The original Work Emotions are forged, however they're limited to 17" applications. The Work Emotions that's pretty much on the market are CR Kai's, the cast version of the original forged Emotion.

Perhaps cast wheels may have better absorption properties, but they are much more brittle than forged counterparts. The street is more abusive than the track IMHO and I wouldn't want a wheel to crack at any cost.

 

Super Taikyu and Super GT are in two different leagues... or classes. Super GT would be like "heavily modified," while Super Taikyu adheres to Group N standards where mods are limited.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_N

I don't know about the Emotions (CR Kai, XD9, or XT7), but the Advans used for Super Taikyu (TCII, RS) are the ones you and I can buy off the shelf from Mackin.

 

The Volk Racing TE37 by RAYS Engineering is the current line of street and race wheels in various versions. The main line TE37 is the forged aluminum version.

Material is 6061 aircraft grade aluminum. This material is hot forged. 1st forging process is done with pressure of 5,000 kilograms per square centimeter. 2nd forging process is a slow process with 3,500 kilograms per square centimeter.

The lip is also forged to 3,500 kilograms per square centimeter. This allows the wheel to have less material than other wheels, but have more strength and durability.

The wheel's excess material is machined off (to tolerance of 1/100 of a millimeter). Powder coating and clear coating is done by a special proprietary process to ensure long lasting quality and durability.

The weight of Volk Racing TE37 is 8 lbs. for 15 x 6.5 and 16 lbs. for 18 x 8.5. With this kind of lightness and durability, it is no surprise to see that this wheel is a very coveted wheel among enthusiasts.

 

WTF?

 

/\ lol~

 

f

 

Thats all dandy and stuff but I dont think the TE37's are as strong as you guys might think. I just rebalanced my LE37's and from the looks of it, The wheel had a slight bend in it. Nothin that is noticable to regular folks but it was not a perfect wheel. When I balanced my Iforged Aero's (cast wheels I believe) They were so perfect and spun so straight on the machine. The iforged have seen far worse roads then my volks. Im sure weight for weight the volks would win but size wise the iforged wins.

 

Let's compare two 18" wheels. A sixteen pound forged Volk TE37 has a significantly less material than an twenty two pound cast Gram Light 57c. Although the material of the TE37 is much denser and has a stronger structure, the spokes are at the bare minimum thickness to reduce weight. The 57c compensates for it's lack of strength with density. It's built better than it has to be.