mcduck

Finally, after many months of waiting, my iForged Senekas have arrived!!!

I have also tinted my windows since my last pics. Below are a few pics of the new look followed by my review of the iForged wheels and buying experience.

First a nice side shot...

mcduck

now one from an angle at the front... hopefully showing the lip on the fronts and backs...

mcduck

A nice low shot from my driveway... again showing off width of lip...

mcduck

Finally, my best shot of the day... oh the color! OH the tint! OH THE WHEELS! hehehehe

The Brickyard Rat

iTrader: (1)

Yo, Duck, those wheels are not quite my thing but they are wayyyy coollllllllllll.

Congrats on the last pic; one of the best I've seen.

mcduck

For those curious or who may yet order iForgeds, here is my detailed review of the wheels and my experience. I apologize in advance for I'm sure this will be long.

The Specs

• Wheels - iForged Senekas - 18 x 8 fronts, 18 x 9 rears
• Tires - Potenza S-03s - 245/40/18 fronts, 275/40/18 rears (see notes below)

The Look
Overall, I could not be happier with the look. The wheels look better than I ever imagined by playing with photoshop or seeing them on other color Zs. As good as they look in pictures, they are even more breathtaking in person. Stunning...

And others notice as well... I easily get 3 times as many looks from passerbys now than I did without the iForgeds!

The Quality
Again, overall, I am pretty happy with the quality (with caveat to my Fitment category below). The brushed finish looks very good... no flaws that I have noted (though cleaning them looks like it will be a real pain in the a$$). The polished lip looks great. They seem to look cloudy at times, but a little polishing clears it right up.

I have only two issues with the quality. One has to do with the fitment and may be partially my fault (see Fitment below). The second has to do with the center caps. The iForged logo on the center cap looks a little "faded"... almost like not enough paint was used on the logo. Does not ruin the overall effect, but is noticeable if you get up close to wheel. Do I care? No... I plan to replace the centers with some nice Z logo centers as soon as I can get some made!!!

The Fitment
Okay... I'd be lying if I said I didn't have an issue here. I have some minor wheel rub (under very hard cornering or over large road bumps), but the jury is still out on whether this is an iForged issue or an Andy issue.

Basically, it's like this, my plans for the wheels changed between placing the iForged order and placing the order for the S-03s. The size of S-03 I ordered really calls for a 9.5" wheel... I ordered 9" wheels. More importantly, the offsets probably were not measured with a 275 width tire in mind. Consequently, I have some minor wheel rub

The solution... well, the first thing I'm going to do is order some 265/35/18 S-03s for the rear. This is a slightly narrower tire and will reduce the sidewall height by 2/3rds of inch (17mm). My bet is that this will fix my rubbing issue and I will still be happy. If this does not fix the rubbing, then it becomes an iForged issue and I will be taking it up with Vince later this week.

The short of all above is that the fronts and backs are very close to inline with the edge of the wheel well and give the wells a very full look that I happen to like.

The Service
Well... I think everyone knows about this from this board and others... iForged doesn't have the best reputation for service in the business, but I would like to think they are working on this.

I waited approximately 3 1/2 months on my wheels. Way too long even for custom wheels... and like others, I often got reports of "they'll ship next week" or "they are coming back from subcontractor X in a couple days".

That stuff aside, I never had a problem getting in touch with a live person at iForged and most times, when I left a message, Vince would return my call or email.

And, here's why I think they are making an effort to turn it around, during the last two weeks of waiting, Vince proactively called me to give me updates on my wheels. Finally, after I had the wheels, he took the time to call me at home to find out how I like them and how they fit.

So, the service could have been much better, but I would not fail them outright. Let's just say it was a C-, but I see signs of improvement lately.

The Bottom Line
I guess the big question is "If I had to do it over again, would I order iForged knowing the anxiety I would have to go through to get the wheels?"

To answer that will be contingent on whether the tire change will fix my rubbing issue. If it does, I'd have to say yes to the above question. I love the look and have found no other wheels that look quite like the iForged Senekas. For me, a little longer wait (while probably needlessly long) is worth it to get just the look I want... and I did!

On the otherhand, if the tire swap does not correct the rubbing, I would have to say no to the question. For the amount paid, I expect to have no mechanical issues with the wheels and only the most minor cosmetic issues. Tire rubbing is a major mechanical issue. For now, I'm giving iForged the benefit of the doubt because I am running a size tire that wasn't planned for and is wider than ideal spec for the rim. That benefit of the doubt goes out the window if I cough up another $500 for tires and still have problems.

I will keep everyone posted on the final outcome...

oh... and I should have a pair of 275/40/18 Potenza S-03s for sale in about a week. Anyone interested???

mcduck

Thanks, Rats Z! I looked at some "sportier" 5 and 6 spoke designs, but decided in the end that I liked the web look better on the Brickyard. To each his own I guess, but thought these gave the care a more 'elite' look like BBSs on a BMW or similar designs on 911s

350zSpeedRacer

Wow, Andy! Lookin' sharp! So when do we get to see pics of your Brick with the NISMO body kit???

mcduck

Christi... just waiting on Gruppe-S to call and tell me they have received their shipment from Japan.

