Porsche claims to be the first automaker to bring braided carbon-fiber wheels to a production car by offering a quartet of ultra-strong, ultra-light, dark grey rims as an optional upgrade on the 2018 Porsche 911 Turbo S Exclusive Series.
You remember the one. It’s a regular ol’ 911, only turbocharged and upgraded to S trim and then further upgraded with 27 more horsepower for — make sure you’ve swallowed that last bite — $67,000. There will only be 500. The top speed is 205 miles per hour. The total cost is $257,500, or roughly the cost of a regular 911 Turbo S and a Macan GTS. There’s a lot of Golden Yellow Metallic.
And for the price of a 2017 Ford Fiesta, you could upgrade your 2018 Porsche 911 Turbo S Exclusive Series with $14,980 wheels.
Something tells me that if you’re about to purchase a $257,500 Porsche 911 Turbo S, the decision between a new Ford Fiesta and a set of carbon fiber wheels isn’t keeping you up at night.
Be an early adopter. Believe the hype. Get the wheels.
Porsche says the hugely in-depth process involves nearly 10 square yards of carbon-fiber fabric, “cutting and assembling over 200 individual components,” and the largest carbon-fiber braiding machine… in the world. The result is a wheel that’s 20 percent stronger and 20 percent lighter, achieving the very best kind of heft reduction: an unsprung weight cutback. The total weight reduction, according to Car And Driver, is 75 pounds.
Through the first seven months of 2017, U.S. sales of the Porsche 911 are down 15 percent. Though it’s still Porsche USA’s best-selling non-SUV, the 911 is on track to suffer a six-year U.S. sales low in 2017.
Ford’s accessory catalogue says you can replace the 15-inch covered steelies on a basic Ford Fiesta S Sport with $868 16-inch, 8-spoke black track alloys. Ford Fiesta S buyers likely won’t do that. But for Porsche 911 Turbo S Exclusive Series buyers, what’s another $15,000?
Timothy Cain is a contributing analyst at The Truth About Cars and Autofocus.ca and the founder and former editor of GoodCarBadCar.net. Follow on Twitter @timcaincars.
“…you could upgrade your 2018 Porsche 911 Turbo S Exclusive Series with $14,980 wheels”
That’s the sort of option one buys only so they can talk about it. There can’t be any meaningful improvement in performance with these wheels.
Besides, I’d worry that the guy at Monro Muffler would damage them when installing new tires. Wait, are we talking about a Fiesta or the 911?
Depends on the weight savings over the conventional wheel, especially at the barrel since that is the farthest point from the center and can account for a sizable reduction in rotating mass.
Any improvement in unsprung weight is good since it effects every area of performance.
15k isn’t bad depending on the replacement costs. IIRC the Ford suggested replacement on the GT350R’s CF wheels are just over 13k.
“meaningful improvement” was my term. You’d have to be at 9/10s or higher to realize a slim difference, and I’d bet few buyers of this car are capable of actually pushing it that hard.
On bumpy roads, I doubt you’d have to go too fast before you started noticing a 20% drop in unsprung weight. Especially with the big wheels and tires the Turbo comes with.
Of course, on bumpy roads, noone would drive this car, as they’d be too afraid of damaging the wheels. In fact, noone will even drive it to that favorite of all exotic car locations, the Starbucks located 3 miles from their home. In case going over the curb to the parking lot, damages their “inveestmeent.”
But for those who want to steal one of these, hence have no choice but to drive it in a proper getaway fashion; light wheels rule, trump and dominate all other performance upgrades, as far as actual performance on anything less than billiard table smooth road goes.
“Hey my car cost more than your house”
“Yo my wheels cost more than your car”
“Porsche claims to be the first automaker to bring braided carbon-fiber wheels to a production car”
Didn’t Ford offer carbon rims with a version of a Shelby Mustang a few years ago?
the current GT350R offers optional carbon fiber wheels, but IIRC they’re a mix of CF fabric and chopped fibers. the Porsche ones are made from braided CF.
The Koenigsegg One:1 also has carbon fiber wheels, but it’s unclear to me what the distinction is between cut CF sheets and braided CF.
Actually, I did some more googling. It looks like the Porsche wheels are made from multiple parts that are then braided together, the baked and hardened into a single unit whereas the Koenigsegg wheels are created as a single piece (and are hollow, only weigh 13 lbs, and are capable of 280MPH).
braiding uses impressive machines like this one:
http://www.herzog-online.com/_rubric/index.php?rubric=Products+Composites+EN
to form/assemble parts from basically “continuous” strands of CF.
The CF will is standard and only available on the GT350R. The standard GT350 only gets a forged aluminum wheel.
Well, there’s obviously my answer to the QOTD about how I would spend my $31,400 today’s-new-car-ATP:
A new Fiesta 1.0T with a stick upgraded with a set of the braided carbon rims from a Porsche 911 Turbo S Exclusive Series.