Quote:
Originally Posted by dwx
Rota uses the same aluminum everyone else uses because it's the cheapest, most readily available, and meets their specs. It's not like Rota started making wheels in the last 10 years to copy other aftermarket wheels, they started making wheels in 1979.
Here is a recent article on their manufacturing process.
http://www.autoindustriya.com/featur...-are-made.html
I don't condone their blatant rip-off of other designs (and they even admit to it in that article) but their manufacturing process isn't much different than most other wheel manufacturers. They have to pass JWL impact tests like anyone else.
Now Chinese knockoff brakes/rotors are a much scarier proposition, they aren't meeting ANY real specification... I'd be more scared of the rotors than the calipers really. They are probably very prone to cracking after a few heat cycles. |
I apologize for not specifying that I didn't mean aluminum as in the element. I should have stated
aluminum alloy, of which there are many grades, depending on what other metals are mixed with the aluminum for different intended uses. The aluminum alloy that Volk has developed is similar to 6061 (originally used exclusively for the aerospace industry) with a higher silica and magnesium content for the intended use of an automobile wheel. TWS and BBS use a similar aluminum alloy in their forged wheels as well. Rota uses an aluminum alloy with a much higher iron content, which is not better or worse in itself - it is simply an aluminum alloy with a different intended use, not one of which is as a material for a high performance automobile wheel.
The other main difference between the Volk wheel and the Rota wheel is the process of manufacture. The difference between being pressed into shape by 10,000 tons of force to attain the very dense and uniform grain structure, and being melted and poured into a mold is pretty apparent simply by using common sense.
Rota does not pass JWL impact tests. JWL is an expensive process required only by large Japanese retailers to carry a certain wheel (Autobacs, Yellow Hat, etc.), Rota has no market in Japan and this certification does not apply or legally mean anything outside of Japan and it would be foolish of them to do so from a business perspective.
Please let me know if you have any questions, but I also understand that you won't simply believe everything you read on the internet - so I encourage you to do your own research.