Sample wheel off to the Engineers

I just received the shipping info for the engineering department that will be finishing up the design before they go into production. I've sent them a wheel with the correct vehicle fitment and brake clearance, as the margins are very slim on these cars.  They will use that for caliper clearance specs. They Should receive the wheel April 5 or 6. Right about when the Rota wheel GroupBuy wheels arrive and ship out to everyone.

Basic Wheel Design

Here are basic computer images of what the wheel will look like. The center is still being worked on along with other details, but the basic shape is visible. the center section will be significantly deeper, and the bore are that holds the center cap will be modified further. the E30 M3 fitment will have an even deeper center section thus allowing BBK clearance with ease.

Wheel Specifications and basic images

This new track wheel is being created to fill the void for strong, light weight, good looking wheels that don't cost an arm and a leg. There are many E36, E46, E92 options out there already, but they are either heavy (low quality) or priced very high. In addition the E30 M3 has a very narrow wheel selection that doesn't require spacers along with the above qualities, and this wheel offers a unique fitment opportunity.

This new wheel will have an 8 fork design.  The closest thing to it currently is the BBS RC wheel, but this new one will have substantial changes as it is being optimized for track use. The new design will have exposed lugs instead of a screw on cap, and the center area will be modified to accept a standard center cap such as the OEM BMW roundel if desired. The wheel will be semi-forged to save weight, and all excess material from the backside around the lugs will be removed. The spoke design and the lack of a lip allows for high Big Brake Kit clearance, along with strengthening the outer lip and minimizing the possibility of bends even further.

The first batch of these wheels will be in the 17” size ranging in widths from 8”, 8.5” and 9”. All the wheels will be BMW 5x120 fitment with the standard center bore. All sizes will come in BMW 3 series offsets, (38-42 range) but a custom batch of 17x8” wheels will be available in a 20mm offset specifically designed for the E30 M3. The et20 wheels will also work well on E28’s and E34’s.

First post to a new Blog

This is the first post to this blog. After organizing a few GroupBuys on forums I found the need for a little more content management, since some forums do not allow editing of previous posts. This would really throw people off about the status of a GroupBuy if they don't want to read every single post in a multi page thread.

In this blog I'll be keeping you guys up to date on the status of the new mesh, light weight track wheel.  Here I'll be posting wheel specifications, images, new fitments, and shipment updates. I'll also be using polls to get an idea of what fitments and colors people really care about.

This wheel has been in development for a while now so this is not the starting point of the development process. We should see the final product in late June/July.