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Rota Torques with Dunlop Star Specs - Your Opinions?

5K views 31 replies 11 participants last post by  holmz 
#1 ·
Looking to put black wheels on my CO '08 Elise SC.

I had carbon RACs on my old car and loved them. Don't want to spend that dough. Also want to keep the factory SC wheels stock (and not powder coat them).

So, another set. Want inexpensive.

The Torques look sharp, but most of the threads on them are a couple years old.

Thinking flat black Torques with Fronts: 16x7 +27 offset - 205/50/16 Dunlop
Rears: 17x8 +35 offset - 235/45/17 Dunlop Star Spec

Anyone have recent experience with them? Tell me your opinions.

Also, what did you guys do for center caps?
 
#3 ·
the torques are really heavy (& getting very hard to source since rota has some really crap customer service)... I would find a set of used LSS rims, or go a different route honestly

also, do you want to maintain the 16/17 size combo? or would you consider going 15/16?

because if you want to go 15/16 enkei rpf01 is a quality lightweight rim that'll run you about $1k a set brand new
 
#7 ·
Josh - you say 'questionable quality' - what's questionable about them?

Seems that many have them and haven't had issues.

If others see them as of questionable quality, lemme know.
 
#8 ·
#11 ·
I seem to remember that someone here had one crack on them, but in general these cars being lighter probably limits issues.

Beyond the rash of reported failures (sure, in other cars where 99% of their volume goes to), my bigger concern with them is that they are a knock-off wheel company. All of their wheels are cheap cast copies of "real" performance wheels. I can't support that, personally. I've never understood why they wouldn't just do their own designs.
 
#13 ·
Thanks Josh - I'll peruse around a bit more. Owning a Moke and researching the Mini world, there are tons of people who run Minilite knockoffs and are happy with them. But when you say 'knockoff' - what are they a knockoff of? To me, there are like 8 bajillion companies doing street and track wheels so I guess I'm not even sure what a 'knockoff' is in the reference. I can't keep all this sh*t straight! :)

As for a few lbs - yeah, I don't stress about 'ooh, I have to have extra spicy Vindaloo so that I can crap out 4 pounds before I drive'. I get it, our cars are light, but in the grand scheme of things, I'm not concerned about an extra 10 pounds changing the rotation of the Earth. 10 pounds is slightly more than a gallon of gas (8 pounds). 10 pounds is my computer bag that I take to work/meetings. 10 pounds could be the shopping bags of stuff I just bought at Target or Lowes. 10 pounds is 5 pounds less than a JL Stealthbox. Hell, I should just drive naked to get rid of all of that wasted weight that clothing brings. Shaving my entire body will probably reduce a pound or two.

So I'm not all that concerned about wheels being 10 pounds more than stock. (Keep in mind that the SC wheels are .5" wider than standard wheels, so even they are probably heavier because wider = more material = heavier).

I'll just get a high colonic or run my ass around the block a few times to offset the weight.
 
#14 ·
I understand your wieght comments, but rotating mass (aka: wheels, flywheels, brake rotors) has a much larger effect on performance that non-rotating mass (aka: computer bag, clothes, & contents of your bowels). My advice is try to keep your wheels as light as possible! Google sprung Vs unsprung weight is you want to dig into the physics of what is going on!
 
#15 ·
Knock off wheels and plastidip mentioned in the same thread? I wasn't aware I was browsing NASIOC....

knock off replica companies make crappy wheels. There is plenty of proof to the fact that rota wheels are weak and break easily. Anyone and their mother can replicate a wheel design 90% aesthetically in CAD, and make a cheap casting. But making a wheel that actually is strong and will withstand abuse is much harder.

There are plenty of options out there for good quality wheels that won't cost an arm and a leg. We're running SSR Type Cs for our second set, and found them for an amazing steal a few years ago.


as far as the comments about a few pounds of rotating mass. I bet there are only a handful of drivers on this forum that can actually drive well enough to take advantage of the difference the lighter wheels make.
 
#18 ·
as far as the comments about a few pounds of rotating mass. I bet there are only a handful of drivers on this forum that can actually drive well enough to take advantage of the difference the lighter wheels make.
Wait, are you trying to tell me that Jeff isn't a good enough driver to take advantage of a lighter wheel! :p :D
 
#16 ·
I had some Rota's back in 2002 and while at a dyno, I got the chance to see the wheel rotating at speed. It was pretty funny to watch how out of round the entire casting was. Good thing the perimeter of the rim was round because the spokes were all kinds of messed up. Pretty lousy wheels but it's your car.
 
#20 ·
Grassroots motorsports did an instrumented tes of wheel weight vs acceleration a few years ago, and found that they don't make that much of a difference for a significant spread in weight.

F=MA and wieght is the enemy of speed, we all know this. However the effect of wheel wight is one of the most exageratered things on the net. I think it is becouse people like to buy wheels and bost about their specs. Nothing wrong with that, but the truth is it just doesnt matter for anything but a sanctioned race.

People like to talk about how rotating weight effects accelleration, but it is actually the rotating moment of inertia. This goes upp with the 4th power of radius, so the majority of the rotating inertia is in the tire carcas, not the wheels.

The ROI for light wheels is very low.
 
#25 ·
Thank you sir for actually posting factual info and not just b/s pulled from the buttcrack!




If a person is building a super high end car fine, don't buy the cheap wheels. I understand. For the rest of us, they work just fine. I have street tires mounted on the set I have. I haven't driven off a cliff and killed a busload of nuns and baby seals... yet...
 
#23 ·
I have been driving on mine for well over two years on roads that are not so great and probably 10k miles with no problems. Are they fancy and made out of unobtanium? No. They are a good value for the money for someone who doesn't want to break the bank. I have been very pleased with the Torques. If I had deeper pockets I probably would have the RAC's or some factory Cup wheels. I wouldn't even mind having a second set of Torques.
 
#24 ·
The rotating mass may not be too evident in acceleration but it does change the feel of the steering for even people like me.
The F=MA is something up to A=F/2M
So it is 20 pounds of wheels are ~30 of inertia.

While 10 pounds sounds like not too much, there is ~250-300 pounds at each front wheel, so in terms of what happens on a bumpy road the unsprung mass is in the few % reduction range

None of that s/b of much significance on a public road.


The other is issue is that the google search for "rota wheel failures" have me 28000 hits.
I did not feel like I could clear my mind of that fact, and that it would always distract my attention.

People need to weigh up whether they comfortable with those "facts" against cost.
 
#28 ·
You need to know how the mass is distributed in the wheel not just the mass.

The grm test was with a mistake and relatively rigorously instrumented. I've long since lost the issue and I don't see it online but I'm sure you can find the details if you look hard enough. Everything was the same except the wheels. It is impossible of course to do a perfect test but at least it's not hearsay and the results are compatible with basic physics
 
#30 ·
I agree that where the mass is is very important.

I don't doubt the results, but we shouldn't make a sweeping generalization saying that you won't notice any differences and jumping to conclusions (not saying you did of course) just because of one study.
 
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