- A long time ago in a land far far away
the world, it was easy.
Okay, when you bought your car, it was very simple.
You got your underglow, right?
You got an aftermarket (beep) knob, wait what?
You got an aftermarket shift knob, which was cool.
You got some Konigs that had the flat face on Craigslist
and nowadays there's like nine million different options
for wheels, canards, wheels, spoilers, canards, wheels,
tires, more wheels, and suspension okay?
But we're gonna try and keep our sanity today.
There's just a lot of stuff out there and we thought
we'd kinda help out, I'm Alex, alex.fi on Instagram
and today we're gonna be talking about what type of wheels
you should actually buy because even just in the wheel area
there's just a lot of stuff.
There's a lot of things and if you don't know how
to organize the things into stuff,
you're gonna have a bad time.
And if you're just jumping into here, hi.
Welcome to this adventure, okay?
If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe
so we can keep making bangin' videos like this
and if you're looking for aftermarket wheels, tires,
or suspension, let me just get that eyelash
out of my eyeball.
Be sure to check out fitmentindustries.com
because like that's what all the cool kids do
and we still succumb to peer pressure, let's be honest.
That's just how it works.
And if you're looking to win a free set of wheels,
we partner with Kansei, oh it's up here.
God, it's like I'm taking off my clothes for a camera.
(distressed moan) get you automatically entered
into winning a free set of Kansei wheels.
Description link will be below, okay?
Finding out what wheels you should buy
is a bit like deciding what type of steak to get
when you walk into a supper club
at 16 years old on prom night.
You want to know what you're doing, but you just don't
and you don't know the differences
and you feel just plain silly, okay?
So then you get a steak and you order it medium well,
and it looks like a burger.
Finding out what type of wheel you should buy
boils down to really three major categories, okay?
Number one, the function of the wheel.
Number two, uniqueness and number three is price, okay?
So we're going to start with just the function of the wheel
and you pretty much have your three categories.
You have function, which is the actual functioning
of the wheel, is it lightweight and stuff like that.
Then you have form, which is more about the lookskies
and then you have a little bit of both
and depending on how they're designed and actually made
is essentially what's gonna decide which wheel
falls into which category.
So are you ready for a Bill Nye science lesson, class
in 60 seconds or less?
♪ Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill. ♪
♪ Bill Nye the Science Guy. ♪
♪ Science rules. ♪
- Sweet because it's probably gonna take
a little bit longer.
There are wheels that are gravity cast,
which are pretty much trash, okay? (garbage can bangs)
There are low pressure cast wheels as well
which are not as popular, but still okay.
Then you got rotary forged, which is pretty decent
as long as it's legit.
You've got fully forged which is like heck yeah bud,
if you can find them in your size.
And then multi-piece, either two or three piece
which is pretty baller,
but not really the best for function.
Starting off with the gravity cast, which is where the alloy
is literally poured into a wheel mold
that is formed by the gravity of the alloy
that makes the shape.
This is the beefiest boy of them all
and usually the most affordable.
Now remember, we've got our gravity cast down here.
Now most brands don't do this anymore.
We would recommend staying away from them if you're trying
to get a set of wheels for function as these tend to be
a little bit heavier, it's just more metal.
If you can't find out if they're gravity cast or not
a lot of times you can just look at the weight
or the very, very low price, like sub 350
and assume that it's gonna be gravity cast.
There's very few wheels out there that still do this,
but a lot of old wheels on Craigslist
are gonna be gravity cast.
Low pressure cast adds an element of pressurizing the cast
to make the alloy more solid, use less material
and is generally just a little bit stronger.
Low pressure cast is the common type
of wheel manufacturing now
and they aren't inherently that bad.
XXRs use a lot of low pressure casts, for example
and it allows them to get the thin spokes as well.
However, because there's a million ways
to low pressure casts, not all are created equal.
You can get sharper spokes and more designs
with this style versus a typical gravity cast
mostly just because gravity cast doesn't allow you
to make the sharp fancy little spokey designed wheels.
After that, one step up is rotary forged,
which is the next step.
It's lighter, they're usually stronger,
there's more diversity with the wheel design
and with rotary forging they usually take the barrel
of the wheel and apply a (beep) ton of heat to it, okay?
Then they start spinning the wheel while applying
some big old rollers to the metals in the middle,
then they roll it out, right?
That's pretty much what ends up happening
to the barrel of the wheel, you get a forged barrel
with a cast wheel and if you're looking
for a great budget/function wheel, rotary forge
are usually the ones to go for, everyone has their own name
for it whether that's cold forged,
flow formed, rotary forged, ETC whatever.
ESR's got their RF1s and RF2s,
Rohana has a rotary forged lineup.
Konig has their freeform lineup.
They have the Dekagram, the Hypergram
and these things are super popular, in fact TSW
really coined rotary forged and they actually owned the term
rotary forged, which is why you see
so many people use different terms.
Fully forged wheels are wheels that are made
usually out of a single block of T6061 aluminum.
This used to be super expensive and meant solely
for professional racing.
However, now you can do it with, you know,
a pretty decent price, it's slightly less than buying
a set of multi-piece wheels.
RSR Forged was one of the first bigger names
to start offering these wheels to the normal market.
Most notably, the 901, the 902, and the 903
being fitment-specific wheels that were fully forged
for the Honda Type-R, the Mustang, and the Corvette.
Now these wheels are the ultimate function wheels
and a lot of times you'll be able to tell just by looking
at them, they've got a lot of cutouts,
a lot of weight savings.
The usually are gray, that's just how they are.
But because not many people make these wheels
and even less people find them for specific applications
you're not gonna usually find them for your car.
They usually end up being around $2,500 a set, as well
which can make it a little bit weird.
Multi-piece wheels are straight fire, fire.
