- I had to prepare for this one.
It's been a long time since we've done one of these videos,
and I personally have never done one of these videos.
And you know, we just decided to pick
one of the biggest name brands in after-market wheels
to just throw on old Gels here.
But you know what, we got the information,
we sat down, we took the time, we got the scripts reviewed,
we're good to go.
That's right, ladies and gentlemen, we are here,
Fitment Industries, Gels from Fitment Industries,
and we are here back with another truth about wheel history.
And today we are gonna be talking about
none other then HRE Wheels.
Now before we go ahead and get into it,
don't forget to subscribe.
And if you're looking for anything wheels, tires
or suspension, don't forget to hit up fitmentindustries.com.
And it just so happens that we are doing a giveaway
right now with HRE FlowForm Wheels, Michelin Tires
and Function & Form Air Suspension.
I'm wearing one of the shirts right here.
You pick up one of these long-sleeve shirts,
a green long-sleeve, a T-shirt or a jacket.
Every $5 is an entry to win.
That is the spiel,
let's go ahead and get right into the history of HRE Wheels.
The story begins in the year 1978 in, of course,
none other than southern California.
The '80s were just around the corner,
domestic cars of the time were under attack by the EPA,
and low-riders were literally just everywhere.
However, there was something interesting happening
with the US automotive scene.
With the US market being flooded with big V-8 cars
with a ton of emission control,
people started to look for something different.
They were getting tired of the big boats
and were ready for something new.
Luckily for us, we started to get more and more
imported cars into the States in the '70s and into the '80s.
And in fact, by 1975, Toyota was the top import brand
in the United States.
A ton of people fell in love with these cars.
They were smaller, they were sleeker, they were more nimble,
and offered a much-needed refresh to the automotive market.
There was some big changes coming to the scene,
and there was a man, and he saw
all the Japanese cars coming into the United States
and saw what people were doing with these cars,
and he kind of realized something.
They were going to need wheels for these cars.
In 1978 Gene Howell founded HRE Wheels,
which started originally as the US distributor
for a Japanese wheel company known as Hayashi Racing.
It wasn't too much further down the road that HRE
started developing and selling their own line of wheels.
And in 1980, that was primarily targeted for Autocross
and amateur racing teams.
HRE began manufacturing some of the first multi-piece wheels
made right here in the good old US of A.
And throughout the next decade,
introduced some killer wheels to the world,
such as the HRE 505 and the 525,
which are such iconic wheels to this day.
And they've even kind of done a retro kickback
in their new line of wheels.
In 1993, HRE was purchased by the current owners
that own it today,
and the company went through some restructuring.
Soon after, Gene Howell departed from HRE.
However, all was not lost.
With the introduction of new management,
it introduced a gentleman by the name of Alan Peltier.
Alan, who was originally from Northrop Grumman,
came onboard with HRE in 1999
as the lead engineer for HRE Wheels.
The original intentions of manufacturing wheels
for the Autocross and the amateur racing teams
eventually switched focus to offer exclusive,
high-quality custom wheels across multiple markets.
By the year 2009, Alan was promoted to the President
of HRE Wheels, and today sits as the CEO of HRE Wheels.
His intention was to build the most trusted team
in the after-market wheel industry,
with the goal of making HRE Wheels the most respected
and most innovative wheel company in the world.
This really set the pace for HRE and put them on track
to accomplish some absolutely extraordinary goals
in the near future.
And HRE was doing some pretty crazy stuff.
Now, remember, we're talking about the early 2000s.
It was a different time back then.
We've all seen Fast and Furious, all right.
I mean, we're talking about things like spinners.
Yes, spinners.
In fact, early 2000s, HRE was a private-label manufacturer
for the very first Davin spinner wheels.
And before you judge, I dare you to pull up
your Need for Speed: Underground saved file
and tell me that you didn't have spinners
on at least like 90% of the vehicles sitting in your garage.
But in all honesty, HRE was doing incredible things.
And their wheels were being represented
on some very iconic cars,
which included pretty much everything
from a Ferrari F40 that was featured in a Mothers commercial
to the cars in The Fast and the Furious.
Let's take it back.
The year 2003, the first time you saw
the silver and blue Nissan R34 Skyline GTR
flying over the bridge, with the blue underglow,
Act a Fool was blasting in the background.
