Sure he didn't slide off the road after the wheel blew a part?

 

^ the story will never come out... at this point, it's all speculations. although, it does have valid points on both sides of our assumptions.

 

^ Very true, only the driver will really know the truth.
I'd think if there were a real issue with subpar materials or casting there would be more instances of it online, considering how many rep wheels are sold.
Just my 2 cents.

 

Could have been the rim, could have been a car accident and the rim got damaged, who knows. Any brand wheel can break just like this one or worse. i've been in the after market wheel business for about 17 years now. I have seen it all. From mom and pop brand wheels, to OZ, Fittipaldi, HRE, everything can break. There is only so much that a tire can absorb before all the stress and impact hits the rim. All of these one piece cast wheels are all the same just a different cap. 3 piece? Yeah they're bad *** and sometimes they weigh a bit less, but sometimes bend faster. I really don't know what happened in this guys case, but hope no one got hurt.

 

Bahahahaha, amazing fail

This is what ticks me off, when people that can't tell the difference from one wheel to another posting pics like that trying to destroy a company's rep

 

Get out now, you have no idea what you're saying. I don't care how long you've been in the business.

GR6RR, that's exactly why I'm not saying anything. There is no proof to either story, he could hit a wall at 80 because he was drunk, never know!

However, those Varrstoen LM reps posted with the separated lip both have backing stories from the guys that did it. The stories are also very similar, which leads to the only answer being a design flaw from Varrstoen. When I asked them about it, they never replied and basically ignored it. AND I asked very politely. Just goes to show they don't stand behind their products.

 

As a mechanical engineer, I always find these threads humorous. You see all kinds of statements and responses that simply bring a smile to my face. Laughter is great medicine.

Here is some food for thought that I wanted to share as a designer myself:
As a designer you take into account your material properties and adjust your design accordingly. In the wheel manufacturing arena, you have forging, low pressure casting and gravity casting, with forging being the highest strength material per volume and gravity casing being the weakest. Some wheels will add a hot-rolling operation to shape the final rim geometry which work-hardens and strengthens the rim portion of the wheel. That being said as the wheel is being designed the geometry will be adjusted to provide the necessary strength. So naturally you have the capacity to design a much lighter wheel with a forging than with a gravity casting or low pressure casting, BUT that does not make the forging any stronger than the casting. Let me say that again, just because it is a forged wheel does not make the wheel stronger than a non-forged. For example, a manufacturer could have a very light weight forged wheel design that has less strength than a conservative cast design. The point here is, don’t assume a forged wheel is any stronger than a cast wheel.

Similarly, while forging has a greater strength to volume ratio, that does not mean a forged wheel will be lighter than a comparable sized cast wheel. A wheel designer could design a very conservative-strength forged wheel that could actually outweigh an aggressive-light weight cast wheel design. Now clearly, the forged wheel would win the strength contest between these two. The point here is, don’t assume a forged wheel is lighter than a comparable sized cast wheel.

Now lets step back to a statement I said earlier regarding “necessary strength”. What is the necessary strength? This is what is going to differentiate your wheel manufacturers. Most wheel manufactures are going to follow organizational standards such as JWL for testing requirements. Now not every wheel manufacturer follows this standards and some such as Rota and Rays test above and beyond JWL standards. For liability reasons OEM wheels will almost always be tested to some standard (JWL, etc), whether they are the typical OEM cast wheel or a set of Rays or Enkei forged wheels. Gravity cast wheels and low-pressure cast wheels are perfectly acceptable wheels for both daily driving and/or competitive racing. The key point to take home here, is that you must consider the label/manufacturer of the wheel you are considering and what testing and validation are performed to ensure the quality of their designs and products. My recommendation when considering a set of wheels is find out what design and testing standards the manufacturer/label follows. If they do not perform any testing or design validation, then I would definitely look elsewhere, whether forged or cast.

To recap:
Forged wheels have the capacity to be lighter and the capacity to be stronger than their gravity cast and low pressure cast counterparts, but that does not mean they are. The ultimate strength and weight is dependent on both the material, manufacturing process and design. And finally, when choosing wheels find out how the manufacturer tests and validates their designs and how they control quality.

Side note:
Something that has got me thinking is that these testing standards are performed with typical tire installations. I am seeing more and more end-users fall into this new fad of stretching ridiculously narrow tires on wide wheels. My theory is that this practice actually compromises wheel integrity. With a normal tire installation the sidewalls are closely running parallel. This will transfer the tire loads radially into the wheel rim flange. In a stretched tire installation the sidewalls are no longer near parallel. This transmits a large component of tire load as opposing axial loads on the wheel rim flanges. This could present itself as a fatigue failure or a catastrophic failure from hitting a pothole or rumble-strips on the track. The point is, a stretched tire loads the wheel in a manner that is not tested with typical wheel standards. Something to chew on.

 

Bryan, none of that was not considered.

In a previous thread we actually had an authentic BBS LM replica on a scale beside a fake LM replica. The weights are nearly identical. One is 3 piece party forged, the other is 100% cast and 1 piece.... if you catch my drift there.

Don't bring stretching tires into this thread, as this thread has absolutely nothing to do with it. I've never seen a wheel bend, crack or damaged as direct result of added stress at the bead. Sure a bead can rolll off and you'll eat the inner barrel, but that has nothing to do with stretched tires adding stress. All of the wheels in this thread are on full size manufacture's spec widths.

 

dont misquote me, I never suggested that any of the wheels in this thread failed from tire stretching. I merely stating an observation and that was that a wheel with a stretched tire is going to see different loading and fatigue stresses than one with a properly sized tire. The significance is the question, and unfortunately that is a question that will likely not get answered because manufacturers are likely not going to test that scenario. I also am not suggesting that a stretched tire is going to directly cause a wheel failure, but I am suggesting that the varying stresses could negatively impact the fatigue life of the wheel.

 

Sorry didn't mean to take your words out of context, I do realize it was a side note.

Main word there is could, without testing stretched vs full size tires you really only have an opinion. There is ALWAYS a tonne of stress at the bead, that's the reason it holds air. However, stretching the tire does not change how or where the tire seats, it still seats at the bead because that is the only place it can sit to hold pressure, therefore the stress point is the same displaced over the whole lip/barrel.

That's my theory haha.

Everything else I agree with you, The stretched tire conversation is really for another thread (or another 100)

 

No, it's not an opinion. A simply free body diagram of the wheel barrel loading condition illustrates this. Again, the significance of the changes in loading is the question, but we will likely never know. A stretched tire static and driving-dynamic loading stresses maybe insignificant over the life of a wheel, but then again perhaps they could reduce fatigue life (ie. cycle life).

 

 

Yea, no way to prove anything unless someone is willing to but in the time/effort/money in order to do so. When wheels start exploding because of stretched tires (instead of poor manufacturing like seen in the thread) then we might have an issue.

 

Sad thing is People jumping to conclusions. As a Firefighter we respond to many a TA(Traffic accident), what doesn't get posted is the display of speed,lack of driving experience, alcohol, etc. People jump to fast to base their knowledgable posts based on what they see or what is presented in just a picture. Facts are Facts.....

 

way to ignore a valid response for one that's easy to attack.
Btw, he asked "lineas?" as opposed to making a definitive statement.