Original Story: DriveSlate.com/Autoblog
When looking for aftermarket wheels, there are only 2 types of wheels you will consider: cast or forged. The difference between these 2 types of wheels is in the manufacturing process.
Forged rims are made from solid aluminium that are heated to allow pressurized machines to shape the rims. Forged rims gets its name from the process of forging a single piece of aluminium into the shape of the wheel rims. Cast wheels on the other hand are made from aluminium that is melted into the liquid form, and poured into molds.
Don?t get me wrong with the title of this article. There are significant advantages to forged wheels such as forged wheels being 3x stronger and 25% lighter which is everything you want in a dedicated race car. The down side is that it costs 3x as much than a cast wheel.
Light weight doesn?t always have to be associated with forged wheels. You can also get cast wheels that are lighter and significantly cheaper. A key example of an amazing racing cast wheel is the Enkei RPF1. Weighing in at 17.9 lbs with a 189.5 wheel, it?s on par with weight in most of the popular volk forged wheels.
The bottom line is that if you?re in the market for just after market wheels you can daily drive and handle a few autoX and track events, you probably don?t need to spend the extra 2 grand on forged wheels. Yes, they look cool and will be a talking point amongst your car mates, but it?ll hurt that much more when you get a curb rash down the line.
