Wheel/Tire Dilemma

[Viper GTS]

I'm nearing the end of my PS2s on factory wheels so about a year ago I picked up a set of Forgestar F14 wheels on ebay for next to nothing (around half retail):

http://www.forgestar.com/v2/wheelsf14.php

The idea was that I'd be able to run Pilot Super Sports and the wheels would pay for themselves in just two sets of tires. I'm not normally big on cosmetic mods but with OEM sizes becoming hard to reliably find moving to a more recent tire was appealing.

Then I found these:

http://www.viperpartsrack.com/viper-wheels/Sidewinder-2-Ultra

OEM Viper wheels which is a bonus. Pirelli is running a special this year for the OEM Gen V Viper tires which puts P Zeros (I don't have a climate controlled garage so no Corsa) around 25% cheaper than Super Sports. Downside is this:

http://www.caranddriver.com/compari...mmer-performance-tires-tested-comparison-test

Of course Michelin may decide at some point to make Gen V sizes and then it would be all good.

So, what do I do? Cheap wheel with PSS in 295/30/19 and 345/30/19 or an OEM wheel with Pirelli P Zero in 295/30/18 and 355/30/19 and further waiting/hoping for PSS.

Cost difference ends up around $1500 because of the stupid cheap Forgestars. I threw up an ad on Craigslist at $100 over what I paid for them and already have two people wanting them so getting my money back out of them shouldn't be a problem.

Viper GTS

 

[Wuzup101]

Personally I'm a PSS fan (have them on both of my cars) but the only thing I'd worry about is going up an inch in total tire diameter in the front and down 0.78 in the rear. I'm assuming this might be better fielded on the viper forums (finding someone who has tried it with the PSS or another tire in the same size). That seems like a pretty big change from OEM size though.

FWIW, both wheels look good.

 

[JCH13]

I would give a huge thumbs up to Forgestar. Their engineering is top-notch* and the look really nice. I'd use those wheels.

As for tires... are you ever going to competitively track it? If not, either tire will be fine IMO. You'll never really notice the difference. Get whatever ones are cheaper and/or last longer or has some other performance metric you like. They're both solid tires.

The test you linked is splitting hairs for street-driven cars IMO, or even the occasional HDPE. It's like buying a TV in a store - yeah, a good one looks like 'the worst' when it's next to the absolute top-of-the-line, but when you get it home you'll never notice the difference.


*I have reverse engineered Forgestar wheels and was unable to improve them structurally in any meaningful way.

 

[Viper GTS]

I would give a huge thumbs up to Forgestar. Their engineering is top-notch* and the look really nice. I'd use those wheels.

As for tires... are you ever going to competitively track it? If not, either tire will be fine IMO. You'll never really notice the difference. Get whatever ones are cheaper and/or last longer or has some other performance metric you like. They're both solid tires.

The test you linked is splitting hairs for street-driven cars IMO, or even the occasional HDPE. It's like buying a TV in a store - yeah, a good one looks like 'the worst' when it's next to the absolute top-of-the-line, but when you get it home you'll never notice the difference.


*I have reverse engineered Forgestar wheels and was unable to improve them structurally in any meaningful way.

That actually helps a lot, one of my factors has been the assumption that the factory TA wheels were probably better quality. When I see sets of wheels going for $4-6k it seems hard to imagine that wheels that retail for $2k and I got for $1k are going to be worth anything. The PSS are a better fit compared the original tire sizes and I actually like the look of the Forgestar a little better but the OEM + potentially better quality was skewing my judgment.

Forgestar + PSS it is.

Viper GTS

 

[JCH13]

That actually helps a lot, one of my factors has been the assumption that the factory TA wheels were probably better quality. When I see sets of wheels going for $4-6k it seems hard to imagine that wheels that retail for $2k and I got for $1k are going to be worth anything. The PSS are a better fit compared the original tire sizes and I actually like the look of the Forgestar a little better but the OEM + potentially better quality was skewing my judgment.

Forgestar + PSS it is.

Viper GTS

Sounds like a win to me.

Forgestars, particularly the F14, are very popular in the Porsche world. They are light, strong, and look good. Just make sure that you get the right hub-centric rings for them, I wouldn't want to run them lug-centric on a Viper.

 

[Imported]

I had a Forgestar F14 crack during a track day when I had my G35. I'm a little bitter with them. They didn't want to look at the wheel to check why it failed. Not to mention it took what seemed like almost 9 months to initially get my wheels. I bought very early though.. around the time they first started selling.

 

[Viper GTS]

Sounds like a win to me.

Forgestars, particularly the F14, are very popular in the Porsche world. They are light, strong, and look good. Just make sure that you get the right hub-centric rings for them, I wouldn't want to run them lug-centric on a Viper.

As it turns out the set i have is hub-centric for my car so no rings necessary. Makes it an even clearer choice.

Viper GTS

 

[JCH13]

^Winner winner, chicken dinner.

I had a Forgestar F14 crack during a track day when I had my G35. I'm a little bitter with them. They didn't want to look at the wheel to check why it failed. Not to mention it took what seemed like almost 9 months to initially get my wheels. I bought very early though.. around the time they first started selling.

There are several reports of F14s cracking in track use - generally if curbing was hit or some other abuse happened. There are also stories of people using F14s on the track for a couple years at a time with no issues.

Aluminum wheels, especially light aluminum wheels, have a finite lifespan of track use (sometimes even road use). If you could share some of the details of what happened perhaps we could shed some light on why they failed.