But they're mostly for looks, style,
and to get tight fitment.
Multi-piece wheels come in every color under the sun
and they are supa-sweet, okay?
But you're paying for most of them
and they are pretty dang heavy, due to the added hardware
the fact that they generally have bigger lip sizes
and all that sort of just stuff, okay?
In short, gravity cast is usually at the bottom
of the list and it's usually a no-no unless
you just want the cheapest wheels possible
and you don't care about wheel weight.
Low pressure casts will be your stuff like your XXRs
and they're not shabby, they get the job done
and they're usually not original designs,
but you can thrash on these sets and never feel bad
when you end up breaking one.
Once you move up from low pressure casts,
you get to the rotary forged which is the most value
on the function side of things per dollar
and there's lots of sizes and designs.
And it's probably the biggest pool in 2020.
It's gonna be the one where you see
the most companies going towards.
Once you move up, you've got the forged,
which is badass and awesome, but it's usually limited
and a little bit expensive and it's usually not even made
for your car yet.
Forged wheels for the consumer is probably gonna take
like five years, but if you want to make them fit
for your car, go nuts.
And then on top of the whole thing,
you've got your multi-piece wheels
which is flashy flash, pretty much all lookey lookey
and very little function okay, they're expensive.
That's just how it goes.
Once you've decided on how you're going to use the wheel.
You'll know which one to buy.
Is it low pressure cast and rotary forged?
They're like the number one most popular for most people
because they want wheels that can be used occasionally,
but not every single day.
Then you have your stuff like your multi-piece wheels
which is gonna be something that's way more popular
for actually form, it's for the car show people.
It's for the people that just want to have a fancy style.
But after that, you've gotta decide
on what type or style of wheel or uniqueness you want
and this is how we break it down there
because a lot of times the number one question
that we get asked is what type of wheel should I buy?
If your car is busy, go with a sleek, simple design
with some concavity.
If your car is sleek and simple both with body lines
and mods, go with a little busier wheel design
and mix it up with some lip.
The biggest thing to do is that you need
to cross your wheels to your vehicle and a lot of times
that's what's gonna make something pop.
Wheels are always up to what you want,
but the amount of people that ask us what they think
we should buy is too damn high.
The best way to decide if you'll like a wheel
is deciding if your car is busy or not
and just do the opposite thing with your wheels.
Just remember, the more creative you want your wheels,
the most expensive usually everything becomes
until eventually the only option left
are the $3,500 multi-piece wheels.
However, there's companies like Cosmis Racing
that have been pushing that as far as possible
by offering three colorish designed wheels
within one wheel that has a machine lip.
Usually it has a different painted window and then
a different painted face, which give you
that crazier design without the massive price point.
All of the gravity cast, low pressure,
rotary forged, forged, and multi-piece wheels
can have both simple and busy design,
but usually on the lower end of the spectrum
is where it's a little bit more restricted, okay?
You'll be limited in options in terms of color
and things like that in the fully forged route
and the gravity cast route, but you'll have the most freedom
in the rotary forged and multi-piece.
So once you decide that you want a certain type of wheel
and you know what type of design wheel,
it's usually gonna end up going in to the last thing,
which would end up being price.
Now price is ultimately what everyone looks at
when they're buying stuff and that's okay.
What happens with price is that a lot of times
people think more expensive is gonna give them
the best wheel ever, and that's not entirely true.
Price is low when you're looking at wheels without color.
Without lots of crazy designs and couldn't be
probably gravity cast or low pressure cast.
But if you climb that ladder, usually price does climb
with it a little bit.
If you're looking for 1,000 to 1,500 bucks,
rotary forged is gonna have pretty much anything
that you need and if you're looking for
a crazy color wheel with a gnarly width
and a custom setup, (coins ringing)
you're gonna want to save those pennies, buddy.
Or go get a firm, because multi-piece wheels are
just gonna be the option, because you're left with things
like Work, or Rotiform, or things like that.
But if you're looking for something that just gets
the job done without breaking the bank,
go snag some low pressure cast wheels
and get some decent tires.
Not many people will crack a joke on you
if you run good tires on some affordable wheels
and sometimes that's okay.
Not everybody needs a fancy set of wheels,
but there's pros and cons to everything.
Especially as you go up the ladder of wheels,
quality, weight, price, color options, and customization
all play a role and deciding on what type of wheel
you should buy comes down to truly what you're looking for.
Function style wheels look good on function style cars,
like the WRX or EVO, Kansei, Cosmis, or Konig.
Thin spoke wheels look good on cars
with massive wheel arches and big brakes
like Camaros, Ferraris, Mustangs.
For that, you have Rohana.
Wide wheel wells deserve a crazy wheel design
like the 350 and the 370, the G35 and the G37,
even the Infiniti Q cars.
They need to see those multi-piece wheels
because they give the car exactly what it's needed.
And a full on race car should have fully forged wheels
if you spend less of your time at car shows
and most of your time at the track.
A lot of times you'll be able to find fully forged options
through companies like RSR because they specialize
in making wheels like that.
But hey, if you still don't know what you're looking to get
after watching it, that's okay.
We don't judge, I'm an equal opportunity wheel guy, okay?
But what you can do to save yourself some time
is go check out the gallery at fitmentindustries.com
where there's about 30,000 cars with aftermarket wheels,
tires, or suspension, and you can go find out what you like
without having to ask a hundred of your friends.
If you don't have a hundred friends, I'm sorry.
And if you're looking for aftermarket wheels, tires,
or suspension, be sure to check out fitmentindustries.com
and let us know what you'd like to see us cover next.
Wheels, they're a tricky gal, guy.
Whatever you want them to be, okay?
But they don't have to be.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries, and we'll see you later.
Peace.