I found a really good deal on wheels from one of the most respected wheel makers today. Their reputation is up there with BBS, O.Z. and many more. HRE is known for making Forged Wheels. These ultra-strong and lightweight wheels are sold as standard on some cars and HRE is a top maker of after-market wheels for Ford Performance vehicles and many Germany automobiles. A glance at their website reveals some truly breath-taking cars. If you buy HRE, you’re in with some of the top cars in the world.
A few years ago, HRE introduced a brand called FlowForm. This process of wheel manufacturing bears a lot of similarities to Forged but you’ll get a slightly heavier wheel and it’s debated that it’s nearly an identical sturdiness / build quality of forged. The main difference in FlowForm versus Forged is that FF won’t be cut from a single piece of aluminum. There are only two FlowForm options from HRE, the FF01 and FF15. I picked up the FF15 in 18×8.5 ET47 Offset:
Long a market leader in forged wheels, HRE now offers its FlowForm line of wheels featuring iconic styling and a level of quality embodied by the HRE brand, all at an accessible price point. This cast flow formed wheel is made in Japan with the highest level of design and engineering available in the world today.
Lifetime Limited Structural Warranty and 2 Year Finish Warranty
18″ wheels starting at $575/each
State of the art flow formed wheel
Euro, Asian, & American fitments
Standard color options are Liquid Silver and Tarmac*; with optional & custom powder coat colors available.
Starting at 19lbs each
* Standard color Liquid Silver NOT available on the following 18″ options: – Mustang – Porsche – BMW 18×10 et25
While there are many different finishes of these wheels, I felt Liquid Silver would work best with my Golf R build. I’ve added metallic / chrome accents throughout the vehicle most notably the OEM Chrome Mirror Caps and going with the blue ceramic tinting has also lead to a great Blue on Silver look which I think pays homage to the 2004 R32. It’s the beauty and iconic style of that R32 that lead me to opt for a wheel that has the symmetrical blade design instead of any other crazy designs. It makes the wheel look larger but it also matches the R32 wheel very closely.
Why didn’t I go 19”? The Golf R comes with 19” Cadiz wheels and where I live, the bumps would be felt everywhere almost rattling the car with so little side-wall to cushion the impact. Further, the tires being around $175 each in 18” would balloon to $300 if I went 19” so a popped tire essentially would cost me 30% more in a 19” configuration not to mention the increased cost per wheel if I bent one of them. While 19” would look utterly beautiful, I had to be more practical with both my money & comfort and go 18”. It’ll be far more reactive on the track with overall unsprung weight being greatly reduced in the smaller setup with more side-wall. While I regret not going 19”, it truly is for the best. Paired with the total of 20 pounds in weight reduction from my future brake rotor upgrade, this will be one agile Golf R.
While the price is normally $575 per wheel, they were on sale for $460 each with shipping & tax included.
Unboxing the Wheels: HRE FlowForm 18” FF15, 18×8.5:
A few days later, my tires arrived: 235/40ZR-18 Michelin Pilot Super Sport:
Michelin PSS are known as the best Street/Track hybrid tires you can get. They’re OEM on many of the BMW M-Models and are known both for their superior grip on dry tarmac, very high tread-life for a Max Performance Summer Tire and they have fantastic steering response along with decent wet-handling which is almost unheard of for a tire designed to beat lap-times on the ring over other performance cars. These are very expensive tires usually but luckily, the size my car needs made the price $186 per tire or $745 for the set. I can’t guarantee you’ll find the same price for your car but these really are the most respected tires you can run on your car.
Note, they run a bit wider than most tires so be warned you’ll have some solid overhang over your wheels. http://www.willtheyfit.com is a great resource for checking this.
With some complications in getting the Tires & Wheels mounted, I finally have the Summer-setup rocking. It turns out PSS have a ridiculously firm side-wall so mounting them on a brisk 34F day was quite challenging for my local shop. We got through it though and now it’s time to show off some initial photos.
Before (MK7 Golf R Winter Setup):
After (MK7 Golf R Winter Setup):
While I think these photos are decent, I’ll get my Spring-Detailing on April 12th and will be sure to have more photos of the car after that. I really do love the look of this setup. I think the car is absolutely gorgeous in blue + silver.