Henry Cone
Enthusiast
Some of you may have seen our 2 '96 GTS's at Viper Days events. If you have you may have noticed that we use Forgeline 5 spoke wheels on both of our cars. And if any of your really know me there are very specific reasons for our choice.
First of all, our wheels are race wheels with looks being of secondary importance. They are of 2 piece construction - they have a fully forged center (a true forging)welded into a spun rim. This results in a very strong and light wheel. They do not have any provision for a center cap - this allows a smoother shape to the center area of the wheel. Ours are polished aluminum - there is no clear coat to get damaged.
We use a 17" x 11" front wheel with a 315/35 MXX3 tire. The combination of this tire and wheel weighs 58 lbs. In comparison a stock 5 spoke 17" x 10:" wheel with a stock 275/40 tire weighs 52 lbs. So the extra width of the wheel and tire/s adds 6 lbs per wheel / tire assembly which we find to be very reasonable for the extra width of the tire and wheel, especially considering the extra strength of the Forgeline wheel. In the rear we use a 17" x 12.5" wheel with a 335/35 MXX3 tire. The combination of this wheel and tire weighs 57 1/4 lbs - 4. 3/4 lbs lighter than the stock 5 spoke wheel and the same tire (a stock rear wheel and tire combination weighs 62 lbs). The tires fit these rim widths perfectly, in fact, better than the stock tires fit the stock rims. Both the wider front and the slightly narrower than stock rear wheels allow the mounted tires and wheels to be laid on their side without the rim hitting the ground. This eliminates one source of damage to the rims.
So you are thinking - big deal, I can do that with many other brands of wheels. So while we initially were sold on Forgeline wheels to get an extremely high quality, extremely stong but light weight wheel that fits the tires that we use perfectly, one of the biggest reasons that we continue to use them is the support that is available from Forgeline. Mark Schetter, a Forgeline engineer, was at the Mid-Ohio Viper Days event last year. We were getting our second set of wheels (for Janni's car) delivered at Mid-Ohio so I took the opportunity to introduce myself and get some of my questions answered.
It turned out that Forgeline had updated the design of the forged center section. I noticed this particularly in the thickness of the center flange of the wheels (around the lug nuts). When I asked Mark about this he shared that this was part of their continuous improvement process as they had been examining wheels that had been raced on for years and were making improvements based upon that they found. Since the wheels on my car pre-dated the design change they had a thinner center section. But guess what?? Forgeline has a program where my wheels could be traded in for the latest design for a nominal fee. So for a portion of the cost of new wheels I got my year old ones updated to the latest design!! Great deal!!
Thia update program is just one of many services that Forgeline offers for users of their wheels. They will also inspect your wheels for cracks and damage - again for at most a nominal fee. This service is particularly important as all light weight aluminum wheels are subject to fatigue cracking so periodic imspection is important. And since Forgelines like ours are just polished aluminum (they are not clear coated) Forgeline will repolish your wheels as well - again at a fairly nominal cost. These and other services can be arranged by contacting Mark.
So why do we use a 5 spoke design instead of one of the many other designs that are available?? While I personally like the look of a 5 spoke wheel one very important reason for using them is brake cooling!! Brake cooling?? I'm sure that you are are wondering how the 5 spoke design could make any difference in how cool the brakes are.
Well, it is actually pretty simple. In order to cool your brakes you need to be able to move air over them. And it turns out that the design of the center section of the wheel is a big factor in how much air can flow though the wheel.
Air flows (or tries to flow) from under the car into the brakes and out through the wheel. As an extreme case, a solid center wheel would not allow any air to flow through the wheel. The 5 spoke design is one of the best wheel designs for moving air through the wheel - the large spaces between the spokes maximize the amount of air that can flow through the wheel. Wheels like the stock ACR wheel, while great appearing, do not allow very much air to flow through the wheel because of tje small areas between the webbng. On race cars with unlimited brake modifications this difference in air flow might not make very much difference. In our case where we are limited in the changes that we can make to the brakes by the fact that we run our cars in the Super Stock class at Viper Days this difference in air flow makes a big difference.
Up until now I knew that the 5 spoke design should cool the brake better but I did not have any empirical information to support this belief. Well I recently got some - from a article by Bobby Archer in the most recent Vider Daze newsletter. Bobby reports there that the 5 spoke Forgelines that he uses resulted in brake temperatures that were 200F cooler!!! That is a huge difference for not having done anything other than use a different wheel!!! And this difference in important to Bobby as he runs a Viper in SCCA T1 class where he is required to run stock brakes!!!
So since we are track rats rather than posers, the performance advantages that we get from our Forgeline wheels are very important to us. So we use Forgeline 5 spokes because they are the best wheel we know of for our purposes. And no, we are not sponsored by Forgeline nor do we get anything from them than anyone else can't get. We simply are believers in their products!!!!
