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<\/a><\/p>\nReplica wheels on the other hand are a different, more complicated, breed because while it’s clear these wheels are modeled after existing designs, they actually don’t attempt to represent their offerings as any brand other than their own.<\/p>\n
Take for example the largely criticized brand XXR and their 521 wheel. Yes perhaps a more passive enthusiast might be fooled, but for the most part anyone who knows what an authentic LM looks like isn’t going to mistake an XXR for one.<\/p>\n While it’s blatantly obvious that without the BBS LM the 521 wouldn’t exist, side by side the two wheels are actually disgustingly different. The spokes are similar to one another, but the XXRs appear to have a thinner profile over all and extend further into the lip. Additionally the lug holes are slightly offset from the spokes on the XXR, and the faux rivets are in completely different locations (in relation to the spokes) when compared to the assembly bolts of the BBS.<\/p>\n Likely these changes were made by XXR to avoid a trip to the court room but, to play devil’s advocate; what if the designer of the 521 was genuinely inspired by the BBS LM?<\/p>\n No design today is done in a vacuum, and a few designers I have spoken to have confessed that it is very hard to produce a truly<\/em> original wheel design. I mean look at the BBS LM when compared to the CCW LM20, the name alone practically implies where CCW got the inspiration for their different, yet familiar design.<\/p>\n Consider an entirely different example below, in the top left we have the original Speedline produced Ferrari F40 wheel while through the rest of the image we have similar wheels produced by a variety of brands.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Moving through the examples each wheel gets further away from the original in terms of design, but it’s not a stretch by any means to trace them back to the shoes of everyone’s favorite poster car. Like many replica companies these wheels –none of which are made by companies people identify as ‘fake’ manufacturers– come in sizing, configurations, and finishes the original Speedline wheel never did making them much more accessible and versatile. They are also sold at a significantly cheaper price than you could find a used Ferrari wheel for.<\/p>\n Where do the lines between homage, inspiration, and copy exist?<\/p>\n It seems that the brand on the center cap wildly changes people’s opinion of right and wrong. XXR, Rota, Konig, or Fast yield an immediate response of fake, while seemingly blind eyes are turned towards any brand currently accepted as ‘real’.<\/p>\n A bit of a double standard no? Why in some cases are these similarities are considered intellectual theft and in others it is simply the nature of the business? Pushing aside marketing, social standing and other intangible qualities the most significant dividing factor seems to be build quality. If the company in question is putting out a product that is on par, or better than the original than people view design similarities as tolerable.<\/p>\n The thing is more affordable alternatives of popular products exist in every market, not just the wheel industry, and the exact purpose of these replica products is to appeal to customers who can’t afford, or simply can’t justify the cost, of the more expensive alternative. The easiest way for a manufacturer to bring down the final retail price is to use a different manufacturing process than the real deal.<\/p>\n Arguing that the manufacturing methods used by some of these lower priced companies is on par with that of the more prestigious brands would be silly but, it could reasonably be argued that their production methods are perhaps good enough.<\/p>\n Most people, especially those whose cars don’t see Motorsports competition, would be perfectly fine on a well constructed cast wheel. A big reason that forged modular wheels are so popular today is because, as vain as it may sound, they often just look a lot better than their single piece alternatives.<\/p>\n The fact that these same wheels come with a significantly decreased risk of failure due to rigorous testing is a huge<\/strong> inarguable advantage, but assuming that replica (not counterfeit remember) brands don’t do any<\/em> testing is quite the reach. At the end of the day no brand wants to be on the hook for a liability lawsuit, especially considering how hard they are to cover up in today’s internet age.<\/p>\n Despite any brands best efforts however failures are still something that can happen.<\/p>\n Several years ago a friend of mine custom ordered a set of authentic Work Emotion CR Kai wheels. About a year after purchase a pothole put a small dent and split<\/a> in the lip of the wheel that prevented it from holding air. After Work informed him that they no longer warranty or repair cast wheels he bought a full set of Rotas for the cost of one replacement.<\/p>\n To some people this might seem like a monumental step backwards but in this individual’s case the switch made perfect financial sense and to this day the Rota wheel has survived the same roads that sidelined the Work wheel.<\/p>\n Does that make Rota wheels of higher quality than Work? Of course not but situations like this are the exact reason why many people can’t justify running ‘real’ wheels on the street.<\/p>\n This circumstance also calls into question the notion that all ‘fake’ wheels are running on borrowed time and guaranteed to fail.<\/p>\n The broken Rota image above is perhaps the go to for people looking to illustrate the potential horrors of replica wheels on and off the track. The problem with this example is that it is completely out of context.<\/p>\n If we applied the same out of context argument, using of a handful of documented failures, to every company producing wheels today few would come out unscathed.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
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