Should be anytime now. Once they have it, I order, it gets drop shipped to my body man and I get another visual upgrade!

In between, I will be adding the Borla True Dual and AEM CAI. Those should be in late this week or early next week

ZZtopp

iTrader: (1)

Your wheels look awesome with the Brickyard!

I like the fact that you're not running a spoiler and those gawdawful spashguards.....both of those add-ons spoil the clean lines of the original, pure design, IMHO. I guess we have similar tastes where those things are concerned.

I hope things work out well for you with iForged. I'm very happy that I switched to Volks, but I do think your wheels are quite eye-catching. Good luck!

Morris

iTrader: (1)

Andy,

Wheels look good, real good! How dark is that tint? Legal in NC?

droideka

BAD IDEA. A 265/35/18 is SMALLER than the 245/40/18 you're running up front. 25.4" vs. 25.6". A 275 is FINE for a 9" rim. 9.5" is optimum, but the range is 9" - 11" wide rims for the 275/40/18. What offset did you get? Optimum with NO RUBBING would have been in the +33 to +35 range...

BTW, they look GREAT and nice pics.

EDIT: I just looked at your pics again. Jeezus! What offset did you spec in the rear? A +12?!?

mcduck

droideka...

I agree that 265/35 rear and 245/40 front is not optimal, but the wheel height is less than 1/4" greater on the front tire. Would this really have any great adverse affect on driving?

To answer your offset question, I did not spec them. They were supposed to be set correctly for me One reason for this is because I've never had to deal with setting an offset before... always bought wheels made for a specific car model in the past. Are you saying a +33 would have set the wheel under the wheelwell further? I don't know the exact offset now, but I will find out tomorrow.

The fact of the matter right now is the 275/40/18s are rubbing and I cannot leave them on. Since I only had them mounted Friday, I have not had much time to address the issue. I was hoping that if I could go with 265/35/18s, I could avoid having to return the wheels since, I suspect, that would mean waiting another 3 months to get different offsets if that is the problem.

DrDrilZ

wheels DO look nice. i think your tire choice is fine. like droid said, you might want to reconsider your plan to go 265/35 in the rear. i think your rubbing issues are more offset related. if in fact iforged determined these offsets for you, i would return them. since you did not specify these offsets, i think the burden is on them. im far from an expert, but from your pics, it looks to me like the rears stick out way too far. dont compensate for iforged's mistake by compromising your tire choice. not to mention an extra $500. can you post a pic directly from the rear???

droideka

Yes. That's a bad thing and will probably f**k with your VDC. The smaller rears rotate at 820 RPM vs. 814 RPM for the fronts. The tire speed sensors are not going to like that. I'm taking this data right from the S-03 data sheets on the Bridgestone site.

I'm not an offset guru by any means, but take this into consideration. The stock, 8" 18s are +30. The stock rear RAYS 8.5" 18s are +33. It would make sense that the next step up to a 9" rim would also be a higher offset at say around +35 to keep everything in sync. Lots of folks around here run +22 to +27 on the rears no problem, but it looks like you got talked into something way off from the norm. I'm thinking that's a +12 or +15 from the looks of it. The numbers don't make sense, do they? I still don't know why, but the lower the number, the further the entire wheel sticks out from the hub. It has to do with the depth of the center of the wheel where it actually attaches to the hub. Low numbers means more material, high numbers means less material.

mcduck

Sure, VQ... I actually have some higher resolution shots if you want me to email them directly to you. Have PMs turned off because the firewall at work block them and I never know where I'll be checking the site from.

Thanks to everyone for the information on offsets. I did think they sat out a bit much, but didn't worry too much until I experienced the rubbing. I am calling iForged today for more spec info. I'm hoping something can be arranged. I'd hate to have to the credit card dance on them, but will if necessary.

iForged

The wheel offsets are in spec. They are +18 for a 9, which translates to a +30 on a 10 in proportion to the outer fender. The reason they are rubbing is because when Andy placed the order, he told me he was going to use stock tires. Also on a 275 it is recommended to go with a 10, so on a 9 wide the tire will overhang over and bubble up. On a 10 the tire is stretched a little. If Andy still has problems with it, we will make the wheel a 10.0 at no extra charge to solve the tire problem

mcduck

For those curious,

I am trying to take this off-board with Vince. My hope is that he will do the right thing and we will both walk away happy. Once things work out, I'll update everyone. In the meantime, please just use this thread to comment on the look of the Senekas on my Brickyard.

For the record, I am very happy with the appearance of the wheels on my car (offset issue aside) and if I can work out something with iForged to correct the wheel/tire combo issue I will keep them. Wish me luck!

iForged

We have been running 30mm offsets on a 10 for all our 350z owners with no problems. Also if you use the offset calculator do a search on a google, you will see a 9" wheel with a 18 offset will sit exactly at the same place in the fender as a 30mm on a 10.

2003z

iTrader: (7)

You definitely don't want the shorter tires on back. Have Vince remake them like he has offered. This is what all 4 tires the same size looks like, with the rears smaller it will look like the rear end is sagging.