[greybeard]

A great previous thread was looking at the options of Sparco Assetto Gara vs. Motegi MR125 vs. O.Z. Ultraleggara wheels, exactly the options I'm looking at.

In the thread some quality concerns were raised about the Motegi wheels, but nothing specific. Given that Sparcos are just gravity cast while the Motegis employ "Form Flow technology" (whatever exactly that means) I was assuming the Motegis would be a bit more durable than the Sparcos. Am I wrong? The same thread also mentioned cracking issues with the Ultraleggaras.

Does anybody know what sort of quality concerns there are with the Motegis? How about the Sparcos?

Thanks

 

[BlackBird]

I have Sparco Assetto Garas. They're a decent wheel. So are the Ultraleggeras. Sparco is made by OZ, by the way. Motegis I've heard some mixed things about; I know at least one person who bent an MR125 and one who couldn't get theirs to balance.

 

[Zormecteon]

I've had the MR125s on for about a year now, with no issues. From what I understand the roads here are not as bad as some other places so I can't talk about durability under those conditions. I bought them as being the easiest to clean. Fewer spokes means larger hand gaps. I only looked later to find that they are amoung the lighter wheels available. I'm not impressed with the dual pattern bold aspect, and might not have purchased them had I known before they arrived, but I'm ok with it now.

 

[marc89gti]

I had a set of Motegi MR7's for my old 89 Suzuki Swift GTi and after about 5-6 years of summer driving and trying to avoid potholes as best as possible at the end two of the four ended up getting bent. They would all balance on the tire machine but at highway passing speeds would get a certain amount of vibration. I even witnessed one of the balance machines run with my tire/wheel and was quite noticeable of the bent rim. I had a pretty stiff suspension setup with Koni shocks and H&R springs which didn't give much give. I have heard on some other forums that Motegi wheels tend to be soft and thus bend easy.

 

[greybeard]

Thanks, this is good information. I was thinking the light weight of the FiST would offer additional protection, but a Swift is a good deal lighter. I have bent wheels in the past too, so it is good to hear the experience of others.

 

[marc89gti]

Thanks, this is good information. I was thinking the light weight of the FiST would offer additional protection, but a Swift is a good deal lighter. I have bent wheels in the past too, so it is good to hear the experience of others.

Yes my Swift GTi weighed in at 1768lbs if i remember correctly, that was a 15" x 6.5" wheel with 7 large spokes.

 

[Dyn085]

I'm not really a fan of either the Motegi or Assetto Gara's for daily driving as they are both pretty soft wheels. Ymmv obviously, but the OZ's are quality wheels and the price is pretty indicative of that. I'm not saying that all AG's or Motegi's will fail and I've known plenty of people that had zero issues with them, it's just not something I would run on my car constantly.

A lot of people get too caught up with weight in the FiST community, but if your wheel is light and inexpensive then I would keep a fifth setup on hand as a spare just in case. Just a general rule of thumb and common sense. If light and cheap wheels were strong then everyone would use them all the time. My TD 1.2's took a beating on my Mk3 Focus and I never once had an issue with them, and that's about the cheapest I'll go for a quality light weight wheel.

 

[greybeard]

Yes my Swift GTi weighed in at 1768lbs if i remember correctly, that was a 15" x 6.5" wheel with 7 large spokes.
View attachment 1752 View attachment 1753

Wow, that is cool!!! I always had a soft spot for the Swift. I recall helping a friend auto-X a 3 cyl Metro (sister to the Swift but with no engine or suspension goodies). Even at 50 psi the front tires rolled over, but we had a good time.

In 1989 I bought a brand new CRX Si which was about 2150 with fuel on the scale. That was a fun car too.

 

[greybeard]

I'm not really a fan of either the Motegi or Assetto Gara's for daily driving as they are both pretty soft wheels. Ymmv obviously, but the OZ's are quality wheels and the price is pretty indicative of that. I'm not saying that all AG's or Motegi's will fail and I've known plenty of people that had zero issues with them, it's just not something I would run on my car constantly.

A lot of people get too caught up with weight in the FiST community, but if your wheel is light and inexpensive then I would keep a fifth setup on hand as a spare just in case. Just a general rule of thumb and common sense. If light and cheap wheels were strong then everyone would use them all the time. My TD 1.2's took a beating on my Mk3 Focus and I never once had an issue with them, and that's about the cheapest I'll go for a quality light weight wheel.

