Help my find a set of 18's for the summer...

Here is my problem. I refuse to send $1,000 per wheel, as I have a rule that you can't spend more than 7% of the purchase price of the car on a set of wheels. So, that means I have $2240 to work with on a set of summer wheels, or roughly $600/ea (I always seem to round up). I won't include tires in this cost, as I needed new tires anyway. I have my winter tires on my 18" 5 spoke OEM wheels, and honestly, I really like them. I would be fine with just getting another set of those and running summer tires, but that is kind of boring, and I haven't found any for sale yet. TireRack has the OZ Alleggeritta's for under $400 each, so it fits my price range, but I'm not sure if I am warm to an anthracite wheel, even though on a black car like mine, it can work: I've been looking for a set of used wheels, but haven't really found much yet. I'm assuming that in the next couple of months we should see some more wheels pop up for sale. Ideas/thoughts? And no, I don't want to run 19's. - Anthony

I looked at those wheels.... here is my thought as those are cast vs oem forged wheels. Forging uses intense heat and pressure to transform a [solid} slug of alloy material into the final shape of a wheel. Forged aluminium is about 300 per cent stronger than cast aluminium, yet less material is needed to produce the same "cast alloy wheel", which results in a lighter product. Because of the basic limitations inherent in forging, most forged wheels are two or three piece units. In two-piece construction, a centre is forged and welded or bolted into a spun or stamped outer rim. In a three-piece wheel, the centre is bolted to an inner and an outer rim half. This stands as an advantage of being easily customisable for a variety of widths and offsets. Casting is a relatively inexpensive way to produce a high-quality, fairly strong alloy wheel. There are two methods used. One, system is known as gravity casting... whereby the molten material is poured into a mold and allowed to cool. These molds are usually made by machining a piece of material on CNC machine equipments to produce a wheel that only requires minor finishing (like drilling or possibly trimming of some excess metal) to be considered complete. The other and better system used is the low pressure or negative pressure casting. Here instead of pouring the molten material into the mould, the molten alloy is drawn up into the mould using a high-pressure vacuum. This eliminates much of the trapped air found in gravity casting process, producing a stronger wheel that is less porous than a gravity-cast one.

Yes, I'm aware of casting/low-pressure casting/forging, etc. I have a set of BBS RD's on my other car which are low-pressure cast and they are just fine. At my price range I'm not going to find a forged rim, and honestly, that's ok. - Anthony

Maybe you could locate a set of used LMs in the coming months. I absolutely love the LMs. I have BBS RGRs in diamond black for my Mazdaspeed6 and I love them. There 1 piece forged wheels that are nice and light. They really transform the car in the summer. ( the OE wheels have the all seasons).

If thats the case... go for it, I think they look great. To bad they dont have silver, but anthracite would look good over the black ones.... they will change the look of you car dramaticaly if you are fine with that. OZ has a good rep in the industry.... good price as well.

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I like those OZs as well, and I don't want 19"s. For the $, I see these as good purchases and will buy a set once warm weather sets in. I also drive a black 911 and haven't decided on the color, but I have looked at the options with the Tirerack ability to view the wheels on your Porsche.

What about other brands of wheels that TireRack doesn't carry? Any other places to check?

Ok, I may have to throw my budget out the window (likely story) and get these: I think in that finish, coupled with a black car, it would be perfect.

$2800 (a little above your target) will get you a complete set of one-piece forged CCW's (like the model C10's I have). Super light and strong. Good track wheel. No affiliation, just a happy customer. (CCW = Complete Custom Wheel in Florida). Happy wheel hunting.

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Now you're talkin' I have same in 19 (slightly modified)

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I have that rim... just in a polished lip and silver centers.... looks good on a silver car....

Purchased an '04 C2 in November that needed rear wheels (bent) & 4 tires. Bought 18x10 wheels (OEM replicas - Keystone) from this vendor currently offered @ $139.25 each, free shippping: http://getallparts.com/ Tires purchased from ebay: Nankang NS II - rear appx $88 each, front appx $68 plus shipping. After driving relatively vigorously (nothing extreme) in various weather conditions for several thousand miles, very positive experience. Initially purchased as stop-gap measure just to make car driveable...think I'll stay with these for my purposes. I have no real means to judge the quality of construction of either and my experience with them is of somewhat short duration; but, I can report that I find no issues with appearance, balance, ride, noise, comfort, etc. No afilliation with any manufacturer, vendor, etc.

+1 CCW wheels. Excellent wheels and very good value. They can custom make the size and offset as well as allow for Porsche center caps.

I may look into CCW as well. The BBS' are 50/65 offset just like the stocks, but I'd like to run 45/60 offset so that I can push the wheels out 5mm. I think then it would look perfect.

Here tehy are with center caps on a 964

I have been browsing the classifieds everywhere to try and find a set of used 18" 996 wheels, but they seem to be extremely hard to find. Also, most of people in the classifieds are trying to sell 19" wheels for the 996, not 18s. I may have to break down and just spend the $3k it will cost me to get a set of BBS. Anywhere else I should be looking?

I have the same factory five spokes as you. I had a back rim get a crack in it, so I bought a set of rims for $550 including shipping that look great, but the wheight difference totally screwed up the handling of my car. I do a lot of aggressive curvy hilly road driving, and I regret my decision...should have just bought another five spoke factory rim. Gonna putt winter tires on new wheels and performance tires back on factory wheels. You can get some cheap cast wheels that look great, but it's not worth the ride quality loss!!!