subject: What Porsche Rims are Best? Custom Forged Wheels or Cast? [print this page] What Porsche Rims are Best? Custom Forged Wheels or Cast?
The Porsche name is synonymous with performance. One of the best ways to get more performance from the German sportscar is with aftermarket Porsche rims. There are two kinds of Porsche rims: custom forged wheels and cast wheels. Both offer distinct benefits and advantages over stock wheels.
One of the most popular kinds of Porsche rims are custom forged wheels. This type of wheel is manufactured by using a forging process. The process of forging is more complex compared to other methods, but produces a strong and lightweight wheel. Custom forged wheels begin as slabs of high-quality T6-6061 aluminum alloy. The alloy is then placed inside a forging machine where it is compressed and compacted by immense amounts of pressure, forming the blank shape of a wheel. The blank wheel is then taken to a CNC milling machine where the design of the wheel is milled and excess metal is shaved off to finish the process.
The process of forging gives custom forged wheels a very dense makeup and grain structure that is absent of any imperfections, cracks, and air bubbles. This allows manufacturers to use less metal than other wheels to achieve a required strength, resulting in a lower overall weight. By reducing mass at the wheel hub with custom forged wheels, the overall performance of your Porsche will improve.
Cast wheels are the other popular type of Porsche rims. Cast wheels are made using a different manufacturing process than custom forged wheels. There are two different methods to manufacturing cast wheels: gravity casting and negative pressure casting. Gravity casting involves pouring molten aluminum alloy into a wheel mold. With negative pressure casting the molten aluminum is sucked into a wheel mold through a vacuum to decrease the number of air bubbles that can form. In both processes, the metal is allowed to cool in the mold. After the metal has cooled, it is then taken to a CNC milling machine to be cut and finished into the final wheel design.
The manufacturing process of cast wheels is one of the quickest and inexpensive ways to create Porsche rims, resulting in a lower retail cost. They are however, weaker than other wheel types due to the air bubbles and imperfections that can form during the construction process, leading manufacturers to use more metal in order to meet a required strength.
One of the best types of Porsche rims are custom forged wheels. Custom forged wheels are lighter and stronger than cast wheels and allow for a number of custom finishes, widths, and fitments. While cast wheels may be an inexpensive option for new Porsche rims, they do not match the weight and reliability properties of custom forged wheels.
