- What do a 47 year old wheel company,
the Lamborghini behind me, and the lunch that I just had
all have in common?
Well, they all have questionable history.
What did I have for lunch?
(upbeat music)
So, just so you guys know, we're giving away
a beanie, a sweatshirt, and a sticker for anybody
that subscribes on YouTube,
or shares and likes the video on Facebook.
That is the entire sales pitch for this entire video.
Boom.
♪ Don't want time for them to miss me ♪
♪ Yes I see the things that they wishing on me ♪
- So in 1971 a new wheel company was born.
Speed Star Racing.
Or, Speed Star Racing Wheels.
They were, without a doubt,
probably one of the first Japanese wheel companies to
specialize in aftermarket design wheels.
They didn't start in the game really making anything else,
besides aftermarket wheels,
and they pride themselves on being the first company
to make multi-piece wheels.
And you're gonna see, in all of our wheel history videos,
it seems like any company in Japan or any company in Europe,
seems to be the first at making multi-piece wheels.
It's not true.
Weds made the first forged multi-piece in 1977.
BBS made their first multi-piece motor sports wheel in 1972.
And Work Wheels didn't make their first multi-piece wheel
until 1977.
So, SSR has the multi-piece wheel pretty much on lock,
in 1971 with the MK1.
The MK1 was made out of their Yao factory in Japan,
and they pretty much said to themselves they wanted to
go from something that just functioned,
to something that had a little bit of form to it.
So, what was SSR's motto?
Well, that was simple.
To change history and tradition to safety and trust.
So there goal was simple from the get-go,
To make the wheels that just looked good.
The MK1 was probably one of the best looking wheels,
at the time.
And you have to remember in 1971,
and the early '70's,
there was a huge demand for aftermarket wheels.
The JWL and VI8 shortly came thereafter,
to actually regulate the market.
I keep saying actually, if I say actually again,
I'm gonna take a shot for every video that I do,
in the next wheel history.
- Two shots of vodka.
- I'll be drunk.
So, when did they come over to the States?
Well, they state that they came over to the United States
in 1985, but that really doesn't matter.
Most of SSR's history is overseas,
and maintains to be overseas,
and they do not have a strong market share here,
in the United States.
SSR is a brand that just really doesn't focus
on the domestic market here.
As always SSR as well as a lot of other Japanese
wheel brands got immediately involved in motor sports,
and became killing it when it came down to the actual
Grand Touring and Grand cup events that were happening,
all across the country.
They've won countless Grand championships, trophies,
throughout the last three or four decades, in fact,
where they've just been killing it,
when it comes down to partnering with a bunch of
different companies.
In 2006 they partnered with Chris Forsberg,
they partnered with countless other US drifters,
and international drifters, to establish their name,
into the scene, and it was really going well,
all the way until they declared bankruptcy.
- Oh!
- They became the sponsored wheel company
from Mugen CR-Z, for the Super GT 300,
they sponsored team Real Racing, they sponsored team
Kunimutzo and the Rehberg NSX Concept GT in 2014,
The sponsored Chris Forsberg again in the 2014 Formula
Drift Championship series.
They've pretty much done everything.
So besides the basic JWL VI8 testing,
SSR does do their own additional testing,
impact bending test, rotary bending test.
You're gonna see a lot of those companies come standard,
with the same sort of testing that you're gonna see from
Work, Rays, companies that are based overseas,
they have that same stringent testing,
they do take pride in that.
So they use heat treatment manufacturing, or HTM for short,
on all of their wheels.
SSR essentially goes through their wheels,
whether its a one, monoblock, two-piece, hybrid,
or a three-piece wheel, and re-heat treat it a second time.
What that allows it to do is burn the impurities,
and actually make it a stronger wheel,
because it's forcing more pressure on to the wheel
a second time, to clean up any sort of problems that would
have gone through within the first heat treatment cycle.
They also have a hybrid two-piece design,
which combines that HTM technology,
and what we call SSF, which is semi-solid forging material.
So, semi-solid forging is a technique used by SSR in 1991.
They're the only ones to use it,
their coined in the phrase of semi-solid forging.
And what that does, is they use a semi-molded aluminum alloy
that's actually cooling down,
and prior to injecting it, they treat it,
and what that allows them to do is
to apply an immense amount of pressure.
So, this isn't rotary pressure,
but it's actually just overall pressure,
into the injection mold that helps maintain a high-integrity
of strength, durability, and quality.
What this allows them to do is maintain a low-price point,
even though SSR's price point is extremely high.
So that you don't have to worry about paying
a fully-forged price or a multi-piece price,
for something that is semi-solid forged.
Now, it's not the same as rotary forged.
Rotary forged, as we discussed in the past,
they take these discs at a high rate of pressure,
they smooth it out, like warm butter,
on a nice, toasty piece of bread.
And then that's how you get the forged barrel.
That's not the case with SSF.
Semi-solid forging essentially maintains
an integrity wheel, that while it's cooling down,
it forms the shape at a high rate of pressure,
all at the same time.
So there's no spinning really involved,
more than there is just absolute pressure
surrounding the wheel.
That's pretty much it.
They don't claim a whole lot of safety engineering testing
is done on their website, unfortunately.
But, we know that they do take care of their wheels,
because their price point is absolutely insane.
SSR also builds wheels with BBK.
Big brake kit.
In mind, so that you can make sure that if you're getting
something that has a Lexus VIP look,
you're always gonna have brake clearance
in all of their wheels.
