If I knew about these when I had my Integra, I might have slapped them on for the hell of it.

They say the 17" weight is 16.5 lbs!

Here's what they'll look like on the TSX:



During a visit to Wheel Warehouse in Anaheim yesterday, I tried on a number of styles by Volk and Advan. Although I always loved the TE-37, it looks too small due to the spokes not extending all the way to the lip. On the other hand, the Advan RCII seemed to appear bigger and fit the lines of the TSX better. Again, Rota make a knock-off that weighs almost identical.

Here's the Advan RCII:

Here's the Rota knock-off weighing in at 17 lbs:


No, I don't work for Rota. Here's my dilemma: I'm convinced a 17" 5-spoke wheel fits my taste best. The tires are much cheaper in 17 and I would be able to have a weight savings. Although the Advan wheel is lightweight, it also sells for over $400, which is forged territory, IMO. On the other hand, the Rota wheel looks nearly identical, weights the same, and is 1/4th the cost.

 

At a quarter of the cost, you gotta wonder what the catch is. There is no way a $400 wheel can be replicated and still be so light without sacrificing something.

 

I've owned Rotas in the past and haven't experienced any defects nor have heard of any negative feedback regarding their quality. I believe it actually IS possible for the knockoff company to sell at considerably lower prices considering that R&D, tooling, and labor costs will be lower.

 

So let me get this straight....$400 dollar wheel of perceived better quality vs. wheel 1/4 x cost. The question then becomes, are you getting a quarter of what the other wheel gives you? Do the Rotas have a quarter of the build quality? I haven't heard of any trouble with rotas, so if these wheels are almost identical, I would go for the rotas...

what are the possible outcomes? At 17", the stock diameter, I think there is little danger of bending a rim. If the Rota is prone to just completely falling apart (which I seriously doubt), then just buy a fifth wheel and tire for the sake of security....and buying that 5th rota would still be about a thousand less than 4 Advans...

 

You see my logic... I could just toss out the Rota caps and I'll be fine.

I did the same when I owned the Tenzo Type-C knockoffs. People were telling me to go with Racing Hart and I didn't see any reasoning for paying 4x the cost except the name brand on the centercap. I ended up bending 3 of them in a 2-year span -- bigtime. I doubt the 'better quality' Racing Harts would have stood up to those potholes. They ended up being 'disposable' rims. At $120 a pop, I didn't lose any sleep.

When you bought your OZ's who was your salesguy at WW? I wonder how your teg's superleggeras would look on our car? Last time I checked, they were only 16.5 lbs for 17".

 

I don't exactly remember who my sales guy was.....if I were to describe him, he was a husky caucasian, about 5'9", brown hair and had a goatee. I would recognize him if I saw him. He was really cool too, obviously not one of the normal floor guys, cuz he saw my logic in buying 16's rather than constantly trying to upsell me to 17s.

I haven't tried placing those superleggeras at the tirerack site or checked the gallery here yet....but they really do hit the cost/benefit mark. They've never given me a problem on the teg either...

 

If it's a quarter the cost, then you can afford to replace the wheel 4 times if it bends or breaks.
Sounds pretty good to me.

 

I don't remember when, but there were problems with Rota wheels before. And all the problems seem to relate to the Subzero model (a copy of the Racing Hart CP-035 <-- what I have on my Prelude now). One incident happened during auto-x where one WRX lost a wheel. The wheel hub was still attached to the car, but the wheel and tire left the car when on course. Then there were several people reporting cracks on the spokes. I remember that Rota claimed the problem to be a "bad batch". They may have fixed the problem.

 

Cracks on the spokes sounds like it could be traced to the porosity of the casting. Unfortunately, most of the casting industry has moved to China. Almost all wheel 'manufacturers' are simply companies who own a specific design that gets sourced by a die casting sweat shop in China. Companies like Rota or even Advan are sometimes at the mercy of their shop in China. So, regardless if it is a reputable wheel company like American Racing or Dong's wheels, their quality would be equal if they are using the same supplier.

 

Well, I don't know enough about Advan, but I know that all Volk wheels are made in Japan. Rays has several production factories in Japan. None is made in China. I also know that the Racing Hart CP-035 I have are also made in Japan. I've heard (not sure if it's true) that Racing Hart brand wheels are made with better quality than RH Evolution brand wheels.

What I don't like about Rota (or any other knock-off brands) is that it seems like they can't come up with their own wheel design. Just look at their wheel product page http://www.rotawheels.com/wheels.php, I see knock-offs of Volk, Gram Light, Mugen, Prodrive, BBS, Advan, Work, Racing Hart, Spoon/Regamaster, Racing Sparco, Carlsson, Gap, SSR, O.Z. Where is their own design?

Also, a wheel design in forged technology doesn't mean that the same design will be strong in cast.

