Durability of cast wheels
 

I'm interested in a couple of wheels for my daily driven FR-S, but concerned about durability of light weight cast wheels. The top 3 wheels I'm considering are:

17x8 Wedssport TC105n - Flow Form Cast
17x8 OZ Alleggerita HLT - Flow form Cast
17x8 OZ Ultraleggra - Cast

Can anyone give some insight on how these wheels fair when used on a daily driver. How do they stand to pot holes and chips on the finish?

Thanks in advance.

All three are a good quality wheel. I wouldn't expect any issues with whatever you choose.

I believe the WedSports are the lightest of the bunch. Running around 15 lbs.

I've never even wrecked a cheapo cast wheel, much less a quality one. I've had MSR, Tenzo, some weird JDM brands .. never an issue.

You'll be fine with cast wheels, they aren't super delicate like people make them out to be. The brands you have listed are from well known manufacturers and certainly know a thing or two about producing a good quality wheel.

Unless you're going sideways all day long or are burning out your tires all day long, or turbo your car to ridiculous numbers, all three of those cast wheels are perfectly fine. Had a set of superleggeras and i only bent the lip slightly because of a raised manhole cover while they were repaving.

Want a strong set of cast 5x100s from OZ? get Chronos or Gravel. Old school rally wheels in white with red lettering. Made heavy for heavy use.

Our 18" Weds are really light for "cast" Def a good wheel

Thanks for all the responses!

Now I have one more question. I know the TC105n won't allow you to install a hub centric ring and a center cap together. So, if you have to choose one or the other which would you pick and why?

Also, the OZs listed, do they allow you to install both ring and cap?

Hubcentric ring. It's more important to get the wheel centered on the hub than the aesthetics of a center cap; though I often wonder about salt/corrosion and the axle-nut. Regardless, the wheel not being centered on the hub is NOT good. OZ wheels I've seen usually let you use the ring and cap; I find it odd that the Weds don't let you do this and while not that important it makes me want them less. Really my problem with the Weds is the availability; popular sizes seem to be stocked well but I waited ~4 months for 17x8 +42 TC105N before cancelling. 18x8 +42 is also a special order (just like my order for the 17x8 +42), so I'm not sure I'll be buying them.

One thing to note about durability is that cast wheels tend to bend whereas forged wheels tend to crack.

Hmm, that makes me wonder if someone out there with a 3D printer could custom make wheel caps for wheels that aren't fit to run both.

Aesthetically I prefer the the TC105n, but my biggest concern is with rust and debris getting on the axle nut if I leave it un-capped.

Does anyone have any experience with the TC105n mounted with the center caps? Since they are mounted from the inside of the wheel I wonder if they behave like a hub centric ring.

They're good looking wheels, I'm just not happy with the availability of "less popular" sizes. The Alleggerita HLT is a good looking wheel as well (and available in gold!), but the offset's too high for my taste in 8" wide flavor.

The only way the center cap (if mounted from the inside like you say it is) could act as a hubcentric ring would be if the center cap had a machined 56.1mm area to slip over the hub.

I see a lot of bent Ultraleggeras. Seeing as how they're so light and gravity cast, it makes me question how durable they are.

Personally I'd go with one of the flow-form cast wheels. They're light, but should be relatively strong for their weight.

I think you got that backwards from my experience.

Just remember this

Flow Form > Low-Pressure > Gravity

From that list, I'd go with the Weds. Stay away from cheapo reps, most uses gravity cast...