I thought this was interesting. Especially when you are paying arm and a leg for a wheel.

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HRE banned...

check this out... http://forums.audiworld.com/lrqc/msgs/41036.phtml

in both series due to too many failures.

NINE, yes NINE failures in one race weekend Vipers.

Apparently the PCA is on their way to banning HRE's as well.

The racers have always called them "Fools Fashion" and i thought that was a little rough until I started seeing them fail at track events and how easily they bend and corrode.

Then, after Leslie had problems with hers corroding and I spoke with one of the owners, I realized quickly they were WAY out of reality as to strength and design.

Wasn't really surprised that they were banned (was at the meeting), but was surprised at ALL the problems reported.

Unreal for such an expensive wheel.

Apparently tolerances are sooooo poor that the tires often rotate on the wheels themselves as the rims are often slightly too small.

 

Yeah, I actually seen a set of HRE that failed on my customer's car when I used to work at Evo. Its crazy to see the crack running down the spoke. How dangerous, imagining all the bad things that could of happend to him.

 

PIX

 

daaaaaamn...the whole center of the wheel cracked off

 

Here is the pic.

 

That is scary.

 

Here is pic of another HRE wheel

 

Did I miss something? Where is the mention of Kinesis wheel failure?

Lets look at these wheel failures in perspective. Maybe they are a bad lot. Maybe the alloy isn't up to spec by some mistake. HRE has been around for many many years. I haven't heard of failures until this situation. I'm sure HRE will investigate, and cure the problem, and make good on the situation.

So it looks like SSR are the only wheel that can live up to race conditions

Respect
JET

 

My apologizes. that is NOt pic of HRE. Its pic of Kinesis.

 

You have missed a lot. If you are in the racing scene, its not new news. That HRE and Kinesis have had this problem in the past. 9 Failures in one weekend?

"Maybe the alloy isn't up to spec by some mistake"???

Are you kidding me? Rims are made to stay together, just like Guns are made to fire bullets. If it can't do one thing. What other factore does it have other than rice factor? People pay for Rays wheel for high end one piece forging monoblock wheel. And HRE and Kinesis are way more in price... what do you think they are paying for?

 

9 failures in one weekend would indicate a bad batch of wheels to me.

Airplanes are made to stay together too. As a matter of fact, if you haven't noticed everything is engineered to stay together.

**** Happens.

"What r u paying for?" I didn't pay for anything! You have to ask the people who bought them what they paid for. I would imagine the fact that they are a custom wheel. Custom = expensive.

The employees at HRE feed their families on the money made from wheels they sell. They have a vested interest in having wheels stay together. And when they don't.... finding out what went wrong.

I'm not a metalurgist, and neither are you. The alloy obviously failed. Why? Who knows.

Is Kinesis linked to HRE?

Respect
JET

 

Since when did teams start using HRE wheels for actual racing? I've never heard of HRE as actual race wheels, just highend aftermarket and they market it that way. Notice on their company website (hrewheels.com) that they stress the 'Metal Sculpture' nonsense instead of describing the actual make-up of their forged aluminum and they don't discuss any rich racing history.

In the wheel industry, HRE is small beans who cater to the consumer aftermarket first. Companies like Rays, BBS, OZ, and yes Enkei have the resources and experience as OEM wheel manufacturers and FIA racing suppliers meeting international standards. If I was running a race team spending considerable resources, I would definitely be going with a company who spends year after year as a racing supplier, not one that shows off their latest 24" beauty on an Escalade.

 

What happends to cars when center of the wheel come apart? Would you make this argument if it was your car? This is the sad part about this, you don't have much argument, but you are defending. You can say what you said about everything in life. **** happends, people kill people, wheel fall apart. Let them have another chance. Who knows what happend, but I'm sure they didnt' mean to do it on purpose right? So then ITS OKAY.

I'm getting off topic. The point of the thread was to pass information over the internet, wasn't started by me. But I was just filling in from what I have seen over the years. And stop defending people who you don't konw anything about, with statements like "xxxx happends".

 

Not sure how I feel about this one. It would seem to me that if the wheel were manufactured with the intent of being all show and no go, they should have a disclaimer on their web-site or at the very least provided with the wheel stating that the product is not suitable for track use. If they haven't taken this step, then HRE should be in some way accountable for the failures. Just the fact that they make aftermarket 'show wheels' (or whatever you want to call them) isn't (or shouldn't be) expected to be 'fair warning' to the consumer that the wheels will not take the abuses of the track.

 

I am in communication with an engineer at HRE. If anyone has a direct contact to anyone that experienced an HRE wheel failure, please pm me and I will forward that information to him. The engineer would like to know directly of any of these claimed failures and information any of you have would benefit him in doing so. If these failures are in fact true, he would like to investigate the cause of that failure.



The picture posted on this thread with the broken out center hub is not an HRE wheel.

 

Tell him to go on Viper or Audi forums. Those pictures are from a Viper Auto X event I think. Or even Corvetter forum. I don't know any guys here use HRE wheels for Auto X.

 

Audi forum is word of mouth. Not one person that owns a HRE wheel has reported to them of a failure which seems odd.

 

exactly...

BBS LMs are one the ubber benchmarks in multi-piece performance wheels... BBS has also years of experience in forming processes, foundries, finishes, engineering, motorsport, etc...

SSR, OZ, Advan, Enkei, Rays, etc.. are other industry benchmarks in monoblock and multipiece wheels...

Now, why would someone spend MORE for wheels made by a company that has basically no Motorsport history, does little or no direct research, as no OEM experience... etc... freaking rediculous.

 

Its all the MTV crib shows raising the price of these wheels. Every celebrity are all rocking HRE or Giovanna these days. The DUB generation. People like to Race on 20's.

 

I doubt the guys over at HRE are really suprised by this. BTW, I no longer work at Evolution and I was just browsing on this site, I have no interest on HRE wheels or Kinesis wheels. Just filling my opinion. I had a customer had a crack in his HRE wheels for his s2000. He called HRE, with out asking him much questions, they warranited the crack and sent him a new set. This must not be a first time thing. Even they had Great customer service and they do stand behind their product. I still don't think they are a race wheel like what a lot of people made them out to be. They are great looking three piece wheel for the street. And if you really intend your car for the track. Maybe you should look into another option. I still believe in the One piece forging monoblock like Rays or BBS offer.