Forged wheels

[CaptainSensible]

Like lots on here I'm still struggling to finalise my spec.

One area I'm torn on is wheels. I love the design of the diamond cut wheels but cautious about how they will stand up to regular use as they are a pain to refurb.

What I'd really like to see is some good quality images of the forged wheels, in both silver and black. The renderings on the configurator are crap and don't really give a good idea of what they might look like in the metal.

Has anyone seen any proper images?

 

[TomE]

These are renders but pretty good ones for all three options

 

[CaptainSensible]

Thanks Tom. Would still like to see some real images of the wheels though. We've had colour samples for interior and exterior, wouldn't think it would be that hard to get hold of a couple of wheels for the roadshow

 

[DJW]

after seeing the car in the flesh I would say the diamond cut will be easiest to appear clean as the dark grey inserts will hide dirt and brake dust well.

 

[freefall_junkie]

I've had 3 cars with diamond cut wheels (2 VWs and my current BMW F31) and they have all suffered the dreaded milking under the lacquer. No matter how careful you are with the wheels, it seems the tiniest nick from a stone chip is enough to set off corrosion of the diamond cut surface. Probably less of an issue if your Emira is going to be a weekend toy and not driven much on salted roads in the winter, but worth considering. I am not sure about the petal design of the Emira's diamond cut wheels anyway, so black forged for me, with red calipers adding a nice bit of contrast.

 

[DJW]

Had similar on older cars with diamond cut, but my wife’s Mini JCW was fine over 5 years all year round use and 20k miles.

 

[TXEMIRA]

I’m such a big fan of the all blacks. This is a still of a video with the Evora in motion. Imagine a black caliper… It’s like there are no wheels and the body line will show so well.

Bit more difficult to keep clean of course but I think they’re worth it.

 

[CheshireCat]

I've had 3 cars with diamond cut wheels (2 VWs and my current BMW F31) and they have all suffered the dreaded milking under the lacquer. No matter how careful you are with the wheels, it seems the tiniest nick from a stone chip is enough to set off corrosion of the diamond cut surface. Probably less of an issue if your Emira is going to be a weekend toy and not driven much on salted roads in the winter, but worth considering. I am not sure about the petal design of the Emira's diamond cut wheels anyway, so black forged for me, with red calipers adding a nice bit of contrast.

I was at the Manchester UK presentation and there seemed to be a tiny 3mm area of milking or delamination of the rear nearside wheel. I should have taken a picture but with all the positive aspects of the car as presented I didn't do so.
It will be very difficult for Lotus to quality control the manufacture of components sourced externally and I have the same aversion to diamond cut wheels for the same reason and I am also going for black forged.

 

[NickR]

I was at the Manchester UK presentation and there seemed to be a tiny 3mm area of milking or delamination of the rear nearside wheel. I should have taken a picture but with all the positive aspects of the car as presented I didn't do so.
It will be very difficult for Lotus to quality control the manufacture of components sourced externally and I have the same aversion to diamond cut wheels for the same reason and I am also going for black forged.

They weren't production wheel but mockups. I asked at the Exeter event

 

[jamesbxxx]

In case you didn't realize (I didn't) It's the same wheel design for all 3 options

 

[Tonyshepp]

I'm going silver - fed up with diamond cut alloys and milking issues and then the subsequent farce of getting them recut.

 

[TXEMIRA]

I'm going silver - fed up with diamond cut alloys and milking issues and then the subsequent farce of getting them recut.

This one was hard for me to google. At first I was like “oh he definitely means ‘milling’…”

So what you’re saying is the diamond cut has a tendency to corrode a bit?

 

[SJR202]

This one was hard for me to google. At first I was like “oh he definitely means ‘milling’…”

So what you’re saying is the diamond cut has a tendency to corrode a bit?

Yep, especially where salt is used on roads in winter or wheel cleaning agents which are aggressive are used. Basically the polished surface slowly turns white and loses all its shine. You can also only refurb diamond cut a certain amount of times over the wheel life as each refurb removes a layer of metal to 'clean it' up. My E92 BMW wheels look a mess but they can no longer be refurbished (though at 150k miles and 11 years old its not the end of the world)

 

[Tonyshepp]

Yep, especially where salt is used on roads in winter or wheel cleaning agents which are aggressive are used. Basically the polished surface slowly turns white and loses all its shine. You can also only refurb diamond cut a certain amount of times over the wheel life as each refurb removes a layer of metal to 'clean it' up. My E92 BMW wheels look a mess but they can no longer be refurbished (though at 150k miles and 11 years old its not the end of the world)

I'm lucky, on my second cut on E93 45k miles and 8 years old.

 

[Nova]

The diamond-cut wheels as far as I've been told are already a matte finish and therefore aren't shiny. Paints used on wheels have also gotten a lot better over the years. It used to be pretty standard to expect clear-coated machined wheels to develop a haze or grow "roots" due to chips in the clear coat allowing the underlying aluminum to oxidize.

 

[SemiF19]

after seeing the car in the flesh I would say the diamond cut will be easiest to appear clean as the dark grey inserts will hide dirt and brake dust well.

Can you give us your impressions of the car. The pictures look great, but until you see a car in person it's sometimes hard to tell. Was it as nice looking as you expected from the pictures?

 

[ADC]

I kinda dig the satin black two-tone style of the diamond cut wheels (it looks better in person than in the pics), but the lack of a connected shiny outer edge/rim is what drives me nuts about them... it would look so much better with a fully cut outer rim IMHO.

My current plan is to get the silver wheels, see how I feel about them for a short while, and then probably get them powder-coated in a dark bronze

Like this...

Or maybe this (not sure how bright is "too bright" yet) ...

If anyone is a dab hand with photoshop, I'd love to see that on the (Seneca) Emira renders

 

[prestonc]

I’m such a big fan of the all blacks. This is a still of a video with the Evora in motion. Imagine a black caliper… It’s like there are no wheels and the body line will show so well.

Bit more difficult to keep clean of course but I think they’re worth it.

I'm a fan of the black too.
I have a red Evora with black wheels and black calipers.
I'm looking at the Green Emira, and to start with was settled on black wheels, with yellow calipers, but after reading other posts about wheels, I'm very much leaning towards the silver wheels.
It's a first world problem, but it's still a problem!

 

[Nova]

I am also a fan of dark matte bronze-colored wheels. I had a set on a red C300 and they looked amazing. I don't know if it was the matte surface but I never had to clean those wheels either. Brake dust just didn't stick to them at all, not even a little bit.