With regard to Rota themselves making their 'own' wheels, its something I have been pushing them to do for a long time (GTR-D) was the first really, they are telling me that november will be the first wave of entirely original wheels, and forged wheels next year. Its gotta be hard for them when their dealers are pushing for original wheels, whilst at the same time ordering more and more of their 'copied' wheels each month. We are selling 30% more every year, the ones that are hurting are TSW, OZ, Wolfrace etc, NOT the Jap wheels, id be suprised if the number of VOLKs/WORKS/ETC sold into the UK each year wasnt increasing inline with what we are selling..
if rota's rims are made in taiwan (or wherever they are made - its certainly not here) and by the time they have been sent over, dutied, re-sold for profit and had vat added, they come in at 200quid a wheel for an 18x9.5, then why the feck should anyone say that the reason jdm wheels cost 500 quid each for the equivalent is down to the cost of duty and postage? fact is, although exclusivity is a nice thing to have, those willing to pay more than twice the money for a wheel that essentially looks (and in a lot of cases now-weighs) the same (grids vs te37's stakes) then that person either has the money to spare so doesnt have to worry about it, or has more money than sense. if jdm alloy wheels were priced like alloy wheels instead of hoops of gold encrusted kryptonite then rota wouldnt be here. thanks to them i can afford a spanking new set of good loking wheels in a good fitment that aren't heavy, and have products being backed up by a solid uk supplier...... what happens when you lose a centre cap from one of your volk racing wheels, you have to search ebay or yahoo auctions for ages until there is one for sale for less than 80-00 +post from japan. am i the only one that chuckles at how ridiculous this is????
i dont really care if you do copy wheels, but if your going to go to the hassle of doing it, for god sakes, why not copy wheels people WANT in offsets and sizes they want. ill make it easy. people want low (i.e et0, or even minus offsets) in large widths. NO ONE wants et30+ wheels. theyre worthless and look shit. then you could justify the prices. but the idea of paying £900 for et30 9j rims, actually makes me laugh out loud!
Man you have absolutely no clue at all, so I'll make it easy . People here shout and complain about how they want et 0 or - in large widths, then when Rota have gone to major lengths to make them, two people buy them. People in the real world who don't like hitting their cars with sledgehammers almost all want ET30+, and we sell 100's and 100's of sets a year.
Im glad you're not doing our ordering, as it seems that what you know about 'what people want' ammounts to sweet fuck all... Our biggest selling GTR size is a 18x9.5 et30, not the et12's The biggest selling Grid drift, is a 18x9.5 et30, not the 18x10's, not the et15's Our biggest selling GTR-D is an 18x9.5 et25, not the et12's, not the 10's and not the 12's.. Im not bloody stupid mate the reality is, the guys that want negative offset, massive wheels, are usually the same JDM Fanbois that wouldnt buy a Rota in the first place. I dont think you realise quite how big the UK market is.. I reckon I would sell 3 sets of negative offset wheels per month, how many 'worthless and look shit' wheels do you think we sell?
Ah I see Phil has cleared that up. Everyone loves the 12J's then when we have them, everyones turned into a big girl and buys the 18x9.5 anyway
i dunno, i though the ones they bought out were overkill though, wernt they like 12.5j et0 or something? thats too much for most people. but there needs to be a middle ground from that wheel to 9j et30 the grid drifts in 18x10 et15 were pretty good sizes. but all the others just seem to be generic weak sizes, and i dont get it. or fair enough, when desigining a wheel i guess the wider it is, the more expensive, but surely deciding the offset, doesnt make a price difference? and i cant think of many applications where youd want a higher offset than lower? maybe im just being a bit biased. i just personaly hate cars with shit offset.
if onyl they came in big dishy tapered design and wider. I loved my NT03's and wish i could afford more but i cant so i will happily settle for copies
guess i was wrong then if thats the case. just always seems odd that the cars that people think are "cool" and get all the attention/mag features etc. are always low and wide. and people always say how amazing they look and how they wish they could build things that cool, but i dont think they realise that all you need to do is buy big wheels and lower it, generaly makes anything look ten times better. i guess its just my personal opinion, i just cant work out why people dont just buy proper size offsets. sorry if i wrote it a bit ignorant and wrong!
its all Rota promotion haha In all seriousness 18x9.5 et30 IS a big wheel, look back 5 years and it was huge.. Its a good size on an evo which is why this particular wheel is this size..
I think the trouble is, when you see these sweet looking cars with their chassis rails scraping the floor and wheels protruding inches from the arches, is that while you know it looks totally sweet, there's no way in hell you'd want to live with the inconvenience of living with a car which handled like a bag of shit and couldn't get over a modest speedbump without smashing its bumpers to bits and getting stuck. Most people are buying wheels because they look nice, but also want to retain a lot of functionality to their cars. I know on my Mazda, my set of GT3s with their high offset still look miles better than the standard wheels, plus the car handles better and i'm not having to do things like rip out my arch liners like I've done with wheels in the past.
maybe my sarcasm illiteracy has gotten the better of me, but i don't get it? I think its only really drifters that go for <ET30. Most people are quite happy with ET35 or whatever and not having to roll arches or get over fenders. Also, I think alot of subarus, evos, mazdas etc struggle to fit <ET30 wheels. My mates MPS has a stock offset of something like ET45 or 50! I tried some 18x10J ET30 rotas on my car the other day and they filled the overfenders up!
Forge (fôrj, frj) 1. To form (metal) by a mechanical or hydraulic press. 2. To fashion or reproduce for fraudulent purposes; counterfeit.
I know a lot of the Honda and MX5 guys would literally shit their brains out of their eyes if they saw someone fit wheels with offsets more than 5mm different to stock. It doesn't make the wrong, and they seriously outnumber the people willing to carve up their cars body just to fit some wheels.
I'd replace Honda and MX5 with Subaru and Evo and I'd agree. Honda and MX5 drivers are going fitment crazy at the moment. Although everything HAS to be BBS.
i can see what initial J is saying. I wouldn't splash out on wheels if they were gay offset like et30. how about 15 x 8 et 0 for s13's??? they would sell and look awesome! surely! maybe people 'like' gay offset. i dont get it. because most people who buy 18" rota's will put massive spacers on. are people really that stupid???? strange..........
18x9.5 ET+30 is tight fitment on cars like Evos/Scoobies. ET+12 is considered agressive. Thems big markets.
^ This Its horses for courses, Extreme offset not only causes arch issues, lets be honest a car with big changes in offset over standard does not drive as nicely as one with closer to stock ET's (unless you have made other changes to compensate) Et12's on an evo, would dare I say it, be Form>function.
