Forged diamond cut rims vs carbon fibre?

Skip a few meals and save yourself $20k

 

Usually the big thing with Carbon fiber rims is the superior MOI you get by having a relatively thin and lightweight outer rim vs. something like aluminum or magnesium. Even if the weight is nearly the same, the better MOI can make a big difference. However, usually it's most appreciated on the track and also on something like a racing motorcycle, where rotational mass and MOI can really be felt. For the street and on a car (where your wheels aren't changing planes such as with a motorcycle tipping back and forth), you aren't going to really feel it as much. The car might ride slightly smoother over bumpy roads and it technically might accelerate and brake easier, but again, it's really difficult to feel outside of a race track.

Also, keep in mind that tires can vary by several pounds; so if you are on a quest to save weight, make sure you don't accidentally spend $20K on light weight rims, only to accidentally buy heavier tires and mitigate everything haha On my motorcycle, when it came time to buy tires, I drove around to all the motorcycle shops with a fishing scale and weighed every tire myself in order to find the lightest possible tire to put on the CF rims.

My advice would be stick to the forged diamond cut wheels. They are very nice and relatively light. Also, accidentally curbing the diamond cut wheels isn't the end of the world; it's easy to buff out that polished lip and blend away light scratches and curb rash. With CF, it has a bad habit of cracking and turning into fibers, if you push it too far. Not always and you can sand down carbon fiber to some degree, but if you push it beyond the point where it likes to flex and spring back, it more or less shatters like a cracker.

The other thing is having tires mounted on CF vs. standard wheels. When you are dealing with carbon fiber wheels, you probably don't want to just swing by Costco for new tires. On my bike, I was so nervous about anyone touching my rims, that I welded up my own jig to hold them and designed a special apparatus to install the tires without ever touching or making contact with the lip. Even then, I was sweating a lot while mounting and dismounting tires. So that's something to keep in mind... if you don't own your own tire mounting machine and/or don't feel comfortable mounting your Ferrari tires yourself using tire irons and protective shims, etc.

On my motorcycle, it could definitely be felt. However, if someone had swapped the stock rims over to CF and not mentioned it to me and I just wrote the bike back to back with a blindfold on, I'd say there'd be a chance I might not have even noticed the difference. It's rather mild - even on a high performance street bike - although if you are looking for differences over bumps and things, you can definitely feel it. But again, on a car, I doubt you'd notice much if you weren't trying very hard to tell the difference in how it road on the street.

The diamond cut tires are plenty light enough for street use. The bottomline is you aren't going to notice much difference, even on the track.

Ray

 

Forged diamond cut wheels are also not free from factory. If I’m not mistaken, I think they are around 8k usd.

 

Not sure where that number comes from. It is a lot more than 3.7 kg.
The forged F8 wheels aren't particularly light. Rears are about 25 lbs and fronts about 22. Total savings is about 10 kg. As that is rotating and unsprung mass which is saved at the outer perimeter of the wheel, it is something that matters. You can easily compare it to having 80+ kg of additional weight in the car.

Sent from my SM-G930F using FerrariChat.com mobile app

 

If yoh are in it for the weight savings and don't want to break the bank, get a set of HRE R101 Lightweight. In stock size they are about 17 lbs. front and 19 rear. That is the same weight as the CF wheels. Get them with offset of 32 mm front and 25 mm rear.

Sent from my SM-G930F using FerrariChat.com mobile app