FORGED WHEEL QUESTION: WHAT WOULD YOU PAY

We are finally getting into the full forged wheel business as far as selling them. We want some feedback on a wheel price that you would feel would make you finally pull the trigger on a set for 19" or 20".... We want to offer something that will be light weight, forged and something that would shatter the market as far as price is concerned. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated but we only ask that you keep things realistic, so please don't ask for a $2,000 price on a set of fully forged wheels here. Thanks again in advance for your replies. __________________

No answer on price, but I figured a little edumacation in your thread would be good for those choosing wheels: Forged wheels are different from cast wheels in that they start out as aluminum billet, typically 6-7 inch diameter bar stock. These are then cut into the right length (the volume needed), heated, and pressed into shape (using very accurate dies and successive steps) under about 6-12000 tons of pressure. The forging process imparts a lot of energy into the metal and changes the internal grain structure of the aluminum (metals have a crystalline structure) and this change in the grain structure is what gives a forging additional strength in comparison to the original billet rod. They are then heat treated to a T6 condition in the case of 6061-T6 to get the right mix of strength and ductility. A forged aluminum wheel has a higher specific strength as well as higher toughness (engineering term for its ability to absorb energy) in comparison to a casting. This allows an engineer to design a wheel that is lighter, stiffer and less susceptible to cracking under impact and with better fatigue properties than a casting.

My feedback is that I wouldn't put 19's or 20's on a 996. But forged 18's in the correct widths and offsets are actually fairly hard to find.

I dont mind to pay 800-1200 a wheel, depends on styling

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Thank you for your feedback it is much appreciated, we will release photos of the forged line shortly. Thanks again for your reply to our topic.

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x2.... I wont run anything over 18's

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well... for one thing, I don't care how pretty she is, I wouldn't want her sitting on the hood of my car like that...

I agree with the posters who would not put anything larger than 18's on a 996. My car came with forged 19's, and rode like a truck. I am running stock 17's now, and would like to go to a good quality 18 for the right price. $800 a wheel would be nice.

While we do appreciate the participation of 18" vs. 19" we respectfully ask that the debate 18" vs. 19" be re-posted on a new thread. Thank you for your understanding.

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+1

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well... i admit i am a bit out of touch but i spent a career buying the best racing wheels money could buy and didn't come close to spending a 1000/wheel... and a quick look at the BBS site suggests that you could buy forged versions of those for less than a 1000 a wheel and they make about the best wheels on the planet. i would have to wonder why , when you have companies like oz and bbs and lots of others with extraordinary track records of making the best wheels on the planet why you would spend 1000 or more on some product that you know nothing about ? i got an e mail from a friend of mine the other day who is an engineer on an imsa gt3 car and they are only spending 5k a set for those wheels ( along with another 500k on various other bits ) ... how can aftermarket STREET wheels be worth that kind of money ? or am i just too old now to understand...

What is the difference between forged and rotary forged? Seen both advertised and if these guys are doing a new process, maybe one way is "better" than the other? Experts please weigh in.

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Wow, I'm impressed! I'm going to start calling you "WikiCuda" if you keep this up.

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How low can you go without losing money? That's what I'd want to pay for a good 18" wheel.

The big question I would have for Wheel Dynamics is... What brand of forge wheels are you selling? Quality of workmanship is big determining factor on what someone is willing to pay. Surely you won't be selling those cheap imitations out of Asia, right?

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that's the kind of question that a guy asks when he is buying a rolex from someone in a raincoat on the street in New York. think about it.... do you really think a legit manufacturer would be doing his market research on some web site ? and if he was, he wouldn't be asking " how much would you pay? " he would be saying " see here is the picture of our foundry and factory. here is a picture of our wheels at le mans . these are the teams using them. these are the testing results and certifications . see how we compare price and quality wise with BBS and OZ . see this is where THIER wheels bend and flex and ours don't" I can't believe that, based on their representations in this thread that they have any meaningful product to sell you if they were 25 $ per wheel.

I don't believe the "what do you want to pay?" approach will result in a price point your business can sustain. Pricing your product is a function of cost (labor, materials, overhead) and sales volume. Obviously I'm keeping this simple, you could get a four year degree in pricing. If you don't want to do a lot of thinking price your wheels like this. Cost x 2 = price. This is known as 50% mark up. That is considered "standard" in retail. I doubt there is anyway you could sell for less and sustain the business because Porsche wheels are a low volume (relatively speaking) market, as opposed to coffee which is a high volume market.

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Your math is off a bit... Cost x 2 is 100% markup. 50% markup would be .50 x wholesale cost = sub total + original wholesale cost = retail price. Or, to simplify the math: Cost x 1.5 = retail price (50% markup) Many retailers would use the ol' formula - double it and add 10 % for contingency. That way, they could offer a half off sale and still make a little profit. Not that I'm a expert, but after 10 years in retail and 20 years running a business, normal retail is basically this... How much can you squeeze out of a customer for the product? Doesn't matter if you're talking Lacoste shirts or Rolex watches, or what labor and materials you put in it... it's what you can get out of it. In the 80s, I worked for Levi's where we would liquidation many first and second quality jeans direct to the customer. This was back when Levi's made all their jeans in the U.S. You could buy a first quality pair of 501s for $50.00 in most retail stores. That was pretty high back then, but the Levi's liquidation store marketed to customers as ... "Half off the retail price" Therefore, you could get the same pair of 501s for $25.00. We sold them like hotcakes. As I got to know the regional manager, he handed me a invoice from Levi's with all the cost figures and those jeans cost about $7 each. Do the math.

Hi guys, we about a week away from releasing the designs we will make available so hang in there. We will offer two forged wheels, one will be manufactured over seas and will have a reasonable price point while the other will be made in the USA and while it will be competitively priced for USA produced wheels it will be higher than our forged wheels made over seas. We will provide more information as the time approaches, we are also looking to offer a nice discount to a few Porsche owners who have modified cars so that we can use for photo ops. Thank you all again for your input,

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please be sure to also include the engineering and stress/ strain data as well as the lab reports from the destructive testing and materials lab with the comparative data to BBS or some other well proven and validated existing product... just so that it can be established where you stand in the real world of actual function rather than the plaid pants and white belt world of advertising and public relations...