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Design your own wheels! OMGWTFBBQ! FTW! Market Research Thread

335 Trojan

Macro FTW.
Location
Los Angeles, CA
I have a hypothetical for you today. What if you could design your own 2, 3 or single block forged wheel? I mean the same quality build, weight and paint as HRE, DPE, Iconz.

BUT.....You choose the dimensions, number of spokes, the thickness of each spoke, make whatever shapes you want out of the spokes, add grooves, etc.

Basically, using a custom made graphic interfaced program you would be able to easily design your own wheels.


Now because forged wheels usually depend on size and such, imagine the price is about $100-$200 (each) above the price of other forged wheels. At that point I have a few questions:

-Does the brand name matter? If I gave you the option to have your own center cap printed and name engraved in the spoke would you do it?

-What would you be your main fears about this kind of process?

-Any other thoughts/opinions?

Thanks for all the help with some good ole' market research. :w00t:
 

Volkswagging

Don't Hate, Inseminate
Location
Orange County
That would be awesome. I think if I had the money for DPEs, I would spring for my own custom designs instead. BUT, I would fear the quality (aka I would not be willing to be one of the first people to try them), and I would fear the transition from computer design to real world look (how do I know those graphical wheels will look good in real life?).
 

335 Trojan

Macro FTW.
Location
Los Angeles, CA
Would be cool, but I imagine that you'd need to do some strength testing, and get some ISO or whatever organization approval.

That would be awesome. I think if I had the money for DPEs, I would spring for my own custom designs instead. BUT, I would fear the quality (aka I would not be willing to be one of the first people to try them), and I would fear the transition from computer design to real world look (how do I know those graphical wheels will look good in real life?).

oh dont worry about that stuff. The wheels would be 6061-T6 Forged. Which is what all the high end companies use I believe.

We would have it within the software parameters on the design program so that no one could design an un-makeable wheel, or a wheel that wouldnt be strong enough to drive on safely with approval.

aka no one can make spokes that are .5 inches thick...that just wouldnt work lol.
 

GTI6120

Go Kart Champion
Location
Georgia
Car(s)
2008 GTI, 08 A3
Very interesting, I have been looking for some 2/3 piece wheels for a long time, but cant find anything I like-Now when you say comparable to other brands , how much are we talking-$1000, $800, $600/wheel. If you can have a standard barrel-say 18" and then standard lips(stepped for me) and then I can design the center-this would be awesome. In these economic times, price will be one of the most important aspect for future growth-I am not willing to pay $1000/wheel. Here is another idea, our cars are plagued with high offsets, which then does not allow us to run "big lip" wheels(unless we are running crazy stretched tires and camber-you can do some standard designs which allow larger lips, which I am looking for, this then allows a cheaper non-custom design price. I think its a great idea if you have the ways and means to do it correctly.
 

Jonny_5

Ready to race!
Location
The Alamo
Now because forged wheels usually depend on size and such, imagine the price is about $100-$200 (each) above the price of other forged wheels. At that point I have a few questions:

-Does the brand name matter? If I gave you the option to have your own center cap printed and name engraved in the spoke would you do it?

-What would you be your main fears about this kind of process?

-Any other thoughts/opinions?

Thanks for all the help with some good ole' market research. :w00t:

-Brand doesn't matter to me. I probably wouldn't engrave any lettering/logos on the wheel face itself. Custom caps is a nice option, but how much money would a consumer save with a generic mass produced piece?

-Like someone else stated before I'd be afraid of what the wheel will actually look like in real life. When you design your own wheel you gotta decide if you want to play it safe and pattern it after an existing wheel you already like or do you go balls out and try something different? I'm guessing this would be pretty far fetched but could there be any kind of "satisfaction guarantee"? I bet that would get more customers interested.

-Since most people are only interested in the design of the wheel face, having standardized barrels/lips/etc to help reduce costs would be something to think about.
 

Volkswagging

Don't Hate, Inseminate
Location
Orange County
Very interesting, I have been looking for some 2/3 piece wheels for a long time, but cant find anything I like-Now when you say comparable to other brands , how much are we talking-$1000, $800, $600/wheel. If you can have a standard barrel-say 18" and then standard lips(stepped for me) and then I can design the center-this would be awesome. In these economic times, price will be one of the most important aspect for future growth-I am not willing to pay $1000/wheel. Here is another idea, our cars are plagued with high offsets, which then does not allow us to run "big lip" wheels(unless we are running crazy stretched tires and camber-you can do some standard designs which allow larger lips, which I am looking for, this then allows a cheaper non-custom design price. I think its a great idea if you have the ways and means to do it correctly.

good luck ever finding multipiece forged wheels for under $1000 per. unless you can get in on a groupbuy, most DPE/iForged/HRE/Forgeline/etc. are above that
 
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