 

100%. It comes down to whether you feel dirty running on a fake style. If you're one to wear foakleys, fake rolexes etc., IMO you want to look cool but can't afford it, no offense Sure it can make logical sense, expensive wheels can be a liability, but there's pride that goes along w/ having the real thing.

 

Why dont you look at Enkei RP03?
Those wheels are very strong, the 17 x 7- et45 weight is 16.2lbs and the spokes extend to the lip. Price is around $255.00 each.
I'am planning on having those on 17 x 8 et48 on 235/45/17 Yoko AVS es100.
You will like those, really.

My

 

Absolutely. I never implied that if you use a different alloy or process that you will end up with the same tensile strength.

I never made the comparison of a volk mag wheel vs. the rota cast version, which seems like what is implied in the fake rolex analogy. In this comparison, an Advan wheel of very similar weight was being compared to a Rota which is 1/4th the cost.

But I get your points and agree somewhat. Even *if* someone were to knock-off a Rolex down to the sweeping arm and font of the text on the face of the watch, it's still a fake.

 

I have worked as a design engineer for almost 10 years now and you'd be surprised how many Japanese owned companies are following suit and outsourcing their casting and injection molding to China. For example, I know of several of my company's suppliers who stamp "Made in Japan" on their products simply because their final assembly and/or packaging being done in Japan. Their lower level components are being made in China due to their cheap labor, no environmental controls, no concern for operator safety, etc. [/rant]

 

that black tsx with nsx wheels looks good.

about knock offs, you get what you pay for.

if you want just the look - knock off is fine.

there will be haters out there of course - but who cares? if you dont care - why should you care what other people think?

just b/c you spend oodles of money on a set of wheels - believe me, there will be someone who will hate on you.

it's human nature.

my advice as always - do what you like, screw what everyone else thinks.

 

But part of human nature is for the brand......

Why did people buy Buy VOlks and not Tenzer R?? or other knock offs, there are TONS!! People buy VOlks and Advan because of their name and tehir quality reliablity. It's like asking people, why do they buy LV wallets when they can get a knock off one in CHina or even a DUCT taped one?? Since it's still a wallet. It's for quailty and brand name dude~

 

Whoa -- it looks like I'm getting some huge weight descrepancies between some website on the Rotas (Knockoffs). Now, I have another site saying that the 5 spoke shown above weights 20 lbs and the NSX-styled wheel 19 lbs.

Knowing that their both traditional cast aluminum, 19-20 lbs is sounding more realistic.

 

Not all Rotas are light. The lightest are the slipstream (spoon knockoffs) and sub-zero (racing hart knockoffs vwong mentioned). They're used pretty often by autocrossers because they're light, but their quality for every day is

 

Ok -- you guys convinced me not to go with knockoffs! I will now buy some Volk spoke wheels from their mag forged line for $6000 -- rims only.

More shopping to do. Thanks for the feedback. I only wish there was a better wheel database out there that let's you sort by characteristics like weight, style, finish, etc. The closest thing out there is the tirerack website.

Ideally, I'm looking for:

17" x 7.0 to 7.5
Under 18 lbs
5-6 spokes -- must be attached to lip
silver or gunmetal finish
Under $400 / wheel

I might have only the OZ superleggera to fit the bill.

 

I have had rota subzero's for the past 3 years with 0 problems and I drive my car pretty hard. In fact we just took a roadtrip from CT to NC and back, potholes all the way with 40 sidewall toyo tires. I did a lot of research before buying them, as I do with everything I buy, and although I did see that one autocross problem with the rota wheels, I also read hundreds and hundreds of positive comments, mostly from the Nissan and Subaru communities.

There have been episodes with Volks bending or breaking as well, and if you hit something hard enough your wheel will have problems, it is just a matter of physics. The volk logo doesn't make your wheels indestructible.

If you have thousands of spare dollars laying around and if you care what someone thinks about the logo on your wheel that is fine, volk makes good quality stuff but for I don't think one can discount rota just because they don't cost $5000.

 

I've had both volks & rotas

bent volks & never bent rotas

only argument that SHOULD come up is

for DAILY DRIVING....

would your rather bend a 100 dollar rota or a 500 dollar volk
that only kids in the internet know the difference...


with that being said... I'm going to eat my sandwich

 

That was exactly my point earlier. When I owned my Rota grids (TE-37 knockoffs), my car was considerably quicker after shedding 6 lbs per wheel. I never experienced any problems, either.

btw - if you have all your ejector locations and other tooling characteristics desigined correctly to minimize tubulence and porosity within your mold, there is very little that can go wrong with your die cast product. If a die cast manufacturer operates beyond the life of the tooling, that's when problems happen. Simply placing a Volk sticker on will not help you in this case.

 

HAhaha.....great point guys....

but like I said, some rich ass kids doesn't care about weight or daily driving, all they want is brand names. That's why they get Volks. Ask anyone why they buy a LV wallet instead of the ones such as Nike?? They last just as long~