Possible group buy on Rota wheels

[Russ_McLaughlin]

Hi everyone,

I just got off of the phone with Subydude.com about sourcing some Rota Torque 13x6.5 wheels. The bolt circle will be 4 on 100 and the off set is still to be determined. To import these to the US they need an order of 3 sets or more. Our team is in the market for two to three sets, but I wanted to see if anyone else was interested. They told me we could have dimensions for brake and upright clearance almost immediately, but the wheels themselves would take about 3 monthes to get here. I also don't have a price yet, but I am guessing they will be between $150 and $200. Let me know if you are interested.

Russ

[Russ_McLaughlin]

Hi everyone,

I just got off of the phone with Subydude.com about sourcing some Rota Torque 13x6.5 wheels. The bolt circle will be 4 on 100 and the off set is still to be determined. To import these to the US they need an order of 3 sets or more. Our team is in the market for two to three sets, but I wanted to see if anyone else was interested. They told me we could have dimensions for brake and upright clearance almost immediately, but the wheels themselves would take about 3 monthes to get here. I also don't have a price yet, but I am guessing they will be between $150 and $200. Let me know if you are interested.

Russ

[Juiced]

Friends don't let friends buy Rotas!

[Russ_McLaughlin]

Any particular reason why? And for anyone who cares they are $400 for a set of 4 and the off set will more than likely be between 40 and 50mm.

[rjwoods77]

How much do they weigh?

[Orion ZyGarian]

Theres alot of people out there who dislike them, but I went ahead and bought a set for my Miata and I'm impressed..I dont see why people hate them so much.

I'm also interested in weight out of curiosity. My Slipstreams are 16x6.5" and they only weigh 13 lbs

[Russ_McLaughlin]

They said they won't know the weight until they are built. These wheels are not available in the US right now so the guy I am dealing with said he doesn't know anything about them. I am making a guess at 10-10.5 lbs each. A little heavy, but we dont have a ton of money to spend on wheels.

[rjwoods77]

You are going to need a spare set of 4 to mount rain tires on unless you want to mount and dismount because of weather otherwise you will be in a bad situation. If you cant afford two set of rims then start raising money or dont even bother with FSAE. Not trying to be a dick but if you cant buck up for rims then the added expenses of everything else might likely doom your project. 3 months wait from japan sounds like any number of late delivery problems I have heard about on here that will also screw you. Your tire and rim budget needs to be 2500 for a set of 4 rains and rims and a set or drys and rims. Shocks and springs will set you back 1500 barebones. And 10.5 lbs is really excessive for rims since they are for real cars. Not trying to dissuade you from Formula but if you have a tight budget like that then you might want to look into baja.

[Biggy72]

Just go to the West event. All you will need there is one set of rims, but I would at least take a spare rim in case something bad happened to one of them. If you're running 4x100 old honda steel rims make a good backup. Also just get an old set of street tires. Make sure the tread is sufficient, but they do not need to be any good in the rain since it won't rain in Cali in the middle of June.

Last year we bought panasports and they were heavy at 9 lbs ea. We didn't get a great deal on them either so this didn't help much, but I believe our entire wheel and tire budget was at about $1700. Try getting used race tires from somewhere else to shake the car down on, but don't rely on them to set your suspension settings.

The added expense of driving to california will have to be added in, but not having to worry about rain is nice.

[Russ_McLaughlin]

Well... We have done this before and we have two sets of Kieser 13x7 wheels and they suck. This makes me not want another set of Kiesers (I don't like when the tires lose air around the rim when loaded). All I hear is horror stories about other vendors who have wheel prices of $350 each. If anyone has other suggestions let me know, but we can't afford $2800 in just wheels and have no means of making our own.

[mtg]

You can make your own centers and just order rim halves to get lightweight, cheap wheels. It won't take very much analysis to make a wheel that weighs less than 9 lbs. If you don't have CNC access, I've heard of teams before that machine parts for other teams, or try to find a local machine shop to sponsor you.

[rjwoods77]

Russ,

I would at least shoot Wade at Kiezer an phone call(712-737-3053) to talk to him about leaky rims. See if he can do something for you or at least give him some feedback so he can fix any problems you have. He is a very reasonable guy. If it is something stupid you can fix then you wont have to buy rims at all. I know some people have opinions about his stuff from bad experiences but at the same time his stuff is on most of the top cars out there wether it is by choice or necessity.

[Kwheels]

Leaky 3pc wheels are caused by tire guys who damage the internal seal. I can guarantee you cannot generate enough load to make a tire go flat all on its own. Same wheel we put FSAE cars on we race on 3000lbs autoX cars with extra load components. Easy fix is call me & buy our new 3pc gasket. You can actually build the wheel around the tires if you wish. Available in 10" or 13" wheels

13x6.5 F-SAE wheel weight 6.5

Full size autox version 9 pounds

Average cost per set $1100.


Wade Huisman
Keizer Racing wheels Inc.
F-SAE sales & Tech.