- Hey guys, what's going on?
It's Alex, Alex.fi on Instagram.
Today, we're taking a look at some wheel unboxings,
but we're actually very excited,
it's a little bit different than what we're used to
because I'm gonna bend over
and hopefully the microphone doesn't freak out.
(microphone static) Oh wow, yep.
Is it better now?
We're just not going to bend over.
These wheels are from Variant.
Ow!
Variant, ow!
The cat claws hurt.
Variant Alloy Wheels.
If you haven't heard of Variant Wheels,
it's a little bit of a newer brand
that's really jumping in
and focusing on some bigger wheel sizes,
some very unique stuff.
They're using cold forging technology,
which is their version of flow form
to create some lightweight, good-looking wheels,
specifically focusing on some
of like the wider application setups.
So specifically, these two wheels that we're going
to be unboxing today are actually from Mario's R35,
and then an R8, which is mine,
which I'll be very, very excited to actually take a look,
because what Variant can do is
it has actually a couple like quirks and features
that make it really interesting.
Number one is the fact that you can actually build these
in a super wide range of offsets,
because Variant can actually go
and like trim down the back pad
to get whatever offset that you want,
which means that the fitments can be built in
to whatever you would like.
This is actually a very neat tool.
I don't know why they gave me this.
I don't know why they trust me with this.
So we're going to unbox one wheel for my car,
one wheel for Mario's car,
which is what we're super stoked about,
and then we're going to run these bad boys all year round.
We're actually going to run them through the winter time.
We're going to daily drive on them.
We're actually going to see how good they hold up,
how much we like them,
all that sort of good stuff, which makes me very excited.
So to start it off, they give you a bunch of stuff.
They give you a little license plate bracket,
which is pretty exciting.
They actually just talked about a video, where you probably,
you get pulled over in like Pennsylvania
for having this, but in Wisconsin they do not care.
Mostly because they're probably too cold
to actually get out of their car.
And then, ooh, ooh, ooh,
there's some stickers in there.
You get your invoice.
I don't really care about that too much.
(deep inhale)
Oh my goodness.
(deep inhale)
Mm, that smells so good.
(deep inhale)
Oh, that's great.
That's good stuff.
All right.
So we're going to be on boxing two,
the Argons and the Xenons.
So this is actually the Argon,
and this is, ooh they actually put it in there for me,
the 20 x 11, we actually got an ET,
so an offset of 26,
and then it's, let's see, 27 pounds, 27.05 pounds.
And then this is the mirror polished center cap insert.
I'm very excited.
This is the brushed titanium finish too.
So, it said that there were additional parts inside.
There are additional parts inside,
and what's inside are some hub centric rings.
So, thank you Variant for sending us those
because that can be a pain in the butt
when it comes to putting on the car.
Okay, let's do this.
There's the side profile
which already gets me really excited.
That finish looks nuts.
And then you actually have some backpad carving
in the back here, which is actually really nice.
I'm very excited about this.
The spoke has a lot of backpad carving as well,
which is very, I'm just trying not to move
because apparently the microphone's going to freak out.
All right.
So on three, we're going to take this off.
I'm very excited.
Hopefully you are too.
One, two, three.
(upbeat music)
Cool, so here are the wheels.
These are going on the R8 and I am very, very excited.
So these are the brushed titanium's,
these are the Argon's,
they wrap the lip,
which is actually very, very nice,
so that you don't have to worry
about any sort of what they call box rash.
It happens very often with wheels
because you got cardboard that kind of just brushes
up on it for, you know, wherever it comes from.
And so to have this is actually really, really nice.
And I am doing a terrible job at peeling all of this off,
but I don't really care.
Let's take a look.
A little bit about the features of the wheel,
which makes me very excited.
Number one, got some sick concavity,
which is actually really nice.
I know it's a little bit of a different size
for the fitment of the car,
but I'm really excited to see actually a little bit
of concavity.
Number two, the finish is nuts.
I love this finish.
It's a super clean, very consistent finish
across the actual barrel,
and the lip, and the spokes,
and the side of the spokes, which is really nice to see.
Definitely took their time with actually going
through the whole wheel to brush it up
as much as humanly possible.
A couple other little notes that I like about it
that make it different.
We talked about how I think people
have been really getting aggressive
with their stamping on wheels,
and I'm not sure I'm a super big fan of that,
but they do a really good job at making very small,
very kind of minimalistic looks
to show that it's JWL VIA certified.
It's got the Variant logo.
It looks super, super clean.
And it's honestly just a really,
kind of like a liquid finish on the wheel.
You've got this like recessed point
behind the spoke, which just is a nice little touch
to give it a little bit more depth.
And then on the backside
you also have the sticker for Variant,
which is something that you really don't see anymore.
It says 20 x 11.
You get your offset, ET26, which would be nice.
You know, if you hang on to a wheel for decades,
sometimes it's really cool to just know what it is.
These are one of those wheels
that I don't think are going to go away.
Probably one of my favorite designs
is the thinner multi-spoke ties.
It's just a good look for anything.
And then finally, last but not least,
if you notice this, a lot of like the more VIP style wheels,
and the things that are going on
like sportier applications, bigger wheels,
have a tendency to where the spoke design
will go all the way to the out of the lip.
So you can actually see that it extends out to here.
