There is occasionally a negative perception placing aftermarket wheels on high-performance vehicles, with some people believing it to be blasphemous and untrue to the original intentions of the manufacturer. In reality, they are well worth considering. As long as the wheels are bought from a reputable manufacturer such as BBS you simply can’t go wrong.
The pictures on this blog post show a set of Ultra-Light BBS FI-R wheels on a client’s Ferrari 430 Scuderia built for high-performance track day fun. These BBS wheels aren’t just to make your car look good but have serious performance potential too!
You know these wheels mean business just from how light they’ve been designed! Weighing in at just 7.9kg at the front and 9.2kg at the rear compared to the Ferrari original set which weight 11.4kg & 12.7kg respectably.
This is where the great sprung vs unsprung mass debate comes into play – as we discussed in our M3 video you can multiply unsprung mass savings by a factor of 10 when compared to sprung mass weight savings. So on this car, we have saved 3.5kg per wheel, which equates to a total weight saving of 14kg from the unsprung mass of the car. This mean, in real terms, the car will handle as if 140kg had been saved from elements supported by the suspension.
The wheels have been cleverly built with an offset that widens the track of the car whilst still on the standard tyres. Resulting in increased stability and more responsive dynamics to allow you to place more trust when pushing to the limit on the track. This can be further enhanced by combining these wheels with the appropriately revised suspension to lower the centre of gravity and push the cars handling ability up even higher. Not only this but as the wheels are slightly wider, they are able to accommodate wider tyres, to help fight the Scuderia’s tendency to understeer when really on the limit!
As mentioned earlier and perhaps most importantly, is that these wheels are really light. They’re not just lighter than the Standard OEM wheels on the Scuderia but even lighter than Ferrari’s optional 16M performance wheels! This reduction in un-sprung rotating mass further helps increase the performance possible from the 430, most notably the damper and steering response.
If the increased performance wasn’t enough to persuade you to look into a set of aftermarket wheels for your car, then surely the drop-dead good looks and stand out factor they offer any car will be enough for you to get in contact with Scuderia Car Parts Tuning team today! The FI-R wheels are available in platinum silver, satin black and satin bronze.
Great content! Super high-quality! Keep it up! 🙂
Those are BBS RI-D.