CQRT

I put repro chromes on my C6 and ran them for the five eyars I owned the car without issue.

Am looking at repro's for the C5 and figure if I stick with forum vendors, I'll be in good shape even if there's a problem.

Not so confident in the Ebay stuff . . .

Property1

You're correct about this. I did some quick research and replica Z06 wheels are going to be about 5 pounds heavier for each wheel than the OEM wheels. About 20 pounds total of unsprung weight added. I've seen all sorts of discussions about the real life effect of adding unsprung weight in your wheels, but a rough average from what I've read is about 0.1 in a quarter mile if you add 20 pounds on the wheels. And obviously the handling will be a tiny bit worse. I'm not sure if that is enough to sway me, though.

jdk541

I once tried reproduction wheels on my car and got burned bad. The set I received had runout enough that there was steady vibration above 60 MPH. The vendor who I purchased them from (West Coast Corvette) had a very poor return policy. Cost me weeks of time, great frustration and in the end I was out several hundred dollars.

I learned my lesson and unless I am going to drop big-bucks on wheels, I will stick with OEM. I have since put a nice set of OEMs on my car and no problems.

I know that MOST of the reproductions are probably ok, but as stated before, you get what you pay for so just procede with caution to protect yourself.

Good Luck.

ptaylor_9849

A picture is worth a thousand words right? Well here are the repros sent to me by none other than West Coast Corvettes. I will NEVER make that mistake again. Don't forget to click the bar above each picture to make them bigger so you get a good look. Also, if you're the picky type, repros don't balance out like OEM and you'll feel that on the highway in your steering wheel.

Property1

They arrived to you brand new like that? Couldn't you just return it for an undamaged set? Or is that damage that happened from driving on the wheels?

Flh Den

That is a crappy looking wheel. I had repro's on my c5 and they were perfect, my friend liked them so much he bought a set as well. My friend now has a C6 with another set from a forum vendor. One of our mutual friends owns a big front end shop and he does all our work and he thought they were nice and balanced perfectly. They are heavier as stated above but I could never tell the difference. If my C6 did not come with chrome wheels I would have bought another set of repro's in a heartbeat.

ptaylor_9849

Property1, those were brand new, never mounted right out of the box like that. The only thing worse than the condition of the wheels was the customer service or lack of it. By the way, I paid shipping to and from for those wheels and never used them. So in short it cost me $200 to open the box, look at the wheels and ship them back.

Top_Fuel

OP...you need to re-read the above 3 times. If you buy reproduction wheels, examine them carefully yourself for cosmetic flaws and THEN have a competent shop spin them on a balancer to make sure they are straight and won't require 8lbs of weights to balance. Vendors don't do any quality control checking on these things before they ship them out. If you don't find a problem until AFTER you mount tires, some wheel vendors will blame the tire mounting process and will throw you under the bus.

One more thing...BEFORE you buy any wheel from any vendor, verify who pays for the return shipping of the wheel if they send you one with a flaw. Believe it or not, some places will sell you an out of spec wheel and then expect YOU to pay for return shipping.

Cor430vette

Here is the thing...almost all wheels are assembled or made in china now.
I have been looking for some quality black wheels in C6 sizes under 2k that weigh less or the same as stock wheels .....they do not exist. TSW is the only ones that I have found but they are assembled in China also...LOL
You can go forged wheels but youll have buyers remorse after you buy them ...especially when you realize you gained zero HP for 5k....

Cor430vette

I had some sour deals with West Coast too many times....I dont buy from them anymore.

Property1

I think after much debate I'll be going with some OEM wheels from Bob at House of Wheels. He is giving me a very good price. It will be about $300 more for a set of 4 than it would be for replica wheels. If it was double the price, I probably would buy replicas, but this isn't a big enough difference in price. Not to mention the 20-30 pounds of rotating mass that replica wheels would add which I'm not a fan of.

For anyone else considering replica wheels, make sure you check with House of Wheels first because they will get you a very competitive price on OEM wheels compared to replicas.

Mikado463

Wow, talk about cheap cast junk !

It cracks me up when guys spend serious coin on a serious performance vehicle and then won't spend $$ on good wheels. Forged will always be best and if one feels the need for a cast wheel then at a minimum pressure casting, not chealp **** gravity casting !

ExRedRacer

Good choice. Good for you. Pics when you get them installed.!

2006c6keller

Reproduction wheels were bad! They were with the following problems:

1. Out of round,
2. Out of balance (took up to six (6) onces to balance EACH wheel),
3. Machining varied from wheel to wheel,
4. Hub caps falling off, and
5. Good for only speeds UNDER double digits and that always not very good.

Note: These were balanced on Road Force balancer.

These wheels are good for car shows but not driving.

Now, to solve wheel problem, you have to start with GOOD major wheel brands that start at $700 to $800 a wheel only, no tire, and up. It ain't cheap, but it runs good!

Ps: I tried it the "cheap" way and sold those lousy wheels for $300 with a loss of $800. No beauty in this!