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BEYOND BY LEXUS has a detailed story on BBS Wheels, the company responsible for the wheels found on the high-performance Lexus vehicle lineup:
At the Takaoka plant, craftspeople are running through the motions of making a one-piece Lexus wheel. A round piece of aluminum billet is heated to about 480 degrees Celsius (896 degrees Fahrenheit) and placed into a large hydraulic press, as tall, it seems, as a three-story office building.
The machine drops 9,000 metric tons of pressure onto the billet, pressing the aluminum into a mold.
For wheels on the Lexus IS F, RC F, and LS F Sport, there are additional steps in the manufacturing process. The general manager of the OEM Sales Department, Akihisa Miyoshi, explains how “after these wheels are painted, they undergo either a partial buffing or diamond cutting process.” The partial buffing process is executed by an outside specialist, he says, who buffs part of the spoke “to create a samurai sword-like shape and finish to the metal.”
Yup! And that one of the very reasons why I decided to get an F-Sport. I had the 20" Wald Streifens that were forged from an 8,000 ton press and those wheels could take a beating from all the pot holes around my city. There were times that I'd literally pull over on the side of the road to get out of my and make sure I didn't crack a wheel and was surprised to find out there wasn't even a tiny scratch! Much happier to hear these are from a 9,000 ton press.
Yeah, forged wheels are EXPENSIVE, but extremely light and very strong.
HRE forged wheels run on the order of $1500 to $2000 a piece. Incidentally, most forged wheels by these brands are built in their native country as well, be it Europe or here in the states, which might also explain the higher costs in addition to the high-costs of forging itself. I know Vossen forged are done here in the United States as with others like Forgestar I think.
However, most of these top-shelf brands who do other types of manufacturing, like flow-form or cast, do so overseas. Vossen, for example, has all of their flow-forms done in Taiwan or some other asian country. HRE offers two flow-form wheels that cost on the order of $600 to $700 a piece depending on finish and I think these are also built overseas.
I would love to own a set of HRE forged wheels, but frankly, it would be overkill. HOWEVER, the HRE forged wheels offer much more finishes versus their flow-formed, notably the Bronze, which looks really nice. I'm in contact with HRE's authorized dealer, which is in Los Angeles and asking about their flow-formed wheels right now, as we speak. I really want the flow-form in that Bronze. Looks awesome and would look great on my car. The closest color they have in the flow-form is an IPA, which is a dark brown, but nothing like that Bronze. Me want, lol, but do I want to spend $1800 a wheel versus a dark brown $700?
01-22-16, 07:48 PM
Interesting Facts on the LS F-Sport Wheels
