997 Turbo Wheels Nexen N3000 Tires Test

I decided to purchase some inexpensive wheels and tires and report the results. The package is as follows: Wheels - 997 Turbo replicas 8x18 (50 offset) up front / 10x18 (65 offset) rears. Tires - Nexen N3000 225/40/ZR18 and 265/35/ZR18 Cost: 4 Wheels $1100 delivered, 4 Tires $410 delivered, Install $150 Wheels and tires purchased on Ebay and I received a 25% discount for using PayPal. Total cost: $1282.50 Total cost of my current set up: 19" Champion wheels and tires...oh about $5800. I realize many of you are spending $400 on one tire or $1000 on one rim, let's see if these cheapies are any good. Tire package is being installed today.

How will you know if the wheels are any good? See if they break? The turbo wheels were designed based on the fact that they are forged and therefore strong enough to allow for the thin spoke design. A cast wheel using the same design scares me a little. I would be extra careful with these and make frequent checks of the wheels, especially if you hit a big pothole, etc. Good luck.

[QUOTE=machina;6002635]How will you know if the wheels are any good? See if they break? The same way everyone on this board discovers something new that's not OEM, you try it. Champion Motorsports wheels aren't OEM, how do I know they are any good? If the wheels crack into little pieces and fly off the car I'll be sure to let everyone know.

Cool - this sounds pretty interesting. I would think the difference may be that the wheels aren't quite as strong, and weigh more for their size than their counterparts. I doubt they are going to explode or anything though. The tires are probably o.k., but I'd rather just pay 50 bucks more per tire or so and get some more established brands. No need to pay 350-400 per tire IMO, you can get excellent tires for much less. That extra couple hundred dollars MIGHT get you .01g's on a perfectly flat skid-pad or something - but you won't notice that in the real-world. I've paid for the very best, and discovered that they are not worth it, and generally don't last very long either.

I was wondering how you convinced your wife to let the wheels and tires in the living room.... Or is your garage carpeted

I put about 50 miles on the new wheels and tires today. Max speed was 80mph due to traffic conditions. So far I can not find anything negative to say about this set up. I'll report more when I've driven about 500 miles. Looks are a matter of taste but IMHO these wheels look great on my black car.

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They do look good.

Those are sweet! They look great on a black car. Any idea of the wheel weight vs the OEM wheel? I've often looked at all of the wheels on eBay and they sure look tempting. I wonder if your experience will be overshadowed by the tires, though. Contrary to some of the other posts, I've found a significant difference in tires (Dunlop, Continental, Bridgestone, Michelin) and now put Micheline Pilot Sport PS2s on everything. Willing to pay a bit more where the rubber hits the road. I'll be interested with your experiment!

any updates on the nexens, considering a set for the SUV.....?

I've had mine for a couple of months and no issues whatsoever (as long as you don't count cutting the curb too close and having to get the accompanying curb rash fixed)... I only paid $497 for my set of four (oemwheels.com). wheels10.jpg Rudy

Nexen is Taiwanese IIRC... Probably not too bad for a discount tire...

Any idea of the wheel weight vs the OEM wheel? I've often looked at all of the wheels on eBay and they sure look tempting. 31.5 lb for solid spoke 29.7 lb for hollow spokes 18 X 11

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Not for these... but once weighed 993 turbo twist hollow spokes vs. GT3 lobster-claw replicas... It was like 26 lbs for the Porsche wheel and 40 lbs for the replica. All that extra weight adds up to rob power on acceleration and adds un-sprung weight causing the suspension to react more slowly. I've also seen replica wheels break apart on the track - but never seen one break apart on the street. (I've had them dent and bend easier on the street...)

I've been asking resellers about wheel weights on various replica wheels and most do weigh more than the originals. The avg weight of replica and/or cheaper wheels(under $800 for four) averaged out to 8-15 lbs more(most between upper 20's to mid 30's pound for 18's) per rim in my research.

I love those wheels. i was thinking about getting the same ones for my car. Can you tell me who is the manufacturer of that replica set?

They look really nice, that's for sure. I agree - they look especially good on a black vehicle. Silver too!

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The replicas are mostly all manufactured in Taiwan or china, low pressure cast aluminum plus whatever alloy they have laying around... They basically paint and clear and off they go to market... the Carrera Sport Classics I purchased were distributed by Keystone, well known in the aftermarket auto parts. They look very nice, great for DD. I agree, for street driving, they are well worth the cost; I wouldn't recommend even getting on an AX or DE with these. Hard driving on the street, you may get away with ..just don't go into any curbs or potholes too hard...

How did your experiment turn out? I'm thinking about doing the same thing. I love the way they look but everyone is so cautious about the Chinese made wheels...

I too considered the replica's but not sure about the weight....

I think the Nexens are Korean not Taiwanese although not 100% sure. I had a set of the N3000 on a 300zxTT I had and was not a big fan. The tires had some vibration / balancing issues which I found out later was not unusual for this tire. One of the tires also developed a bubble quickly from not impact or any reason as I recall. I actually bought another set from Nexen called the (n7000 I think) that I had on an suv and liked those much better.

As you can see from my avatar, I put the replica wheels on my 993. It looks great and so far, the performance is just right!

Here's the data on the original OEM 997TT wheels which are made in Germany by Otto Fuchs. Forged Turbo Wheels - 102 lbs, 12 ozs. 8.5x19" 23 lbs. 8 oz 11x19" 27 lbs. 14 oz. I would suspect that your Chinese knockoffs are significantly higher in weight because they have to beef up the spokes with more material in a casting. Remember the old rule of thumb from Metallurgy 101. Cast will fracture, while forged will bend. Nearly any Chinese metal shop can melt down aluminum and place it in a casting mold and make a wheel. The investment in dies for forged wheels is very high and clearly takes anything out of China out of the running. You get what you pay for--or, you pay for what you get. Also, pay very critical attention to the 996 suspension when you put 19 inch wheels on it. During testing for the 997 cars, Porsche was attempting to economize on things like the suspension and use the 996 suspension pieces, without change, for the 997. As someone elected for the 997 to come out with 19 inch wheels, they found that the 19 inch wheels, with the heavier tires, and stresses upon the suspension pieces, literally beat the 996 suspensions to death. You have elected for cosmetic reasons (which is fine) to put a knock-off 19 inch wheel on your 996. Please put on your calendar the need to check the suspension pieces' torque values much more often. Otherwise, it's not going to be a wheel that lets you down, but your suspension, since it was engineered for the stresses encountered from a 17 or 18 inch wheel. Of course, most 996 owners will suggest that the growth to 19 inches just can't be enough to be an issue--think again. Although Porsche routinely over engineers components, they still managed to trash the 996 suspensions on the 997 cars. You need to do your due-diligence.

Looks are a matter of taste but IMHO these wheels look great on my black car.

I have 18" classic 11 wheels on mine. Just replaced my Goodrich tires for 4 new Kanook V12 for total $793. I wont be tracking the car and hopefully these should work well. I was down to the canvas on the Goodrich rears on the inside and the fronts didn't have much left on them. Those tires were on the car when I bought it 17000 miles ago. No idea when they went on new. It's amazing how quiet the ride is now. I think those replica wheels look fantastic and the price is astounding. I hope they hold up for you. Good luck.