- Sep 1, 2005
- 704
I'm a big fan of HRE wheels; I like their engineering, appearance and flush fitment. I've ordered at least four sets of wheels from them for my previous cars, but this latest set is truly special and I thought perhaps the group would benefit from a brief review of my experience. I have no relationship to HRE except that they have a bunch of my money.
HRE has, for some time, made a wheel they call the P101 Monoblok. The wheel is somewhat similar in shape and structure to the BBS wheels on our GTs. Recently, and perhaps in response to the new BBS FI-R wheels, HRE came out with a version of the P101 they call the "LW" or Light Weight. The wheel is similar in appearance to the "standard" P101, but apparently they apply special engineering calculations to remove material from the wheel in order to reduce weight. This concept appealed to me. But why bother with a set of special wheels when the GT wheels are pretty light to begin with? Well...
The new Heffner mods I had done are worth about 1000 h.p., which makes traction problematic. Obviously, an easy way to increase traction is to expand the contact patch, and the simplest way to do this is to increase the width and diameter of the tire. The challenge, however, is that if we are talking about a conventional street tire, this also increases rotational mass. So, if one were to reduce the weight of the wheel, one might be able to then increase the size of the tire without paying a significant weight penalty. There is also the important fact that bigger, fatter tires and wheels generally make a car look cool. Truth be told, this may actually be my real motive, but making the car look cool at the expense of actual performance is a flagrant violation of all that is right and proper.
So, I ordered up a set of HRE P101 LWs in an aggressive but extremely boss 20/21 fitment. HRE informed us that if we wanted the LW version, we would have to pay for the engineering cost, as the demand for these wheels for the first generation GT is predicted to be, shall we say, "low". I ponied up the greenbacks, and an eternity later, here's what emerged: Fronts ended up weighing 18.4 pounds (compared to 20.7 for the GT BBS), and Rears at 22.3 (Compared to 25.2). They are the most impressive aftermarket wheels I've ever seen, and HUGE!
HRE has, for some time, made a wheel they call the P101 Monoblok. The wheel is somewhat similar in shape and structure to the BBS wheels on our GTs. Recently, and perhaps in response to the new BBS FI-R wheels, HRE came out with a version of the P101 they call the "LW" or Light Weight. The wheel is similar in appearance to the "standard" P101, but apparently they apply special engineering calculations to remove material from the wheel in order to reduce weight. This concept appealed to me. But why bother with a set of special wheels when the GT wheels are pretty light to begin with? Well...
The new Heffner mods I had done are worth about 1000 h.p., which makes traction problematic. Obviously, an easy way to increase traction is to expand the contact patch, and the simplest way to do this is to increase the width and diameter of the tire. The challenge, however, is that if we are talking about a conventional street tire, this also increases rotational mass. So, if one were to reduce the weight of the wheel, one might be able to then increase the size of the tire without paying a significant weight penalty. There is also the important fact that bigger, fatter tires and wheels generally make a car look cool. Truth be told, this may actually be my real motive, but making the car look cool at the expense of actual performance is a flagrant violation of all that is right and proper.
So, I ordered up a set of HRE P101 LWs in an aggressive but extremely boss 20/21 fitment. HRE informed us that if we wanted the LW version, we would have to pay for the engineering cost, as the demand for these wheels for the first generation GT is predicted to be, shall we say, "low". I ponied up the greenbacks, and an eternity later, here's what emerged: Fronts ended up weighing 18.4 pounds (compared to 20.7 for the GT BBS), and Rears at 22.3 (Compared to 25.2). They are the most impressive aftermarket wheels I've ever seen, and HUGE!