If this wasn't too boring and you have additional questions, feel free to contact us...
First of all, our wheels are race wheels with looks being of secondary importance. They are of 2 piece construction - they have a fully forged center (a true forging)welded into a spun rim. This results in a very strong and light wheel. They do not have any provision for a center cap - this allows a smoother shape to the center area of the wheel. Ours are polished aluminum - there is no clear coat to get damaged.
We use a 17" x 11" front wheel with a 315/35 MXX3 tire. The combination of this tire and wheel weighs 58 lbs. In comparison a stock 5 spoke 17" x 10:" wheel with a stock 275/40 tire weighs 52 lbs. So the extra width of the wheel and tire/s adds 6 lbs per wheel / tire assembly which we find to be very reasonable for the extra width of the tire and wheel, especially considering the extra strength of the Forgeline wheel. In the rear we use a 17" x 12.5" wheel with a 335/35 MXX3 tire. The combination of this wheel and tire weighs 57 1/4 lbs - 4. 3/4 lbs lighter than the stock 5 spoke wheel and the same tire (a stock rear wheel and tire combination weighs 62 lbs). The tires fit these rim widths perfectly, in fact, better than the stock tires fit the stock rims. Both the wider front and the slightly narrower than stock rear wheels allow the mounted tires and wheels to be laid on their side without the rim hitting the ground. This eliminates one source of damage to the rims.
So you are thinking - big deal, I can do that with many other brands of wheels. So while we initially were sold on Forgeline wheels to get an extremely high quality, extremely stong but light weight wheel that fits the tires that we use perfectly, one of the biggest reasons that we continue to use them is the support that is available from Forgeline. Mark Schetter, a Forgeline engineer, was at the Mid-Ohio Viper Days event last year. We were getting our second set of wheels (for Janni's car) delivered at Mid-Ohio so I took the opportunity to introduce myself and get some of my questions answered.
It turned out that Forgeline had updated the design of the forged center section. I noticed this particularly in the thickness of the center flange of the wheels (around the lug nuts). When I asked Mark about this he shared that this was part of their continuous improvement process as they had been examining wheels that had been raced on for years and were making improvements based upon that they found. Since the wheels on my car pre-dated the design change they had a thinner center section. But guess what?? Forgeline has a program where my wheels could be traded in for the latest design for a nominal fee. So for a portion of the cost of new wheels I got my year old ones updated to the latest design!! Great deal!!
Thia update program is just one of many services that Forgeline offers for users of their wheels. They will also inspect your wheels for cracks and damage - again for at most a nominal fee. This service is particularly important as all light weight aluminum wheels are subject to fatigue cracking so periodic imspection is important. And since Forgelines like ours are just polished aluminum (they are not clear coated) Forgeline will repolish your wheels as well - again at a fairly nominal cost. These and other services can be arranged by contacting Mark.
So why do we use a 5 spoke design instead of one of the many other designs that are available?? While I personally like the look of a 5 spoke wheel one very important reason for using them is brake cooling!! Brake cooling?? I'm sure that you are are wondering how the 5 spoke design could make any difference in how cool the brakes are.
Well, it is actually pretty simple. In order to cool your brakes you need to be able to move air over them. And it turns out that the design of the center section of the wheel is a big factor in how much air can flow though the wheel.
Air flows (or tries to flow) from under the car into the brakes and out through the wheel. As an extreme case, a solid center wheel would not allow any air to flow through the wheel. The 5 spoke design is one of the best wheel designs for moving air through the wheel - the large spaces between the spokes maximize the amount of air that can flow through the wheel. Wheels like the stock ACR wheel, while great appearing, do not allow very much air to flow through the wheel because of tje small areas between the webbng. On race cars with unlimited brake modifications this difference in air flow might not make very much difference. In our case where we are limited in the changes that we can make to the brakes by the fact that we run our cars in the Super Stock class at Viper Days this difference in air flow makes a big difference.
Up until now I knew that the 5 spoke design should cool the brake better but I did not have any empirical information to support this belief. Well I recently got some - from a article by Bobby Archer in the most recent Vider Daze newsletter. Bobby reports there that the 5 spoke Forgelines that he uses resulted in brake temperatures that were 200F cooler!!! That is a huge difference for not having done anything other than use a different wheel!!! And this difference in important to Bobby as he runs a Viper in SCCA T1 class where he is required to run stock brakes!!!
So since we are track rats rather than posers, the performance advantages that we get from our Forgeline wheels are very important to us. So we use Forgeline 5 spokes because they are the best wheel we know of for our purposes. And no, we are not sponsored by Forgeline nor do we get anything from them than anyone else can't get. We simply are believers in their products!!!!
If this wasn't too boring and you have additional questions, feel free to contact us...
