Project Nissan 350Z: The Birth of our Motegi Traklite Wheels with Nitto NT01 Tires

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The spin formed wheel barrel sections ready to be assembled into complete wheels.  The rim sections are available in one inch increments.

The rim barrel section is spin formed where a circular tubular blank is spun on a mandrel and cold worked into final shape by a hard roller.  This forming method is very similar to the Enkei MAT process and the final rim forming step in RAYS' forged wheels and results in a fine grain in the metal that is oriented in a circle around the barrel.

The first step in putting together the wheel is to set up the assembly fixture.  The fixture is quite simple, a sturdy surface plate with an area to stack up some spacers in the center.  To get our desired offset the spacer height is calculated.

The grain refinement and orientation of the center forging and the spin forming of the barrel produces a strong and lightweight wheel.  Once the offset is determined the wheel center is welded to the barrel in the correct location to finish off the wheel.

The spacers are stored here ready for use.

After powdercoating, the wheel is now ready to rock.  We had our wheel finished in black Teflon which is cool as it will be durable and shed corrosive brake dust easily.  Yes, we hate black wheels because they don’t photograph well but Sera loves black and it’s her car.

The correct spacers for the desired offset are stacked on the surface plate.

At 19.9 lbs for the front and 21.45 lbs for the rear the Motegi TrakLite is both super light in weight and competition proven strong.