In the past we’ve written about Weds 100% carbon fiber wheel, but this is not something that is used in production at this time.  Currently, the only real option I know about for a real carbon fiber production wheel is from Dymag, which features a carbon fiber outer rim, and a regular wheel face with magnesium hub.  That’s about to change.

Among the manufactures that we met at SEMA this year, HRE announced a partnership with Dymag to create their own set of partially carbon fiber wheels.  Dymag has an exclusive partnership with HRE to produce the outer wheel, so you will only see this with them for now.

For those that don’t know of HRE, they are one of the highest end wheel manufacturers in the world.  You’ll find their wheels on anything from a BMW M3 to a Lamborghini Murcielago.  They are known for making multi-piece forged custom forged wheels with many options to fit your application.

The new carbon fiber wheel is in the final stages of development, and expected to hit the streets in January of 2009.  You’ll be able to find them in both the 590R and 890R styles, which feature forged aluminum centers with titanium hardware.  They will initially be available in both a 19″ and 20″ wheel, and can be expected to cost $2,500-$4,000/wheel ($10,000-$16,000/set), although final price is yet to be determined.

We spoke with Alan Peltier, HRE’s COO to ask him a few questions about the wheels.  The main reason it’s available in only two styles is because of the way they are pre-cut to fit the wheel spoke pattern.  They don’t want to start offering carbon wheels across the board due to the cost, so this is sort of considered an initial test of the market.  On top of that, using the wheel styles with a lot of spokes offers a good amount of structural integrity. The 20 inch wheel is expected to weigh in at just 21lbs.

When we originally wrote about Weds wheels, we saw a lot of people commenting about worries of carbon fiber bursting under some sort of pressure.  Alan posted on a thread at 6SpeedOnline regarding this:

So on to carbon. It turns out that the stiffness of the carbon barrel is actually much higher than the stiffness of the aluminum barrel. In fact, in fatigue, the barrels are load rated MUCH higher than the aluminum center simply because you have to design the rim around impact. Okay… so is it brittle and is it going to shatter into a million pieces under impact. Nope. If you hit a curb or something you’ll definitely damage it, but you’ll have a localized failure which is what you want and should expect.

The way Alan explained it to me at SEMA is that there should be no concerns about the type of damage people where the wheel would basically burst.  The wheels are meant for a street/show application, but Alan also said that there were no problems with taking them onto a track if desired.

We’re looking forward to seeing the final version of the wheels, especially installed on some cars.  While the wheels from SEMA were aluminum, I’d love to see them in a gunmetal color to better match the carbon fiber.  We’ll surely post any updates as we get them.

A Japanese company by the name of Weds Sport has come up with the first full carbon fiber wheel.  They unveiled the wheels with what they call their Dry Carbon Wheel Project at the last Tokyo Auto Salon show.

One wheel weighs in at just 2.76kg, which works out to be 6.08475844 pounds.  Interested in getting a set of these for your car?  Expect to pay around $10,000-$12,000 for the set.  While it sounds expensive, you can easily spend $8,000+ on custom three-piece forged wheels from a company like HRE.

I tried to get somebody to translate the Japanese from the above display at Tokyo Auto Salon, but this was the best I got from user fithamoto on the Nissan 350Z forums:

Its kinda of complicated, but it basically says its a Dry Carbon Fiber process that can be used on automobile & motorcycle tires. Something about the weight and color too. It points out the differences between a wet CF proces & Dry CF process.

Sorry, really not much help after all. I guess your gonna need to get a first gen. Japanese to translate it correctly.

If anybody else can translate better, we’d love to know what the rest says…just post a comment below.

Weds Sport’s display also featured a wheel with a carbon fiber face, but more than likely a forged aluminum wheel surrounding.  This is probably a much cheaper solution, and potentially arguably better looks.

There is some concern about a wheel being 100% carbon fiber that I’ve seen from people online…especially considering the weight of the wheel.  Is it strong enough to support a car normally driving, let alone at a race track?  What about the cost of repairing the wheel if something gets damaged?  Does it need to get fully replaced, or can it be fixed for substantially less cost?

There is another company by the name of Dymag that makes carbon fiber wheels (which we’ll cover in a future post), but their hub is made out of magnesium.  Apparently this is for strength reasons, which makes me think these fully carbon fiber rims should only be used for show cars.  I’d like to hear Weds Sport’s thoughts on this.  If you have any insight, feel free to post your comments.