How to choose alloy wheels

Alloy wheels are currently very popular among car enthusiasts. Excellent precision manufacturing and balancing, low weight, high reliability and a huge variety of styles and designs - these and many other characteristics have contributed to the fact that you can see the “casting” instead of stamped iron discs on expensive foreign cars and on old “basins”. All that is necessary for the car enthusiast who wants to tune up his car is to choose the right drive parameters for his car.

The best manufacturers of alloy wheels for cars

Traditionally, the best are considered to be legendary manufacturers in the field of auto-tuning and motor-sport, whose names have been on everyone’s lips for more than a dozen years:

1. Alpina

2. Brabus

3. Vossen

4. AEZ

5. Rondell

6. Dezent

7. Borbet

8. Volk

The catalogs of each of the above brands include many models for every taste and are suitable for installation on any car. When choosing beautiful wheels, one should pay attention not only to the technical characteristics, but also to the operational features highlighted by the people who used specific models on their iron horses. It is easy to find them - just register on the relevant auto forums and on social networks.

Types of alloy wheels

Modern alloy wheels are made of high-strength aluminum alloys and are balanced on the most accurate optical equipment, as a result of which an ideal flatness and no runout are ensured while driving. By the principle of manufacture, all discs can be divided into two conditional groups.

Classic alloy wheels

They are made from special aluminum alloys by injection molding in a mold, which results in a uniform structure, correct geometry and balancing. They are processed on special equipment to bring the balancing to almost zero level and are covered with special polymer compounds to give an aesthetic appearance.

Virtues

• A variety of styles and designs;

• Perfectly balancing;

• Ease of operation and simplicity in care;

• High strength;

• Size from 13 to 25 inches;

disadvantages

• Soft aluminum is easily damaged due to contact with hard surfaces and after entering the pit;

• Top road models;

• Prone to cracking;

Forged alloy wheels

The principle of making "forging" is similar to the above, but after casting the surface of the disc is processed with a special tool, which significantly increases their mechanical strength and reduces the total weight. They are widely used in motor sport and among professional tuners, for which the weight of the disc plays no less important than a stylish design.

Virtues

• Beautiful appearance;

• Perfectly balanced;

• Durable and resistant to abrasion;

• A variety of colors and designs;

• Low weight;

disadvantages

• Fragile, may crack if released into a deep hole;

• Expensive;

The main selection criteria for alloy wheels

The choice of “casting” for a particular car always means solving a set of serious problems related to determining the compliance of specific drive parameters with those declared by the manufacturer of the car. Pay attention to the following nuances.

Diameter of cast disk

It has the most direct impact on the overall size of the wheel and the ability to install it on a particular car. Discs with diameters ranging from 13 to 23-24 inches are on sale.

Sizes from 14 to 17 inches are considered the most "popular" - most of these disks are installed on modern domestic cars and foreign cars. The larger the diameter of the cast disc - the more beautiful it looks and the harder it becomes its chassis when operating on bad roads.

The minimum and maximum diameter should fully comply with the parameters provided by the car manufacturer. Exceeding the recommended diameter threatens that the disc will cling to the wheel flipping over the wheel arch liner and rub against the arch, but installing a disk of a smaller diameter is often impossible - the brake caliper rests on the disk.

Razboltovka

The parameter that displays the number and size of bolts that fix a particular drive to the car. This parameter is determined by the manufacturer of the machine, the disk is chosen according to the number and diameter of the mounting holes on the hub. For example, the traditional BMW 5x120 razboltovka means that five bolts with a length of 120 millimeters are used to fasten the wheel.

Diameter of central hub bore

Indicates the size of the center hole on the hub of the car, designed to fix the cast disc. Commonly encountered values ​​are 71.5, 72.8, 74.2 millimeters.

It is necessary to choose alloy wheels, the diameter of the central part of which corresponds to the hub of the car and the parameter, which is determined by the manufacturer.

In the case when the discs do not correspond to the CH parameter, to install them, you will need to use a special spacer that changes this parameter. The spacer is a special transition cylinder with a variable diameter - in one part the diameter of the central disk of the disk, in the other - the central part of the hub;

Disc crash

The parameter that indicates how far the edge of the disc is from its landing surface. Denoted by the letter ET and is measured in millimeters. The higher the value, the further the center of the disk will be removed from its edge and the deeper the wheel will “sit” in the arch. For example, on the same car, wheels with a departure ET20 will stick out from the arch more than those with a departure ET47. This option is selected solely on the basis of recommendations of a particular automaker.

Disk width

The wider the disc, the greater the contact patch of the tire with expensive and the better its functional features. Negative factor - increased rutting: the car starts to behave too "nervously" on a rough road. Single wide alloy wheels, whose width of four wheels is identical, and raznoshirokie, the width of which is different for the front and rear axle. The latter, as a rule, are designed for sports cars and provide improved controllability and vehicle dynamics.

Disc weight

Significant parameter for the participants of various auto racing. The higher the weight of the wheel - the higher the unsprung weight of the car and the worse the dynamics of acceleration and deceleration. It is for this reason that race drivers try to use lightweight forged wheels, “shoeing” them into special racing tires. By such manipulations, the acceleration dynamics is reduced by 0.4-0.5 seconds in the discipline of 0-100 kilometers per hour.

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Attention! This material is the subjective opinion of the authors of the project and is not a guide to purchase.