You can't tell me that that scene didn't have an impact
on your life in one way or another.
Either way, that GTR, Brian's GTR,
was rocking some HRE 446 wheels.
In fact, there were a few cars
in the Fast and Furious franchise that rocked HREs,
including the Gallardo Superleggera and the Ice Charger
from the Fate of the Furious.
In fact, even Bumblebee had some HREs
in the 2017 Transformers movie.
In 2006, HRE introduced their line
of forged one-piece wheels,
which back in 2006, was not very common at all.
And this set the pace for one-piece forged wheels
to become the norm, like the standard,
in high-end after-market wheels.
2009 saw partnership with Dymag carbon
to produce two styles of carbon barrel wheels,
the HRE CF40 and the CF43.
HRE was just doing like amazing stuff,
and this grabbed the attention of a ton of enthusiasts.
They had people like Vaugh Gitten Jr.,
winner of the Formula D championship,
running HRE wheels on his car in 2010.
A year later, the first sub-ten-minute world record
at Pikes Peak of a time of nine minutes, 51.28 seconds
was achieved by, and I'm so sorry,
I'm gonna butcher this name, Nobuhiro Monster Tajima,
which, you guessed it, was running HRE wheels.
Even though HRE switched focus in the early 2000s,
they never sacrificed the performance
that their wheels offered.
And they continue to set record after record after record,
all while offering incredible multi-piece
and single-piece forged wheels to the public.
Now, you may or may know or recall
that there are some wheel companies out there
that are very well-known for their after-market wheels,
but also provide OEM wheels to car manufacturers.
Companies such as ENKEI and BBS
are some of the more well-known brands that do this.
HRE also has some heritage in OEM applications, as well.
However, these aren't your average applications.
We're talking about cars like the Gumpert Apollo,
the Saleen S7, the Zenvo TSR-S,
and even provided the test and show wheels
for the 2016 Acura MSX, Tesla, just to name a few.
They were just literally doing it all.
So, we had the multi-piece, we had the single-piece forged,
and we had the Motorsports, and we had OEM applications.
You know, what could possibly be next?
Well, they had an answer for that.
In 2012, HRE launched FlowForm,
with their first wheel being the FlowForm FF01.
The FF01 is a FlowForm cast wheel made in Japan,
and was offered at a much lower price
compared to HRE's other wheels.
Today we see FlowForm
offering five different styles of wheels,
including the FF01 still, the FF15,
the 04, the FF10, and the FF11.
And they are continuing to grow and are expanding them
even into Taiwan, as well.
HRE Wheels is a name that you may not know a ton about,
you have definitely known of them.
Whether through movies, TV shows, or even video games
like Forza, Need for Speed and CSR2.
And you even may remember recently too,
when they kind of blew up the internet
with the announcement of the world's first
3D-printed titanium wheel, the HRE3D+,
which was a collaboration with GE Additive.
I remember that being all over my feed, being tagged in it,
24/7 answering DMs if we were gonna be able
to get it in-house and review it.
And they did it not once, but twice,
with a V1 and V2 version.
So, here we are today.
HRE still continues to make all of their forged wheels
right in Vista, California.
Not Switzerland, I know, surprised me too.
But what's next for HRE Wheels?
Well, when we reached out and let them know
that we were interested in making this video,
we asked that exact question.
They responded that they are looking
to continue providing improvement in the quality
in their internal processes to make sure
that their customers are receiving the absolute best
out of their wheels.
They're also looking into new materials
and manufacturing methods,
which, if we can expect anything
like the 3D-printed titanium wheels,
it's gonna be very impressive.
With 40 employees as of right now,
we have absolutely no doubt that they will continue
to provide the culture, the trust, the quality
and the innovation that they have become known for.
So, there you have it, all the information about HRE Wheels
that you probably would ever need to know.
So, that's what we're here for,
to get you guys that information.
We enjoy doing these videos so, so much.
So thank you guys so much for watching.
If you like the video, please drop a like and a comment.
It helps us out an absolute ton, and of course,
don't forget to subscribe.
Again, don't forget we have a giveaway going on right now
with HRE FlowForm Wheels that we just talked about,
Michelin Tires and Function & Form Air Suspension.
Fitmentindustries.com, go check it out.
You can check in the description below.
I'm Gels from Fitment Industries.
We'll see you later, peace.