In my previous post, I mentioned that there was one other change done to the car this week.
Since early 2017, I've been wondering what to do about my wheel setups. I have been driving three sets of 10.5" square Apex ARC-8's. Overall, I have had good luck with my Apex rims. And they're still running fine. And I like the guys at Apex. They have always been nice to me. Occasionally, a rim will bend and not be able to balanced so I would replace it. And Apex has a friendly replacement policy to the original purchaser. But as my grip has continued to go up and my lap times have continued to improve, I have wondered if I should be driving on a wheel with a higher spec---stronger, stiffer, etc. The hub incident was the final push that made me decide to push the Go button on refreshing everything in the rotating package---hubs, studs, and now wheels. (Brakes/rotors were already new.)
Here are the things I was hoping for if I were to switch to a new wheel:
-Stronger: It would be nice if I could reduce or eliminate bends. (I never cracked an Apex wheel.)
-Stiffer: Aside from reducing bends, a stiffer rim would provide a more consistent feel, and I have had some conversations with some knowledgable people who believe a stiffer rim could resist stud breakage better because it would not deform as much under high loads. I was very interested in that.
-Lighter: Reducing rotating mass is always beneficial, but was not my primary consideration.
-Different offset from my current ET27: I have desired to try something in the ET 22-25 range on 10.5".
-Reasonable cost: I wanted to be able to afford to replace all three sets at the same time if possible.
-Warranty policy: It would be nice if the company would give some warranty consideration with track use. There are plenty of forged wheel options out there, but in most cases, they don't provide any warranty help for damage done on track.
-Different looks: I figured a change in styling and color could be cool. I'm not trying to be a style hound, but a new look wouldn't be a bad thing.
That's not a demanding list, is it?
Actually, I didn't really find much that could satisfy all those wishes. The warranty really was the biggest hang up. No one wants to warranty track stuff. Anyway, I wasn't in a hurry so I just sorta waited.
Then last summer, I was chatting with Steve at EAS, and he mentioned there was a new forged rim coming to market soon that might be worth a look. He said the company was new, but the founder had worked in the wheel industry for a long time. It was called Titan 7. I looked into them a bit, and thought the wheels were attractive, but they weren't shipping yet, so I didn't put much effort into it.
Then in January, I was at Chuckwalla doing a Bimmer Challenge, and Titan 7 had a booth. So, I wandered over to say hi and ask a few questions. Eddie Lee, who is the founder, was in the booth and we ended up chatting for 45 minutes. He's a very nice guy who has a lot of industry experience and he patiently answered all my dumb questions. After that conversation, I was interested in the wheels. The T-R10 seemed to meet all the criteria in my list:
-They are claimed to be very strong due to a 10,000 ton press being used to shape the aluminum.
-This 10,000 ton pressing process also results in the rims being quite stiff and resistant to deflection under high-G loads.
-They are lighter than the ARC-8's. ARC-8 - 20.5 lbs versus T-R10 - 19.5 lbs (The T-S5 style is 18.8 lbs.)
-The offset is ET 25.
-MSRP is $1920 for a 10.5" square set.
-The wheel has a limited lifetime warranty to the original purchaser, and Titan 7 does give warranty consideration to wheels that see track use. What they don't warranty is if the wheel has an obvious direct impact from something like a crash or has been jammed into a curb. But if the wheel has some structural issue that is a result of use on track, they are willing to stand behind the product.
-The T-R10 is a 10-radial spoke wheel. And I was considering black, so the look would be quite different than my current silver ARC-8 wheels.
So, after a long consideration process, I decided to jump in with both feet. I've replaced all 3 sets of Apex with Titan 7 T-R10's. I worked with EAS for the purchase. They always make things easy. And now I have all 12 rims in-hand. My front porch looked ridiculous. I looked like a distributor......haha!
Other notes of interest for me:
-Eddie had a 20 year run with Mackin Industries. (Mackin imports Rays Engineering, Yokohama wheels, etc.) While he was there, he developed wheel programs for BMW factory race cars and other pro teams which is a pretty demanding world. He's worked on creating private labels. He's been on-site at many production plants in Asia. Basically, he has dealt with wheels his whole career. In fact, his journey in his business reminds me of my journey in my music business. We both worked for other corporations for a long time, gained a bunch of knowledge from all the time in the trenches, and we both figured out how to build a small business around the knowledge we gained over the years. When someone comes up through the ranks like that, they have seen a business from all sides. That's how it worked for me, and Titan 7 seems to be the result of similar experiences. That's appealing to me.
