The 101>>cool Japanese Wheels Pt.2

Now it's time to continue our look at iconic Japanese wheels with a venture into the world of one-piece racing wheels. Known for their high quality, light weights, and stylish designs, these wheels can be found all over the world and their styles have been imitated time and time again. Even people who are not into Japanese tuning should be familiar with wheels like the Volk TE37 and Advan RS. Besides being found on tuned Japanese cars worldwide, the quality of these wheels is good enough to be used by owners of high end non-Japanese cars like Porsche 911's and BMW M3's, and even Corvette Z06's.

Now let's take a look at some the popular models. Again, this is not supposed to be an end-all wheel guide, but a simple overview of well known models.

Volk Racing TE37

There is no Japanese racing wheel more iconic and popular than the Ray's Engineering Volk TE37. It is one of the oldest wheels of this type and it's ultra lightweight forged construction and timeless six-spoke design have kept this wheel at the top when it comes to popularity. It looks right at home and car's dating from the '60s all the way to 2008 and it can be found on everything from vintage race cars and drift cars to time attack record breakers. I could write several posts alone just on this one wheel. The TE37 looks particularly great in low offset sizing with the concave or "GT-R face". There are also different variations of the original TE37 design like the "cup" and "gravel" versions.

Volk Racing CE28N

Right behind the TE37 in popularity is another Volk Racing wheel, the CE28N. Like the TE37, it comes in tons of different sizes that will fit everything from a Toyota Prius to widebody time attack cars. The Powerhouse Amuse GT1 S2000 seen above is just one of the many cars that the CE28N looks right at home on. Ray's offers the CE28N in a number of different colors, and I don't think there is a single color that doesn't look good on this wheel.

Volk Racing RE30

The RE30 is a more recent addition to the Volk Racing lineup, and since its release a couple years ago, it has become an extremely popular wheel both in Japan and elsewhere. The wheel is seen here on the VARIS Evo5 time attack car. On nearly all of its models, Volk has released special "Time Attack" editions with red wheel lips or other models with machined lips, but personally I think these wheels look better when they are all one color.

Nismo LMGT4 etc.

Another popular wheel made by Ray's Engineering is sold as the Nismo LMGT4 and can be seen on cars like Yoshinori Koguchi's 180SX and the the Nismo Skyline GT-R Z-Tune. The LMGT4 is quite popular for its aggressive five-spoke design and If I am not mistaken, a similar wheel is/was sold by Mazdaspeed. There have also been other similar wheels sold by companies like URAS and Bee*R.

Gram Lights 57 Series

Another popular Ray's Engineering brand is Gram Lights. Gram Lights wheels are generally heavier and cheaper than the Volk wheels, but they still offer high quality construction and good-looking designs. Most recently, the new Gram Lights 57D wheels with their wild colors have become very popular among D1GP teams in Japan. The Gramlights 57 Maximum and 57 Optimise are two of my personal favorites.

Advan RG & RGII

Yokohama's line of Advan racing wheels are also extremely popular worldwide. The six-spoke Advan RG and it's successor, the RGII are some of the most commonly seen Advan wheels. Like the Volk Racing wheels, they are also forged and are offered in some very aggressive sizes. The wide, low offset GT-R face versions of the RGII like the ones seen on the R32 above look awesome on any kind of car.

Advan RS

 The Advan RS is another popular part of the Advan wheel line. The RS can be seen on big name cars like the Zero Sports time attack Impreza and Nobu Taniguchi's HKS Altezza drift car. Speaking of HKS, Advan has a tight relationship with them and Advan wheels can be seen on all of the demo and race cars built by HKS. The RS wheel has also become very popular among the BMW crowd in Japan recently.

Advan Model T6

The Model T6 is another six-spoke offering from Advan. It's thicker, flatter spoke design distinguishes it from the RG. The Aristo that Manabu Orido drives in Formula D is rocking a set of these wheels in the attractive dark chrome finish. The wheel in this photo is seen on Yashio Factory Oka-chan's D1 S13 Silvia. Yashio Factory also uses Advan wheels on all of its car drift and time attack projects.

Advan Model T7

The Advan T7 has been around for a long time, and although it is not of my personal favorites, it looks really good in concave offsets. Replicas of this wheel were very popular during the early days of the import movement of the United States, and it seemed like every wheel company out there was selling a copy of this wheel at one point. The car in the photo is the JZA80 Supra MSC/D1SL car with a Celica front end. There are plenty of other great Advan wheels like the TCII and AVS Model 5, but I don't have room here to list all of them.

Work Emotion CR Kai

Work offers some very nice one-piece racing wheels in their Emotion line. The original CR Kai model is the original and one of the most popular, particularly on drift cars. What's not to like about them? They are reasonably priced, have high quality construction, and a very attractive split five-spoke design that is available in some super aggressive sizes and offsets. I am huge fan of these wheels in general and especially love them in white.

Work Emotion XT7 etc.

Work followed up on the success of the CR Kai with additional Emotion models. These included the XD9, the  XC8, and the seven-spoke XT7 which is seen here on Haruyama's C35 Laurel D1GP car. The low offset XT7 is one of my favorite wheels especially in the chrome-like finish seen above. I guess you could say that it looks a lot like a seven-spoke version of the Advan Model T6.

SSR Type C

SSR is a little more well known for their old school wheels and multi-piece designs, but they also have the Type C, which is an ultra-light one-piece forged racing wheel. A silver version with a machined lip is sold in the United States as the SSR Competition. It makes a good alternative to the more commonly seen Volk and Advan wheels. SSR has recently introduced a new wheel called the Type F which uses the same construction of the Type C with a new spoke design.

