I thought some of you might be interested in this so I hope it's OK in putting it up as a separate thread? If not, just fire me a PM
A couple of months ago, I was lucky to get a tour of BBS Motorsport GmbH in Germany to see how their wheels were made, to say it was a cool day out is a big understatement!! Anyway You can read the details of the visit here:
http://www.autolifers.com/insight-bbs-motorsport-gmbh/
I usually write similar stories for the same guys, we release a mixed bag of articles but it is all car and motorsport related:
http://www.autolifers.com
But I thought I would tell you guys a few more things that weren't in the article too
BBS Motorsport GmbH is a separate entity to the BBS as we know it. They are high end/low volume manufacturers who only do motorsport, GT and specialist project wheels. These are the go-to guys when Bugatti needed wheels manufactured for the veyron!
(I was actually told that they're a pain in the arse to make since they have about 21 different designs and have to change tooling with each order.).
Porsche engineers required additional weight savings for the optional “Weissach Package” for the 918, so they approached the BBS enginers and designers for a lightweight solution. Now considering that the rear wheel on the Porsche will be 21″ x 12.5, it’s incredible to think that these wheels weigh similar to 18″ variants of many branded “lightweight” wheels, about 11kg's! Porsche then make the rest of the wheels for the "normal" 918 (if you could call it normal).
The company still repair and restore these classic wheels for customers too (and it's surprisingly cheap at about €50 per mag center!!). Out the back they had rows upon rows of the classic designs, it was ridiculous! When I asked "why", Erich shrugged and said, "what better marketing too do you need then to see 40 year old wheels still taking part in motor racing", the guy has a point!
But it was a brilliant day out, it was meant to be for about 2 hours but I was there for 4 in the end talking with Erich about the business, looking at prototype carbon wheels, talking about the crazy story about the BMW M1 procar (Lamborghini were contracted to build it initially!!) and everything in between!
Hope you like the article and pics!