Hope this is the right place to post this thread ... First of all ...I would like to disclose that I have a personal interest in this discussion as i have a set for sale in this forum. I was apparently wrong in describing them as made with magnesium. Truth is I just followed previous ads... What's up with the 18" Challenge Wheels bashing ? And the legalities in running them on the road ? Their weaknesses and so very easy to bend ! I really would like to know how many rims out there would be in the same category. To my knowledge, these rims have been out since 2000, many people have been using them on the road for a very long time without issues. I wonder the abuse on these rims during the entire course of championships with the 360 Challenge cars, tracking with slick tires which have humongous grip, running at full speed thru kerbs, accelerations and breaking for hours at the time and they hold just fine... Do they ? I guess a big YES since they kept using them ! So, what can be so bad using them on the road ? I imagine that all the 360 owners are careful when driving their cars on the road and hitting a pothole at 60 Mph would be bad for any rim. These are the questions I have for this forum guru's and i know for fact there are many... I also would like to get info from all the people that are using them on the road as their main street setup. What do you honestly think ?
True and maybe it's true for all OEM wheels but the BBS 18" inch wheels say they are not to be repaired. I assumed that other OEM options (Star Fish and Modular) were able to be repaired and put back on the road. To me this is the only drawback. I look forward to finding out the answer. I searched for a while for a set of those but ended up talking myself out of a pair when I considered the horrible roads out here. They are beautiful though and I like the BBS sticker. IIRC I believe they have a 1/2" wider contact patch than the 19" 430 wheels too. I like the way this looks!
I would like to know how many people after bending a rim (any brand and model), would be willing to fix it. No talking about a road rush here ... I certainly wouldn't, too risky in my opinion. Between the cost of fixing and everything else involved, i would just buy another one. But that is just the way i am and of course, my opinion.
I just bought a 360 with 18" Challenge wheels....they are not BBS. So what is the difference between Ferrari OEM Challenge wheels and these BBS? Are OEM also made of aluminum, also with the problems discussed, or are only BBS wheels a problem?
I think my statement about the contact patch should have been that the contact patch is wider than the other 360 OEM choices. I am not sure it's wider than the 19" 430 wheel. Does anyone know for sure?
Don't understand. 18" challenge wheels are bbs. Can you provide a picture? Also, there is no agreement that there is a problem.
Iirc, 19" cs and 430 wheels are 7.5 and 10.5. Oem scud wheels are 8 in the front. A .5" wider wheel doesn't necessarily equate to a .5" wider contact patch, but that is splitting hairs.
Oh yes I follow you Nathan. I probably have it wrong. How does this sound? I am thinking it was that the wheels without tires that were wider but the same tire was specified for them as the other choices so it provided a different geometry to the sidewall with "maybe" a wider contact patch. lol Does anyone have a starfish and a 18" challenge to measure?
It would be wider with a wider wheel, how much I think depends on the tire... I'm no tire technician, but it's kind of interesting and goes way off topic... I've somewhat recently found that the trofeo r (which are awesome!) rolls over on to the sidewall like crazy compared to other similar tires... So contact patch aside, the roll actually seems to provide a smoother transition to grip loss than a tire with a stiffer sidewall and maybe a wider contact patch. So wider wheels might impact that portion of the tire design, if I'm indeed correct... Increase grip, but decrease the amount of transition to total grip loss. Again, I know nothing about nothing and am just spewing random thoughts that I shouldn't be.
Not 100% sure ... 18" Starfish and 19" challenge stradale are 7.5 inc front and 10 inc rear 18" BBS Challenge and 19' Scuderia are 8 inc front and 10.5 inc rear. That's why you can use wider tires such as 235 or 245 front and 295 or 305 rear Please someone correct me if i am wrong !
Sorry. 7.5 front and 10 for the rear on the CS wheels. My hands are dirty now, and I deserve it. Probably was thinking about f430 challenge wheels.
Wider rims allows for wider tyres. That being said, there's more to it than that. If you put a wide tyre on a narrow rim, the rim will tend to "float" around inside the tyre. If you widen the rim, it will stiffen up the sidewall and give a different feel and handle differently - more direct. It will also in some cases put a tiny bit more rubber on the road, as the tread of the tyre lies flatter across the rim so to speak. There are of course limits, and Ferrari made the choice of 8x18" and 10,5x18" rear for the Challenge setup. They can run both wider and narrower tyres, as can the stock CS and Modena rims. As for bashing. Nobody is bashing the Challenge rims. Fact is that BBS who made these rims never approved them for road use or intended them to be used on the road and made them as light as they could i.e, removed as much material as possible. Race wheels are inspected after each race, and if a wheel fail on a track, the safety margin is much greater there than on public roads. When building a wheel for the track, it's a calculation of how light vs. how strong the wheel can be. An OZ Ultraleggera used in a WRC road rally is in the same way not the same rim you can buy for your Focus RS at your local wheel shop, nor is the BBS Le Mans many have seen used in the race on Porsche GT's in the past. Can you run a Challenge wheel on the road, yes and many do so with no issue or few issues. There are just some things to be aware of when doing so. Visual inspection of the wheels is a given, and having radial and axial runout measured on a regular basis is as well. On a racecar tyres are changed often, so they can be inspected very often. This also means that moisture won't accumulate in the tyre and damage the barrel as it sometimes does on street wheels. As for legality they are not DOT or TÜV approved. This means that in case of an accident involving any kind of wheel failure, e driver can be held personally responsible, and the insurance can refuse to cover as the car was not road legal at the time of the accident.
I've not checked this but it seems a reliable source and one of the first hits in Google. Interesting comments about general wheel requirements in the US. https://support.apexraceparts.com/hc/en-us/articles/206350527-Understanding-Wheel-Standards-Quality-Control-Manufacturing-Specs Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Good info. Here is the location of the sticker if anyone wants to know. Would not be visible unless tire was removed from rim. The wheels are beautiful and functional so bashing them is senseless.
I don't think anyone is bashing them. We pointed out a true fact that they are marked for competition only. No one said that they were unreliable, poorly made, or anything else. And yes, they are nice wheels. I chose the 19" because I think they look a little better but I get the drive for reduced weight and these surely meet that goal and do it with style.
...and at 18" they may provide a slightly more comfortable ride than the 19" CS wheels. I have 3 sets of the BBS Challenge wheels for my 360 Challenge car, and I could easily put a set on my street 360 (have both modular and starfish wheels for it), but I am not. If I were to I would instead find a set of the CS wheels, but that is just me...
Any decrease in ride quality from the 19" wheels is counterbalanced by the wider 18" Challenge wheels, which are 1/2" wider front and rear. In general, this makes for a stiffer wheel/tire combination.
To the same degree...? To me, the impact from change in height of sidewall has always been greater than change in width of tire...
That's fine, I've always considered BBS wheels to be excellent quality wheels. I've had them on several other custom cars, with never a problem.