Desmond Regamaster/Spoon SW388

The Russian-made Desmond Regamaster is another popular racing wheel and is known for its simple five-spoke design and lightweight forged construction. A flat black version of this wheel was sold by Spoon Sports in Japan as the SW388 and it is a favorite among Honda enthusiasts worldwide. I have also seen plenty of GT-R's with aggressive sets of white Regamasters and they always look great.

Enkei RPF1

The Enkei RPF1 is an extremely popular wheel thanks to its light weight and affordable price. It's light weight is achieved by a special way of casting. Our own Naoto Suenaga runs these wheels on both his D1 GC8 Impreza (above) and his D1 Street Legal S13 Silvia. All of the wheels in the Enkei "Racing" line offer a lot bang for the buck in both appearance and quality.

AME TM-02

AME Wheels has been working on hard on developing new racing wheels that share casting technology with Enkei. AME's wheels have been appearing on a lot of big name Japanese demo and time attack cars recently including Pro Stock Racing's Nismo 380RS the Feel's FD2 Civic Type R which I featured a while back, and Garage HRS' latest Evo. Like most of these wheels, the TM-02 looks really cool in concave sizes.

The stuff in this post was probably old knowledge for a lot of you, but we thought it would be good to go over some of the popular Japanese racing wheels for those that might not be familiar. Next time I will finish up with a look at the multi-piece designs.

Ray's Wheels

Advan

Work Wheels

SSR

Enkei

AME

-Mike Garrett

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1

omg the desmond regamaster pwns sooooo much... mad max style!

2

another great article for sure, though one-piecers aren't really my thing ;)



if you like the CR Kai, my friend (who is also a photog) has them in Chrome on his MX-3, apparently it's a really rare colour? or maybe it's just rare here in Canada... in any case here are some shots by me of said car and said wheels:

http://blueslug.ca/carsfullsize/nIMG_0821.JPG

http://blueslug.ca/carsfullsize/IMG_8276.JPG

http://blueslug.ca/fullsize/nIMG_7041.JPG

http://blueslug.ca/fullsize/nIMG_5453.JPG

.

Also, is it just me or is the Rota Slipstream a dead ringer for the Desmond Regamaster/Spoon SW388? I mean i know Rota is basically just a knock-off brand for the most part like König or Axis, but i never knew of the Spoon rim and always thought the slipstream was just some simple little design they'd cooked up :)

3

A set of TE37 and LMGT4 for me please ;)



4

Was the RGII forged? I thought the only forged model in the Advan brand was the F7 and it was made by RAYS. And also I think the RPF1 is forged. Was it called the MAT forging? I may be wrong about this. Ey, you missed the prodrive and Weds wheels. heheh.

5

The Advans such as the RS, RG2, TC2, are all made for Advan by Enkei, using their patented M.A.T. process, SSR has a very similar process that they use on the Type C, etc. Technically speaking it's a cast process, but it produces a wheel that is very very light, very strong, and free of the usual casting flaws that you see on your typical cast stuff, all at an more affordable price point vs full out forged stuff. Advan recently introduced a forged wheel, as AE92kevin said, which is made by Rays.



The Regamasters are one of those iconic wheels - but not "technically" JDM since they were forged in Russia (I remember getting a set years and years ago for a customer and was surprised to see the stamping on the wheel). Nevertheless they have that cool clean style and they are super light.

6

SSR Type C wheels are actually 2 piece for the 17, 18, and 19 inch versions. Only the 14 through 16 inchers are 1 piece.

7

Didn't rays make the optional extra 50z alloys?

8

My favorite isn't on the list, the Work meister S1.

9

Desmond is produced in Russia? hmmm learn something everyday...

10

hey mike, does Tanabe own SSR now?

11

Nice Selection of wheels, but i dont know, correct me if im wrong sprto max wheels are japanese too and for the proce they cost are very nice i like them a lot

12

^^Why would you mention Sportmax in this topic? They just ship some of there wheels to Japan, but are still an American brand. Plus they do make a lot of knock offs. I guess if you can't afford the real thing, then sportmax is the way to go, or Rota. lol

13

BlueSlug: The Slipstream is a knockoff of the Regamaster/SW388



STJ/Leo Plummer: Meister S1s and Sportmax are 1 Piece Wheels

14

i thought S1's were 2p

15

spormaxx? get serious!!

get outta here w/ that bullshit!

haha



good wheels. next up you need to do a VIP wheel type one.

haha

16

Would have liked to see the SSR Professor SP1 and Work Meister S1 as well... but nice article.

17

Thank you mike for this post, helped a lot !

19

Surprised to see that WedsSport missed a mention in that list:



http://www.weds.co.jp/products/brand_index/wedssport/index.html



The SA-70's have been around for a while, and I'm running the TC-105N which is used by a couple of the SuperGT teams. Great, lightweight rim.

21

NT03+M Should have been there too but never the less, dope article!



My wheels made the cut. haha.

22

i meant *aren't 1 piece* d'oh

23

Don't forget the newer Enkei RC-T4 ran on many cars in the Super Taikyu series. It uses Enkei's new MAT casting technology.

24

We already had a look at some of the popular Japanese "racing" wheels, as well as plenty of vintage Japanese wheels, and now it is time to finish up this "Cool Japanese Wheels" series with a glimpse into the world of high end multi

25

thanks for the info.. fuck that at my place i just cannot afford the te37 original.. its too expensive.. personally, i like the ce28n (10 spoke design ) they are the best

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