THSCC Forums

Ok I have been doing tons of research on wheels for my potential autocross car next year. I have already spoken with CCW. My question is how hard is it to deal with Volk to get a set of wheels custom or do you need a group to get some custom wheels done. I need atleast rear wheels custom done for the Crossfire because no one makes a lightweight 19x9 wheel in the proper bolt pattern or offset. By going with CCW I can drop 10 lbs per wheel over the stockers. So I guess I want to know should I not bother looking into Volks and just get the CCWs. Thanks in advance.

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2010 Honda Fit Sport
Couple of bicycles

Volk is a japanese company. You might be better off going with a company on this side of the pond. I think team dynamics will do custom stuff too but aren't they in the UK.

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Silver Honda
Green Ford
Blue/White Suzuki
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"Never let life be shaped by fear of its end"

No, you're a towel!

Well CCW does custom wheels and they are out of Florida. I spoke to them already and got prices. I am just trying to cover my bases and do all the research to ensure a good decision.

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2010 Honda Fit Sport
Couple of bicycles

If you want them this century, I think you better stay away from Volk. IIRC, RX-7 folks were getting fairly standard wheels from them and waiting 3 months for delivery after they were ordered. Things may have changed but from what I've heard about CCW, they should be more responsive than Volk. Wouldn't hurt to contact Volk but that's probably what you are going to be up against.

Fikse and Kinesis may be other options but cost $$$. How about Diamond?

Regards,
--Ashraf

The custom wheel situation sucks. I've heard Kodiak is so bad as to not trust with my money (see SCCAForums for some threads on that). I've had really bad luck getting responses from CCW and when I did they just said "can't help you" for wheels for the AS STi (really, how hard can that be???). Fikse and Kinesis, if they can help, will be really expensive. Curious if Diamond will do anything reasonable.

I doubt you'd have any luck with Volk. If you want Volks that aren't in the US right now, you are waiting three months, period. I've done that wait several times already. It's never more than that, but never much less, either. If they have an off-the-shelf wheel that works, a good place to order is to call Big Bear Tire up in Wisconsin. In fact, those guys are *awesome* for mail order wheels anyway. They do well at catering to racers. I have never even heard of Volk doing custom wheels, though.

If you do get something built custom, please report here how it goes.


--Donnie

Anyone up for starting a custom wheel business? Sure, it's a niche business, but there has got to be some profit considering what most of them charge... Just need a CNC machine, some powdercoating partners, and good suppliers. Hmmmm....

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Depending on what you want, I could make some calls since we can deal with Volk. Pm me the specs and I can at least see if it is something they will do.

As for other custom options: Boze and Colorado Customs are two vendors that will build to your specific tastes. Boze seems to have some of the best options IMHO.

Jeb, do you know either Boze or CC to build wheels that are actually *light*? Nothing about either of their websites leads me to believe they do. If they don't there's no reason for anyone who just wants race wheels to not just buy extra stock wheels, since they can usually be had on the used market for dirt cheap and most of the wheels I see on the Boze site would *definitely* be heavier than stock on most cars like the Crossfire.

Custom fit that looks cool for a hot rod is easy to find. Custom fitted wheels that are really light is not.

Mike, my fear is that the liability insurance on a custom wheel business would kill you.

Also, is Volk still Volk? I thought I heard they went out of business and Gram bought everything or some such nonsense. Even if they are still around, I'd still like to know if they really do custom wheels or not. I'd pay dearly for a set of those really light five spoke Volks that will actually fit an STi to stock allowances.


--Donnie

I thought that custom wheel manufacturers were having a race to bankruptcy court in the US. Raw materials being an arm and a leg and tort would kill you (especially with powdercoating, according to guys smarter than me).

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

Unfortunately Kinesis closed their doors and has sold out to Lexani (mad bling wheels). So there goes another really good company that built quality wheels and light weight ones for racers.

Have you thought about trying BBS? They're pretty highly rated.

I'm surprised to hear Donnie's remarks. John at CCW seems to be pretty easy to work with according to most of the Vette guys I know. The CCW Classic is the most popular track wheel for C4 and C5 Vettes. Then his other series are popular with the street crowd for bling. The Classic he makes for a number of sports cars that do RR/AX. There is a Classic for the STi/WRX but apparently no sizing options. I'm sure the Subaru community is not the mainstay of support for his business.

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http://www.greywinds.com

I have tried both BBS and OZ. The OZ Superleggera would cost about $800 per wheel and BBS is just as expensive. The CCW would be a couple hundred dollars cheaper. I must say the guys at CCW were very easy to work with this far and said it would be no problem to build a stock legal wheel for my car.

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2010 Honda Fit Sport
Couple of bicycles

In CCW's defense, I *think* the problem with the STi is that in stock trim you need a wheel that has spokes that sort of "bulge" from the center section outward and then back in toward the rim (at least some) to clear those big brakes. I think the only center sections that CCW regularly uses don't have enough clearance for this with where their 8" rim needs that center to attach.

So it's really that they can't do it with a mix and match of the stuff they normally build -and- it isn't worth their while to make a custom center for this application since *most* folks who could use this wouldn't care for it since *most* folks with an STi that want custom wheels want them wider than stock anyway.

What cheesed me was the terse response I got and the complete lack of explanation. But I suppose they were probably busy and if they couldn't help me they didn't feel a great need to be overly nice about it. They weren't mean, just very terse. *shrug*


--Donnie