A lot of their wheels either spoke outward,
or they have a lot of concavity,
to fit those bigger brake kits that you're gonna see
on a lot of higher-end vehicles.
And, in all, SSR shares the same mentality as Rays, as Work.
Because they share a lot of their racing motor sports
experience with their commercial line.
So they don't separate the two businesses at all,
that's why you're gonna see a lot of new designs come out
from SSR that are very similar to what they ran in the
Super GT 500 series the year prior or two years prior.
Because they do not allow their company
to be confused with politics.
And allow racing to not be the same as commercial,
or the commercial not be the same as racing.
So SSR just clears the playing field, just like Rays does,
and says you know what (bleep) it,
here's all the data that we have,
from all of our racing,
design, all of our heat treatment, all of that stuff,
so that you guys can go make your wheels.
And they make some pretty cool wheels.
So, they have a crimped rim,
which allows the rim to fold back inward,
back into the wheel, to allow it to maintain integrity.
They also feature anti-slip technology,
between the wheel and the tire,
to help maintain that beads don't break off
when you're racing them across the street.
They also feature a ton of stuff that helps maintain
the overall heat dispersion, from the front of the wheel,
to the back of the wheel.
They also talk about zero offset,
and maintaining center line on a lot of their wheels.
They have a bunch of fancy stuff, which really matters.
But nine times out of 10,
SSR wheels really don't go on those sort of vehicles,
they tend to go on the stance vehicles.
Sorry.
So the current line up features:
one-piece, two-piece, two-piece hybrid,
and three-piece wheels.
Their GTX and GTV lineup are flow-formed wheels.
They also feature a two-piece hybrid wheel,
which is essentially a centerpiece,
welded onto a barrel.
The barrel features rimless, rimless...
Rimless technology,
which just allows to maintain any sort of integrity,
with the wheel so you don't have any weak points
in the weld.
So SSR tries to create customization options
that don't lower the overall strength of the wheel,
cause the last thing you want is to be driving down the road
and your face is on your wheel,
but then the rest of your wheel is
over in the ditch.
The best reason SSR does that is
because they want to maintain the creativity side
of their brand.
SSR prides itself on being able to do creative designs,
different looks, and things like that.
Which you cannot usually do
with a fully forged or rotary forged wheel.
Unfortunately, that's just the way that
the wheels are processed.
But SSR, with their semi-solid forging,
allows them to do that,
so they don't have to worry about wheels breaking,
and they can also make sure that their designs
look (bleep)ing dope.
Their GTF model is a forged mono-block,
but honestly, my favorite is the Professor series.
It's probably why you guys know SSR.
Their wheels are killer looking.
Absolutely beautiful.
A set of Professor SP1s, 18 by 11 and a half,
will probably run you about $3,900, in their hyper block.
Insanely expensive, right?
But at least you can tell your friends on social media
that their not fake.
- [Woman] Does it look real?
(girl screams)
- Their Professor series features
different parts of their multi-piece wheel lineup.
Depending on which piece you're buying,
they actually don't, their not made from the same
aluminum alloy, as you would expect.
So the face is made from a different aluminum alloy
than the barrel, which is made from a different aluminum
alloy than, lets say, well I should say,
the hoops, than the center discs, than the rivets,
than any sort of welding material.
Pretty much, they make it extremely difficult,
which is why you are paying to own one.
Oh, and they have the Executor series,
which sounds badass, but their wheels, eh,
not a huge fan, that's just me.
Don't shoot me, don't kill the messenger.
Just letting you know.
Speed Star Company and Speed Star Wheels went bankrupt
in the end of January in 2005,
and it came out of nowhere.
Now, official reports haven't released the amount of
debt they were in, but, somewhere on the forums,
they are saying anywhere from around 87 billion yen,
the company was in debt,
and they do not know why.
They have something to do with
just the warehousing expulsion,
then of course, the international market,
which broke a few years later.
So we're not entirely sure why,
but we did have a savior come down from the heavens
to buy Speed Star Wheels,
and that was Tanabe Co.
♪ Hell no ♪
♪ To the no, no, no ♪
- So if you don't know who Tanabe is,
you've probably been living under a rock.
Tanabe is a suspension company,
located overseas, probably one of the biggest,
biggest, biggest, biggest names in aftermarket suspension.
Especially when it comes down to motor sports.
They essentially acquired Speed Star Racing Wheels
through something, we're not entirely sure how
they managed to acquire it.
Whether that was through a partnership role,
or just because they had ownership rights,
or because they just friend requested each other
on Facebook and was like hey,
you wanna get your money back?
And their like yeah.
And their like okay.
It'll be like 87 billion yen.
So there is plenty of rumor that Tanabe has
ruined the quality of SSR Wheels.
Tanabe actually revitalized the brand,
not even a year after going bankrupt.
So they are kicking the brand off,
they have been doing very well, over the past 13 years.
There presence isn't as strong as it once was,
but they are trying to get back to it.
That's why you see them sponsoring Chris Forsberg.
That's why you see them getting back into
the motor sport game.
But SSR does still make a great wheel.
That is everything that you want,
or would have to need to know,
about the lunch that I just had,
the Lamborghini behind me,
and of course SSR Wheels.
So, I hope you guys enjoyed,
drop a comment with what you would like to see next,
of course talk to us about history videos,
or just whatever you want us to talk about.
That's what we're here for.
So I'm Alex, from Fit Men Industries.
We will see you later.
Peace.