popping some tires thank to water filled ninja potholes).

I wouldn't buy wheels with no brand name though, or a name I've never heard of, like the ones you see on ebay for $300 a set. God knows they're probably made of zinc.

Cheap tires are much worse than cheap wheels... I HATE those no-name budget tires. If you're building a car for performance why put a low performance tire on there? You don't have to buy Michellins or Pirellis or whatever, but at least get some of the better Falken or Kumho tires (not the budget Falkens or Kumhos, there IS a difference).

See, the issue is the design of the wheel and not the wheel itself. Go look at what rally cars use for wheels design wise and then see the kids bitching about their thin spoke Rotas breaking when they drive off into a ditch at speed.

Here's another thing to ask yourself guys:

Brand Y forged wheel, 17x8 weighs how much? Now, what does knockoff brand X, 17x8 weighs how much?

I'd kick somebody's grandmother for a set of forged magnesium wheels for the widebody...

Well, the thing is, who's really doing the "knock off" at this point? :rofl: I've seen the big expensive companies making forged wheels that are knock offs of someone else's original wheel. They all steal styles from eachother.

Forged wheels tend to be lighter, but design of the wheel also comes into play. Also, unless you're racing, paying 10x as much money for a wheel to lose only a small amount of weight is bonkers IMHO.

Oh, and I've lifted a forged magnesium F1 wheel....it's spooky light and I swear it would be heavier if it was made of plastic...

I am not taking sides, as I have never bought a set of after market wheels, that read was very interesting though.

So really if your looking for quality they should be forged your saying?

What about XXR wheels? I thought they were sportmax wheels? any opinions

Vast majority of wheels aren't forged, and even forged wheels will break if abused.

Yes, XXR = Sportmax, and they're fine, if a bit heavy

 

[destrux]

I didn't realize rally wheels weren't always forged. I thought they all were. It seems that only about 10% of them are though. I guess building them to break before other parts of the car makes sense though. It's easier to replace a bent wheel after a crash than a messed up hub.


I think making a cast replica of a forged wheel is where some companies cause problems for themselves. You can't just take something and change what it's made out of to a weaker material and assume it will be fine.

I still think forged wheels are the safest bet for track use though. You have a much lower chance of needing a tow truck if you go off track. I suppose you could research and buy a set of cast wheels with a reputation for strength, but they're likely to be expensive or very heavy. You can get MAT roll forged wheels in the $250/ea range, and high end cast wheels are about the same price.

 

[hvyman]

My xxr 521 18x10 weighs I think 21-22lbs. Nothing special but they do the job. Same thing in a te37 would weigh like 15lbs tho.

 

[mytmk3]

My xxr 521 18x10 weighs I think 21-22lbs. Nothing special but they do the job. Same thing in a te37 would weigh like 15lbs tho.

My rota gtr-d's are 18x10 are about 24 lbs and the 18x12's are about 26 lbs not exactly light but I swear my 17x9 2 piece racinghart's weighed more than my 12's if not the same

 

[Typhoon]

I always laugh at the price people will pay for fashion statement wheels.
At the end of the day, pretty much all aluminium wheels are die cast in some way. Tooling costs and production costs are identical over any type of wheel made this way. Die casting plants are huge and expensive to set up, so most wheel manufacturers subcontract out at the very least, the casting of their wheel blanks to one of these factories. Due to the precise nature of die casting, simply weighing finished blanks is a very good method of testing, if the weight is off, so it the casting.
Die casting is a very exact and well refined process capable or pumping out high numbers of parts very accurately and with very low rejection rates. If a wheel fails, there is always something more than manufacturing error to the story.

 

[ryansmith]

Talking to the old man, he agrees that there is a difference between forging and casting which is obvious. Forged pistons for example are more sort after and expensive than cast ones however with wheels he reckons it comes down to the density of the material being used in a similar way that there have been issues with porous aluminium cylinder heads and he reckons that if the density of the material is of a good standard and the casting is done correctly there should be no problems with cast aloy wheels. In the old days when they were perfecting cast aloy wheels they couldnt quite get this right and many old aloy wheels of good quality have steel inserts around the stud holes to strengthin them at this point. He has a set of mid 80s ronal wheels which have these inserts and now these dont seem to be fitted in modern wheels because they have overcome the quality problems they had back in the old days.