-I asked about production. Due to the small size of the company, I was worried that maybe T7 was piggybacking off some other larger production runs and just slapping their logo on something. Nope. The answer was interesting. He made a relationship with an industrial manufacturer that had not been making consumer products but wanted to. They had some impressive machinery like 10,000 ton presses. He has setup all the business logistics with this manufacturer from scratch. This is not a generic run-of-the-mill piggyback wheel that's the same as everyone else with a different logo slapped on it.
-Regarding the 10,000 ton press and general forging - My knowledge on forged rims was lacking. So, I asked a bunch of questions. I don't want to dwell on what a forged rim is because there's lots of great info out there, but I'll touch on a couple things. Forged wheels are desirable because you start with a solid cylinder of aluminum, heat it up and then you press it into an initial shape with powerful presses. The more pressure you use when you press it, the denser/stronger the rim material gets. (They say the "grain structure" of the metal is improved.) According to Eddie, most forged rims are made with 6,000 and 8,000 ton presses. 10,000 ton presses are more rare. (He said only one other wheel maker is using a 10,000 ton press.) And with a forged rim, there's no potential for microscopic porosity, which is air trapped in the metal. Cast wheels start as molten aluminum and the molten metal is poured into a shape. When you start with a liquid and pour it into a shape, the possibility of getting air trapped in the metal exists, which is not ideal for overall strength. And you don't get the benefit of the pressure from the press. (You compensate by putting more metal into the wheel, i.e. the wheel is heavier.) Flow Formed wheels (like Apex) which use spinning during the casting process produce better results. But the strength and stiffness per pound just isn't the same as a forged wheel. So, porosity is just not an issue with forged rims, and having a denser and more consistent rim material allows you to make a light wheel because you can use less material, but it's still very strong and stiff. Ok, enough about forging....I'm not the expert on this topic.
-Between the two wheels offered by Titan 7, there is a weight difference. In the 10.5" size: T-S5 18.8 lbs vs. T-R10 19.5 lbs. I asked Eddie about this. He said both wheels are built to be very strong. But they decided to beef up the T-R10 a bit more. According to him, the T-R10 is the stronger of the two. And I guess that's not really a surprise. It is 10 spokes coming straight off the hub, versus the T-S5 with 5 spokes, and the T-R10 is heavier so there's more material to work with. He was very clear that both were built like "tanks", but that the T-R10 was a bit of a beefier tank. For me, looks was bottom of the list on importance. The TS-5 is a sexy wheel, but I was totally fine with the radial look of the T-R10. And while weight is a consideration, strength was much more important, so if the T-R10 is stronger due to the additional 0.7 lbs, I'm fine with that. It's still a full pound lighter per wheel than the what I had.
-I like the ET25 offset. On Apex, I had ET27 with a 3mm spacer. Now, after test-fitting, I've seen I can run most tracks without a spacer. The clearance to the spring perch is totally fine. The other consideration I have to deal with is my supercharger intake. Buttonwillow's Off-Ramp corner is brutal when you have tight tolerances. The corner is very tight, slow, and uphill......it's just nasty. The tire just jams up into that wheel-well with the steering wheel turned hard. I may run the spacer at Buttonwillow to help preserve the intake and now I'll be even further away. And I appear to have the room on the outside. So, yeah the ET25 offset is nice for my purposes.
-Along the way, I've learned new terms such as "camber stiffness" which has to do with how a wheel deals with deflection and deformation under high G's. He claims that the T7 wheels resist high-G loads extremely well. This makes for a more consistent driving experience.
-Their wheels have been run in 24 hour races and were fine.
-Knurled bead - I was happy to see that feature. It's a nice touch to try to reduce tires creeping around the rim (yes Hoosier I'm talking to you!).
-The wheels come with wheel stems. Cool. No one told me. I bought stems for the new wheels, and now I...uhh....have extra stems. hehe
So, with the wheel change complete, I have refreshed the entire rotating package of the car---wheels, hubs, studs, lug bolts, the Essex brakes/hats/rotors are very new (8 days on the fronts, 3 days on the rear), so I'm hoping that the car is good-to-go for awhile. I am quite eager to go out and see what everything feels like! And I'm quite happy with how the wheels look!----even though I said it wasn't high on my list.....
PS. It's important for me to reiterate that I didn't leave the Apex brand due to any specific unhappiness. I just finally made a decision that I should drive a higher spec wheel because the car is experiencing very high forces now (as the cracked hub so wonderfully illustrated). I would happily recommend Apex wheels to anyone looking for Flow Formed wheels. They are a very nice company to deal with. (I have a square set of 9.5" ARC-8's that I'm keeping for my E92 M3 street car, you know, just in case I take that baby to the track!)