Image wheels

[Furyblade_Lee]

Been thinking about getting a set of cast Image Wheels (BRM6) for the Phoenix. What worries me is that i seem to remember that there was a few failiures on Westfield XTR4's where the centres failed and snapped. Again, a few weeks ago there was a set on e-bay, well a set meaning 3 and a broken one, as one centre had snapped off (Caterham I believe). What i would like to know is does anyone here use a set of the wheels in "anger" for want of a better word, no just pootling around. Does anyone know if there is a known problem with these wheels and sticky tyres?

[Happy Jim]

Hi,

I was on a trackday when I saw the results of one of these failures..very very worrying, fortunatly no one hurt.

The wheel was a CHB design on a cob, when the chap spoke with Image they admitted that they had a "small" run of these wheels fitted with short inserts (think helicoil type of thing), 3mm rather than 6mm. He's since switched his wheels to traditional through bolted split rims.

Personally, I wouldn't touch one of the "hidden bolt" designs with the biggest bargepole you could find.

JMHO

Rgds

Jim

[Steve_D]

I would have thought you had already presented yourself with sufficient evidence to convince yourself that this is not a good idea.

Or did you just come here for the 5 minute argument.

Steve

[Furyblade_Lee]

?

It was a serious question.

[Furyblade_Lee]

Thanks, Happy Jim. I think you may have answered the question. Hidden bolts not being long enough. I found it strange as I believe Duncan Cowpie ran Image Split rims on his Turbo Busa Dax for a while with no issues. And a friend runs them on his Audi TT National Hot Rod, with no centre failiures despite many times hitting the armco hard enough to tear chunks from the outer rim. Problem is, some of those Image wheels look the dogs whatsits and I fancy a set.

If I was looking for a 5 minute argument, I would get p*****, go to the Pie and Piston and waffle about Muslims or something with the other Children. However, I think I have found the answer I was looking for right here.

[Liszt]

Have image Split Rims on my dax which is putting 265 bhp through them no problems.

[RushV8]

Hi Furyblade

As you can see from my profile, I have a Dax Rush V8 (4.6ltr) 300BHP at flywheel and > 200ft pounds of torque. Have Image spilt rims fitted and after 5 yrs of trackdays and fast road use I've never had any issues with them.

Only issue I have ever heard from Dax Rush or Dax Cobra owbers is that the polished aluminium outer rim sections are rather soft and if you kerb them or hit a deep pot-hole with very low profile tyres and low tyre pressures then the outer rim edge can be dented relatively easily. I run 50 profile 205/50 front and 235/50 rear tyres on 15" diameter rims and have , even on Sheffields terribly pot-holed roads never damaged any, so I would not think under normal circumsatnces they are any riskier choice than any such split rim wheel. On the filp side , cast aluminium or magnesium rims "stiffer" but therefore are more brittle, and when hill-climb / sprinting Minis in my youth, I saw people occassionally break the rims on Minilite type wheels....

[vojx]

i need some deeply dished rear wheels, nothing off the shelf fits, so a pair of Image wheels was what i'd decided on. Although now i may avoid the hidden bolts approach, i'm quite happy that MANY Image customers are happy with their purchases.

are there any alternative suppliers?

[Steve_D]

Lee
It was a serious answer (with a flippant bit on the end).

You stated that you knew of a number of failures so I was genuinely surprised you were still considering them.

Now that the thread has moved on somewhat with others saying they have not had problems I would guess that leaves you with another quandary.

Steve

[.Adam.]

Had a friend who had Rial wheels on his Caterham, which he was happy with, although not sure if they are any better/worse than the Image wheels.

[V8OWNER]

RushV8 said:

Hi Furyblade
As you can see from my profile, I have a Dax Rush V8 (4.6ltr) 300BHP at flywheel and > 200ft pounds of torque. Have Image spilt rims fitted and after 5 yrs of trackdays and fast road use I've never had any issues with them.

ditto what he said....

(also aluminium bits are a b@stard to clean but thats my only complaint.)

[Furyblade_Lee]

Have any of you got the concealed bolts? BRM6 is what I like and they have hidden bolts.

[LotusNova]

I've got the Wolfrace replicas on mine with hidden bolts (billet 67). No problems so far, but haven't given them any serious thrashing yet.

[Thevet]

I've got Image 3pc split rims on my Ultima which is pushing 600hp and have had no probs in a 1000 miles of trackdays, and similarly no probs with image on the GD427 prior to that. I'd happily go there again if their design fitted the build criteria.

[Furyblade_Lee]

Thevet, are your bolts concealed or all the wat through?

[Thevet]

Depends what you mean by concealed, on both sets from Image, the nuts protruded by about 15-18mm when fully tightened, sitting into a 20mm recess in the body of the centre of the hub, so maybe that means concealed I don't know.

[Furyblade_Lee]

Been to the Autosport show today, and managed to have a chat with the Image Wheels man Himself. He said to me he knows of 3 failiures over the 20 years, that Cobra and Westfield XTR2.. He said they were all due to manufacturing faults fron their suppliers or wheels been previously damaged / modified from how supplied. All issues are now resolved and many, many Image Wheels are in use worldwide with no issues. Guess that is an answer then.

[rhinochopig]

The rim finish is poor though. They corrode/tarnish very very quickly. For the money they cost they really should have a more robust finish.

[denisb]

Furyblade_Lee said:

Been to the Autosport show today, and managed to have a chat with the Image Wheels man Himself. He said to me he knows of 3 failiures over the 20 years, that Cobra and Westfield XTR2.. He said they were all due to manufacturing faults fron their suppliers or wheels been previously damaged / modified from how supplied. All issues are now resolved and many, many Image Wheels are in use worldwide with no issues. Guess that is an answer then.

First of all, I have Image billet centered wheels on my race car and despite several peoples best efforts to destroy them they have been FANTASTIC and so LIGHT. I am very happy with them. I have been through enough inner and outer rims through breakages and resizes for me to consider that they have paid for themselves over single piece wheels.

However, I know of far more than 3 failures of cast centered wheels breaking, and that doesn't include the ones previously mentioned. One involved a Rover SD1 that received a fairly light tap and saw half it's wheel overtake him. Another involved Prova and resulted in an awful lot of 'to-ing' and 'fro-ing' and some official strength testing before they would recommend their wheels.

Again in Image's defence, I have seen lots of other manufacturers wheels break in similar circumstances so I wouldn't single them out.

Personally I would just wait a couple of months and save up for the billet centres.