Quick poll. Which Wheel Colour to go for with a black estate?

[Black300ST]

Is your car lowered? If it is I think 18's look great.

The Ultraleggeras are already a very light wheel, so you'll already notice a difference with the unspring weight. More so with the 18's, but then you don't get the best tyre option (PS4S) in 18".

Personally with the weight saving of ULtraleggeras already, I'd say 19's would still be a good choice, and the better choice (visually) if you're not lowered.

18's are the better option overall and for bumpier surfaces, but you may miss the sharper steering response of the 19's and more so depending on the tyre. If you're going 18" you can still get Michelin PSS. Arguably a smigin better in the dry than PS4S, but a big step down in the wet.

No the car has standard suspension.

I was actually thinking exactly that last night, that the 19" Leggera would still be a weight saving, but would look better than 18" too and I could also get that white gold finish too. Plus I've already got PS4S on now in 19" on the OEM rim which are only 4 months old, so I could just swap my existing tyres over and it would save me several hundred quid not having to but 18" tyres which would mostly offset the price jump in the bigger wheel (an extra grand!)

I can really see me going for this.

 

[BigJase88]

No the car has standard suspension.

I was actually thinking exactly that last night, that the 19" Leggera would still be a weight saving, but would look better than 18" too and I could also get that white gold finish too. Plus I've already got PS4S on now in 19" on the OEM rim which are only 4 months old, so I could just swap my existing tyres over and it would save me several hundred quid not having to but 18" tyres which would mostly offset the price jump in the bigger wheel (an extra grand!)

I can really see me going for this.

Are the OZ wheels forged? 19's with a 35 profile on UK roads give me the fear

 

[Black300ST]

Are the OZ wheels forged? 19's with a 35 profile on UK roads give me the fear

Yes they are forged, They better damn well be for £2800 anyway

I'm already on OEM 19s with 35 profile tyres and the ride isn't too bad to be honest. It's not great, but it's not horrible either. I had an Astra VXR once on 19s and it's better than that and the roads near me are like a teenager's face. You've just got to be "pothole wary"

 

[Damo H]

Yes they are forged, They better damn well be for £2800 anyway

I'm already on OEM 19s with 35 profile tyres and the ride isn't too bad to be honest. It's not great, but it's not horrible either. I had an Astra VXR once on 19s and it's better than that and the roads near me are like a teenager's face. You've just got to be "pothole wary"

Sorry to say it but Ultraleggeras are just Cast, and the Ultraleggera HLT's that you'd be getting, are also cast but with an additional unique HLT process used by OZ to create a lighter wheel.

None are forged.

The HLT exclusive manufacturing process achieves mechanical features comparable to those of a forged wheel both in terms of weight reduction and structural strength.

Notice it says "comparable", take that as marketing basically saying that if you reduce the weight by 1kg, its comparable to reducing the weight by 5kg, as both are reducing the weight.

If you think £2,800 is expensive, Forged wheels in 19" would be more like £6,000+. Here is a comparison with Vossen wheels for the Cupra:

Other things you may come across in marketing BS and wheels is "flow formed". Sometimes marketed BS calls it Flow Forged, but they're still not actually Forged. There are people constantly saying some 18's on the M135i groups I'm on saying a set of wheels are forged, all because the BMW Marketing team use the BS Flow forged in one aspect and then people then forget about the "flow" bit.

Flow forming is great compared to just plan Cast, giving a weight saving and strengthening benefits. BUT its not like a truly forged wheel...

This is a good article I've shared before the helps explain it:

The Strength Difference Between Cast, Flow Formed and Forged Wheels

We examine the pros and cons of cast wheels, flow formed wheels, and forged wheels. We look at the strength, ligthness and cost of each.

www.streetmusclemag.com

 

[Damo H]

Finally found a site selling the OZ forged wheels....



Note these wheels are Forged AND HLT treated, The HLT make these forged wheels lighter that normal forged wheels in theory too.

So yeah, that's £7,300 for forged wheels....