And then you have the outer lip.
It re-cuts in right here,
and then you have your dive back.
So, just kind of a nice touch to make it look
a little bit bigger than it actually is.
This is a 20 inch diameter wheel.
It's 11 inches wide.
And then the offset is 26.
So it's a plus 26,
which means from the center of the wheel,
the actual mounting hub is 26 millimeters towards the front.
So, super clean looking wheel.
I don't even care what Mario's looks like
because I feel like mine just so much cooler.
I am going to see if I can put in
maybe one center cap on camera.
Oh, it's gone!
Oh my Lord.
Oh yeah.
So Variant does this thing
where you can actually put the Variant like logo
or the lettering in the center cap, if you so choose to,
which is a super like cool little touch.
And I love the color that they chose.
That blue is actually really nice color.
Then here's the actual cap itself, which is really nice.
Let's see if I can plug and play it in.
I don't know if I'm going to be able to,
but let's give it a shot.
Oh gosh.
Oh no.
Oh, oh!
I rate that installation an eight out of 10.
So, the center cap was actually super easy to install,
which is actually kind of shocking,
and I really love the way
that it kind of all pulls together.
The lettering is going to be something that I will install.
I'm not doing it right now.
Just kidding, I am.
I'm, I can't make a decision.
I can't do it.
We will wait and we will see, all right?
Stop pressuring me.
So now that we've got the actual Argon's unboxed,
it's 20 x 11, I'm pretty excited about that.
You guys can go and take a look at these if you want,
it's on fitmentindustries.com, plug.
And now we're going to look at Mario's,
at his Variant Alloy cold forged,
all right, cold forged, Xenon.
So really just an overall solid wheel.
You've got a really good finish.
You got good concavity.
It looks solid.
The packaging was awesome.
You get a bunch of goodies.
And on top of that, you get a flow form barrel
which is going to make it as light as humanly possible,
without it being fully forged.
All right, next up is Mario's,
calm down, Mario and his Xenon's.
All right, so I actually took this out by accident.
Don't tell him, I already sniffed his one too.
Oh, that smells really good.
He has his one, his wheel too.
So they actually do individual,
they did individual air fresheners to the wheel.
It's the small things that matter
and that is just so neat.
All right, let's take a look at the Xenon.
Now these, this is a different finish.
This is the satin,
or I think they're calling it the Satin Gun Metal.
So this is a Satin Gun Metal finish.
This one looks really good too.
And this one already has a center cap.
(upbeat music)
Here is Mario's Variant cold forged Xenon's
in a 20 x 11.
And I believe we're looking at an offset of right around 15.
So that's pretty nuts.
So we're looking at a 28.4 pound wheel,
cold forged through the barrel.
You've got a lot of concavity coming out there
as much of the backpad is carved out as you possibly can.
But then also with GTR's, you do have the unique thing
of dealing with a lot of clearance issues.
So, they maximize the clearance to make sure
that at least you can get as much clearance
as possible without losing the concavity.
Now the double five spoke is a really,
like I don't think it's anything super duper crazy.
It's not like blowing the world out by any proportions,
but it's a very well done design.
And there's a lot of little details.
Again, you have the VA over here
you've got the JWL and the VIA stamping here.
You've got a really nice flow of color.
The color to the center cap matches really well.
You've got some nice, like indentation
on the double five spoke,
which just gives it a little bit more depth.
And this is one of those designs
where I think it compliments the look of the car
versus trying to like outperform or outlook the car
that it would go on.
So I think it's going to compliment the GTR super,
super well.
I love how it kind of just kind of fades away
once you get closer to the edge of the wheel.
You do have the spoke going all the way
to the edge of the wheel as well,
which is going to give it that bigger look we've talked
about in the past, and just, it's a super clean design.
The paint is really well done.
The finish is really well done.
I prefer the brushed finish.
I just think it's a little bit of a cooler look,
but that's not to say that they didn't do a good job
on this finish as well.
It's just literally personal preference,
and I just like my preference more than Mario's.
The Variant Argon and the Xenon
are super good looking wheels.
And I'm going to actually put them both up here.
Both of these wheels are absolutely stunners.
And when you actually look at it,
it's kind of interesting to see how the offset
and the design plays into it,
especially with the clearance for an Audi,
and a clearance for a GTR, which is really, really neat.
I absolutely love these designs.
I think Variant did a fantastic job.
I'm super stoked that we both get to run these
pretty much all winter long.
We're going to see how they hold up.
I think the brushing is actually gonna look super cool
once we get some snow falling around here
in the good old Wisconsin winters.
And of course, you know at the end of the day,
they're both beautiful designs,
but let us know what you think.
You know, these are both flow form.
They're both different finishes.
They're both different designs,
but they come in different finishes,
the bronze, and they come in black,
and they come in all different sizes and offsets.
So they're really trying to capitalize on options
for you without jumping into the forged wheel market
and the prices that you're going to pay for that.
So check us out, let us know what you think.
Fitmentindustries.com.
You can check out Variant wheels there.
Variant, thank you guys so much for hooking us up on these.
Really excited to get these on the cars,
see what they look like, see how they perform,
and of course, maybe get some nice,
get some nice tires on them,
slam it on the ground and see just how everything pans out.
Let us know what you think about the wheels below.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries
and we will see you later.
Peace.