rb185afm

I am in the market for some track only 18" rims for my Grandsport. I am debating between Finspeed and CCW. I'm leaning CCW as they are a bit cheaper. Can anyone give me a reason to choose one over the other? Or, are they basically a wash? I plan on staring with R888 then moving to slicks.

v10climber

Why not forgestar? Waaaaay cheaper than CCW. Call Sam at Stranoparts. He'll know the offsets you need.

Bill Dearborn

Don't know about the others but I have one problem with my CCWs. The R compound tires slip on them under braking and acceleration. CCW advises me the only way to resolve that is to knurl the beads. The guy I talked to said that since they are now part of Weld he is trying to get them offer knurling as an option on CCW wheels. Weld has that option on dome of their other wheels. I don't know how much it costs to get them knurled at a machine shop but you should consider having that done no matter which wheels you buy.

I like CCW and I think their purchase by Weld hasn't hurt their quality or Customer service but there are differences between wheels and it helps to know which differences mean something and which ones don't.

Bill

blkbrd69

While I love my beautiful Forgestar C10 wheels, they are "not forged", not hubcentric, and would not trust them as high speed track wheels with slicks.

I think my Finspeeds are works of art plus they are the nicest people in the world, CCW are very nice and strong but prefer the design and aesthetics of Finspeed. FYI the bead knurl works well and the ceramic finish cleans up very easily. Both hold their value very well selling used for almost new prices, although track wheels do have a lifespan.

The 18" Finspeed fit over carbon ZR1-C7Z or 380mm steel discs. Where the 18" Forgestar do not.
I am running a 19" front to clear a 380mm Stoptech/Brembo disc for my Forgestar street wheels.

GT Racing Tires

We are a Finspeed dealer. Contact me if you decide to go that way. I have a set of OE C5Z rears for sale. they have only been used three times. The rears have been widened to 12" by Weldkraft. PM me if your interested.

Rob Willis

I've had both CCW (2 diff sets) and Finspeed.

Both are HIGH quality options. Can't go wrong with either.

rb185afm

Thanks all! The beaded knurl was the exact type of info I was fishing for. I'm going to call CCW and if they don't offer the service, I'm going to get a set of Finspeed's.

cemaykan

Does anybody know which one of these are lighter?

db2xpert

Bill,
I've heard about the slipping with CCWs before -- but mine don't slip. Have marked and checked several times, every time this comes up.
No slip with Hoosier R6, A6, Michelin and avon full slicks.
Maybe something different with yours?
Mine are C10s, C14s, all black anodiized.

v10climber

The tire mounting lube can affect tire slip on the rim. Some of the lubes are better about drying but staying tacky and helping hold the tire in place.

RX-Ben

If you have the cash, I wouldn't consider anything other than Finspeeds.

I will vouch for Forgestars though. Anything since 2014 is good, they had an issue before then. Used them with slicks, aero and at 2+g's.

Bill Dearborn

Here is what mine looked like after a couple of sessions at the Glen in July last year. I put the shoe polish on after they had already gone out of balance and this was how much further they slipped.











Fronts had braking slippage while the rears had acceleration slippage. By the time they had slipped this much the car rode like one of those vibrating chairs used for health care. At over 100 mph there was quite a buzz in the butt with 4 wheels feeling like they suddenly went square. When I got home from the Glen I went back to Discount Tire where the tires had been mounted and had them take the tires off clean the rims, reinstall the tires and rebalance. A few weeks later they did the same thing at VIR. There was a Hoosier Truck supporting an SCCA Trans Am group that was sharing the track with us so I stopped by their truck to get their opinion on the slippage. They said they were very familiar with the issue on CCW wheels and told me I had to get the wheels knurled. Now CCW has said the same thing.

Bill

Kaged

Is Finspeed still in business? I have left several messages on their machine and have not gotten a response.

64drvr

I was told no when I was shopping a few months ago. I went with ccw instead. Customer service was meh but the wheels were produced fairly quickly ~4 weeks. My concerns with forgestars have already been mentioned. Forgelines were too expensive.

naschmitz

I have the same issue. I just swap the tires left to right and rotate the rubber back where it belongs.

rb185afm

I ended going up with CCW TS12's. Getting them in blue. Finspeed did not respond to any emails or phone calls over a week. So, as I wanted to stay around 4K, I really ran light on options. I have to say, I'm very excited to get them and throw some sticky rubber on. Rims should be similar to the attached pic. But in a race version. The pic is the design, but for a truck.

96CollectorSport

We've had balance issues with wheels in the past so what we do is balance the wheel by itself. Then mount the tire, since the tires move around on the wheels anyway the initial balance isn't going to stay long.
This is especially true if you are running used slicks - some of those tires are coated with track turds - after you run a lap of two the balance is going to be way different.

Also it seems like the tires only move around for the first session or two after that they don't seem to move as much.

We've had good luck with the balance rim then mount tire on several different wheel tire combinations YMMV.

rb185afm

Thanks!

SBC_and_a_stick

Can knurling be done on used wheels or only during construction?

I have CCWs but I haven't checked whether the slicks move on them. If there is vibration it's slight. I also use scrubs so there is junk on the slicks and it piles up randomly all the time.

I have worse problems with the OEM wheels on the street since they all bend easily with run-flat Cup 2s and vibrate violently.

dvandentop

i dont think they are sounds like dedicated motorsports and them shared a shop and not sure what else went on. Some of the workers who worked at finspeed started up their own wheel brand from what I could tell from facebook postings.
The new company was at PRI i guess