Now saying all this, this is not to say that the Ultraleggeras aren't a great light wheel. They are. I had the Superleggeras in 18" on my old MINI and they made a MASSIVE difference, and that was a weight saving of 4kg per corner on that car back then. The factory fit 17" S spokes were heavy, my OEM 18" Spider Spokes before theses were actually slightly lighter than the 17s, but the 18" Supers were still a drop from 10.5kg to 6.5kg from the older 18s.....



So if these are saving you that and some, you don't need to worry about whether they're even forged or not

 

[Black300ST]

Sorry to say it but Ultraleggeras are just Cast, and the Ultraleggera HLT's that you'd be getting, are also cast but with an additional unique HLT process used by OZ to create a lighter wheel.

None are forged.

View attachment 36053



Notice it says "comparable", take that as marketing basically saying that if you reduce the weight by 1kg, its comparable to reducing the weight by 5kg, as both are reducing the weight.

If you think £2,800 is expensive, Forged wheels in 19" would be more like £6,000+. Here is a comparison with Vossen wheels for the Cupra:

View attachment 36054 View attachment 36055


Other things you may come across in marketing BS and wheels is "flow formed". Sometimes marketed BS calls it Flow Forged, but they're still not actually Forged. There are people constantly saying some 18's on the M135i groups I'm on saying a set of wheels are forged, all because the BMW Marketing team use the BS Flow forged in one aspect and then people then forget about the "flow" bit.

Flow forming is great compared to just plan Cast, giving a weight saving and strengthening benefits. BUT its not like a truly forged wheel...

This is a good article I've shared before the helps explain it:

The Strength Difference Between Cast, Flow Formed and Forged Wheels

We examine the pros and cons of cast wheels, flow formed wheels, and forged wheels. We look at the strength, ligthness and cost of each.

www.streetmusclemag.com

Wow! that's a shock. Thanks for that article, it's really interesting. 7 grand for wheels?!?! Bloody Hell!

I was sure I'd read that they were "forged" somewhere, but like you say it probably said "flow forged" in typical marketing BS.

Well there's no way I'm paying 7 Grand . I'll just have to do my best avoiding craters.

That's interesting as well about the "HLT" moniker. I didn't realise what that was. Now I do. Thanks.

 

[Damo H]

Wow! that's a shock. Thanks for that article, it's really interesting. 7 grand for wheels?!?! Bloody Hell!

I was sure I'd read that they were "forged" somewhere, but like you say it probably said "flow forged" in typical marketing BS.

Well there's no way I'm paying 7 Grand . I'll just have to do my best avoiding craters.

That's interesting as well about the "HLT" moniker. I didn't realise what that was. Now I do. Thanks.

Yeah the process to forge wheels is really expensive (and potentially dangerous) due to the amount of energy and specialist equipment it needs.

And the Flow Forged wording is a real bug bear of mine. To me its not just Marketing BS, its fall advertising.

That being said there is a company that has a patented Flow Forged process (forget who they are and 99% sure they're not UK) where again its another step towards improving the strength (and therefore weight) of the wheel using flow formed techniques and heat treatment. It may very well be the same HLT process that OZ use just under a different name though.

 

[queen]

Wow! that's a shock. Thanks for that article, it's really interesting. 7 grand for wheels?!?! Bloody Hell!

I was sure I'd read that they were "forged" somewhere, but like you say it probably said "flow forged" in typical marketing BS.

Well there's no way I'm paying 7 Grand . I'll just have to do my best avoiding craters.

That's interesting as well about the "HLT" moniker. I didn't realise what that was. Now I do. Thanks.

BBS has a interesting article about their flow forming process, if you'd consider another brand.
https://www.bbs.com/en/technology/flow-forming
Many people I know that have flow formed BBS, myself included, are very happy with their looks and strength as we too have many potholes here.

 

[biminibob]

Had a play around with that and came up with this in a new finish that i didn't even know they did (White Gold). Unfortunately it would only do it in 19 rather than 18 but like you said, they look like 20s .

I think this looks pretty awesome. What do you guys think?

View attachment 36033

Reminds me of this

 

[Black300ST]

Reminds me of this


View attachment 36061

That's definitely my era!

 

[LeylandVCDS]

OEM silver all the way for me