Rota Wheels..

[Herblenny]

What do you guys think about Rota wheels??

Are they any good??

[djmtsu]

They are generally set up for FWD and other small cars. That being said, I want a set of GT3's for the Miata.

[SPICcnmFD]

PHIL, That's what I had on my Eclipse. They were good light weight wheels, but I don't think you can get them much wider than 8". Subaru guys seem to use them a good bit.

[Miata_mx5]

I would not even run them on my FC, much less my miata or GTR.

Sorry, I am part of the "don't screw over the originators" group.

Any quality sports car does not deserve low quality control, reverse engineered wheels. It's companies like them that steal ideas that turn this industry into shit.

People run E-Bay steelies at rallycross track days too, does not make them great.

There is a reason why serious sports cars, track cars, race cars and OEM wheels that are outside the phillipines market are not made by ROTA.

[djmtsu]

Originally Posted by Miata_mx5

I would not even run them on my FC, much less my miata or GTR.

Sorry, I am part of the "don't screw over the originators" group.

Any quality sports car does not deserve low quality control, reverse engineered wheels. It's companies like them that steal ideas that turn this industry into shit.

People run E-Bay steelies at rallycross track days too, does not make them great.

There is a reason why serious sports cars, track cars, race cars and OEM wheels that are outside the phillipines market are not made by ROTA.

Please leave personal politics out of it. I know some people are very passionate about Original JDM parts, and some prefer to get the more inexpensive knockoffs. I am guilty, I have Attain knockoff bumper guards on my FC, made by JKL. Sorry if I can't afford twice the price, and in my case, the replica is better quality.

Also, if the design is just slightly different, it is not an illegal copy.

So, Phil, if you are looking for wheels for one of your FD's, or the RX-8, look elsewhere.

[afterburn27]

I know lots of people that run rota wheels without issue (on and off the track). However, I have seen a few pics of bent and completely cracked Rota wheels that would make me cautious.

Also, as SPICcnmFD mentioned they generally aren't made in widths wider than 8".

For an FD that serves track duty, I would look for something else. For a street car I think they are fine.

[Whizbang]

i can google some nice pictures of OEM wheels that are utter failures. Including our early year 1993 FDs....

I know a few people with Rotas and i have never seen a problem with them even after a few years of driving on them. I assume that if you do something like hit a 1' deep pot hole at 40 then something can go wrong. But im sure high end "paying for a name" stuff will have the same results.

[IH8DSM]

see notice no one in this thread said i had rotas and they cracked.... my buddy has volks and bent his when he hit a bump. If you hit anything hard enough you can mess up a wheel no matter if you payed 2 grand or 200 also has alot to do with the tire. If your wanting to track it you might wanna try rbmotoring.com and see what they have fairly cheap name brand wheels. i don't think rota's are horrible and have thought about them on my fb just depends on what there gonna be used for and how much you wanna pay.

[Black91n/a]

Originally Posted by IH8DSM

see notice no one in this thread said i had rotas and they cracked....

I had Rotas and they cracked...

They were my track wheels (15x8 Slipstreams) and I only used them at the track twice and once on the street before one developed a crack in the hub area on the first morning of a 3 day track weekend. I had to do the rest of the weekend on my street wheels. Needless to say I wasn't happy. The cause of the failure was a design flaw where they put a sharp corner pocket on the back face of the wheel on either side of two of the lug holes, leaving a very thin wall. This lead to cracking which I fortunately discovered while re-torquing the weels after the first session (the one nut just kept turning, so I looked and could see the crack).

Of note is that those wheels are a custom size and I don't think they normally do a 5x4.5" on their 15" Slipstreams, so it may be a bit of an isolated issue. But there is the larger issue of them allowing wheels with a serious design flaw out the door, not the sort of company I'll EVER deal with again.

I just got my new custom Kodiak 15x9's yesterday, and even though I paid about 3x as much for them, I think they're well worth it.

[Phoenix7]

don't cheap out on wheels.

[proz07]

relativly cheap and yes most of their rims are designed for a honda civic as in widths and offsets but there is one you can get up to 9.5 18" amd about 4 you can get in 9 18-17" with fd friendly offsets. what i like about them is i can get almost any of them blacked out or bronzed. i am looking at some ROTA black SVN rims 18" 9" 35 offset for my BB FD on all 4 corners when i get back to the states in a month or two and will have more to report on these rims then.

on a side they do do custom offset width's if you buy enough of them from what iv heard whick is why you can get the wider rims in certain models. if you look at all thier rims offsets and widths you will see that there are some weird sizes that would not fit any stock setups.

z

z

[RETed]

Last time I checked, Rotas were made in the Phillipines.
You can make your own conclusions on their quality.


-Ted

[proz07]

iv been constantly looking at wheels and weights and what not. i even almost bought some 17" work vs-xx untill i found out the weighed in the range of 24-26# at 1800$ LOL ya freaking right in my opinion those kinds of wheels are show wheels not go. id pay sub 1g for a wheel that weight but no way will i pay 450 a wheel for a boat ancor. sorry to those hard core dont rip off the originals but i dont think so. now ill probably end up with wheels that weigh around that but at half the price im cool with that. thats just a crazy high price in my opinion.

z

[Ranger]

A friend of mine has Rota P54Rs on his 240SX, and they fit good. They're 18x9.5 +12 offset. I think they're one of the few rims Rota makes that come in decent sizes. IMO don't worry about wheel weight unless you seriously autocross or track your car. However, from what I've heard, Rota rims have terrible QC...they crack under heavy stress. Where's that infamous picture...oh yes.



If you're really worried about wheel weight and don't want to spend a fortune, get a set of Enkei RPF1s. They look great on RX-7s.

Hey proz07, are you implying that you can find knock-off VS-XX rims for less than a grand? if so let me know where, I might like a set to use for drift rims...

[Nopis1O]

Im another firm believer in Original over Knockoffs but they have there flaws too. rota seems to be the only one that hits the forums.
Hey Ranger^ Where's that infamous picture...oh yes.


Buy what you want man cuz no matter what you have it can snap.