This looks pretty interesting.

The pre-order price is 999.00 with free shipping. Price to go up later.

The wheels are made by ROTA.

They look great and the price is less than half of what you'd pay for 16s. Hell, it's about the same price you pay to have old wheels refinished. And with 17's your tire selection greatly increases. I'm very tempted.

Of course, the market will probably be flooded by a slew of 7&8 X 16's for sale from those that go to the 17's.

Below is a link to a pelican thread that provides all the details.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread....threadid=341268

I have no affiliation.

..

Looks like a "best buy", the vendor has a great reputation and is now taking orders. If these are anything close to what you want, now is th etime to order.
CCLIN914NATION

Ive been watching this thread also, Lindsey and Mirage were the only options up till now
it may have to spring for this too. 7.7 x17 and 9.5 x17's would be very nice on a flared car.

I just ordered 16" X 8" & 16" X 9" Fuch copies from Automotion or I'd be all over this one.

Looking at the weight on the chart and what the people are saying at the Pelican site the weight is the same as the 16” and it is 1” taller. I wonder if this is right? They look good.

I am happy I have my 7" and 9" wheels but it is nice to have options on tires.

Bob

They are a pound or two heavier than stock. Reasonable for the increase in size. You can't beat $999 for a set of four delivered to your doorstep. Especially when OEM fuchs in a 16x9 go for 1600 per pair used.

Rota has been making knockoffs for quite a while. The subaru community has a very large number of Rota's being made for them (I have a set on my car). They used to have some serious cracking issues a few years back, but I think they have tightened up tolerances significantly. I had a different set on my old suby that had all 4 go out of round in 2 years time with normal (NJ/Philly) driving.

Though, paying $999 for a knockoff cast wheel where all the rest of their wheels sell for 500-600 for a set kind of worries me.

Caveat Emptor

These wheels are made by Rota for our Pelican friend Moses, and are not a regular Rota product. I think for all the work he put into this project, 999 a set is damn cheap!
This is less than half the price of a Lindsey or Mirage weld up set.

I am currently working with a wheel vendor to do the same thing right now.

Mark

It'd be very cool to have a 205 width 17" rim that fits on stock fender cars...maybe with the correct offset even a 215 could fit?

Forged verses cast aluminum.

I read a story on the web from a company in Switzerland and it said that an important thing to keep in mind that the quality of materials and the heat-treating may be a more important factor than cast VS. Forging in some cases. I would like to hear from our engineer type members. You guys have a lot riding on the wheels and after you put them will never think twice.

Bob

I have had 2 sets of rotas that I used for racing with no problems. I have seen them fail on others first hand in the past. But yeah that was many years ago. These wheels look really good and I may have to buy a set. No hurry though my car still isn't fixed and is in storage because I just don't have time to play this year.

Anyone know the parties involved? $999 shipped is a pretty sweet price, and I think I might get in on it. I've been watching this unfold for a few threads over there and my gut feeling is, it will work out fine. But some references for the parties involved would be nice.

I wasn't saying that they weren't a decent set of wheels; like I said, I have rotas on my car now and they are doing good. But I paid 500 for a set of 17" wheels that would be easily replaceable. What I was saying was that for $999, almost 300 above most of the rest of their selection, that the buyer should beware that these are still a cast wheel that has had issues in the past of cracking and bending.

That being said, I'm already saving my pennies

Cracking, leading to a decinigrated rim would be my only concern. Casting doesn't naturally lend itself to be a bendable product like forgings or parts made from billet material. OEM Fuchs rims undergo over 50 steps in the forging process, this extensive working of the material works out imperfections from the starting cast material, as well as work hardens the material to a point that it is lightweight, strong, but most importantly, NOT brittle. A Fuch rim will bend further before reaching perminate yield strength (when the material will no longer return to original position) when compared to a cast rim... not to mention its higher point of ultimate yield strength ( when the material completely breaks apart). A castings' perminate yield strength and ultimate yield strength seam to be really close to each other on the lab line graphs, and happening at much lower forces on the scale compared with forgings.

On the street keeping it cool? Ya, these rims are perfect and at a perfect $$$.

On the track... or even an agressive sunday drive? Thinking that I saved $1500 while riding on a non-DOT/TUV approved/tested/backed part? Priceless.