After a bit more looking around I'm also thinking the TD 1.2 would also be a good choice. I'm looking into those now too. I'm glad to hear you had a good experience with them.

BTW, for any autoX or racing I don't think you can get too caught up in wheel weight. For autoX specifically wheel weight is more important than HP, and people spend silly amounts on that.

 

[BlackBird]

If you discount the cost of actually getting Team Dynamics to your door, the price for minus size wheels for the FiST between them and the Sparcos are pretty comparable. I'm not too worried about mine, as I have a fair amount of sidewall.

 

[Dyn085]

If you discount the cost of actually getting Team Dynamics to your door, the price for minus size wheels for the FiST between them and the Sparcos are pretty comparable. I'm not too worried about mine, as I have a fair amount of sidewall.

Comparing the minus size of 16x7" 1.2's to the same size AG's results in a $48 difference per wheel ($178 vs $130)-and that is before including shipping. I wouldn't consider that comparable as it's more than a third more expensive (137% of the Sparco cost), but again-that's just my opinion. I have nothing against the Gara's, but I would probably only run them on track days compared to daily driving in my life. I've had this discussion with other Sparco owners just to have them bend a wheel or two later on and lose the cost savings they had by replacing them. Ymmv.

It's also fair to say that even though I've heard of more complaints about the AG's compared to the 1.2's, a larger reasoning of that can be attributed to the higher number of people buying AG's due to their lower price and availability from big-box retailers. The larger the community is the more that issues will be realized/vocalized-even if it's ultimately only a small fraction of the overall population.

 

[BlackBird]

Looks like Tapatalk failed to send my post. Boo. Anyhow..

I'm not overly worried. I live in a region where bending a wheel---any wheel---is hardly unheard of and have yet to do so. I can attribute that to either dumb luck, or my driving style (fairly cautious, defensive, and careful), or a combination of the two. One of my friends who has a FoST runs a set of Sparco Terras for winter and hasn't yet bent them over the course of two or three winters. Then again, the potholes are easy to avoid here--they're the size of cars, so you can't say you didn't see them!

Sparcos are just cheap enough where you can replace one for not all that much money, and I have plenty of 15 inch steelies laying around in the interim. Might be a bigger hassle for others.

 

[Smokin]

I have run the Sparco Terra's for last winter and rallycross and now back on for this winter. No problems.

Daily drove and ran about 150 AX runs on Assetto Garos with no problems....

 

[BlackBird]

I will be much, much more worried about bending or otherwise damaging wheels when I eventually get my dream set of wheels for this car (WORK Wheels Meister S1R). At about the price of an entire set of Sparcos, that's inconvenient.

 

[Roger]

I've had my Motegi MR125s for a while now and not one issue with them. The roads here aren't that bad though so I'm not running into potholes constantly, lol. There are mixed reviews with the Motegi's as well as the others mentioned here. I was planning on getting the OZs before getting the Motegi's, but I kept finding bent wheel reviews on them too. I guess it's a good thing that they are fairly cheap in price if for some reason I bend one or two or.....

 

[greybeard]

I will be much, much more worried about bending or otherwise damaging wheels when I eventually get my dream set of wheels for this car (WORK Wheels Meister S1R). At about the price of an entire set of Sparcos, that's inconvenient.

I had to look those up. Perty!

 

[Dyn085]

I will be much, much more worried about bending or otherwise damaging wheels when I eventually get my dream set of wheels for this car (WORK Wheels Meister S1R). At about the price of an entire set of Sparcos, that's inconvenient.

That is actually be part of the reason (imho) that there are more reported bent wheels of the lower lines-people pay significantly less attention to road hazards when they pay <$1k for a set of wheels with tires than they do when they pay >$1k for wheels only. Even with cheap tires my 1.2's had cost around $2k (tires, tpms, mount/balance/shipping, etc.), and coupled with my suspension setup I was significantly more aware of my surroundings and speed than I currently am.

With that being said, those wheels still took a few pretty massive hits at interstate speed with zero issues while a buddy that had Styluz wheels ended up with a cracked barrel in normal city daily-driving.

 

[greybeard]

I did go ahead and order a set of the Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2. The weight is good and it sounds like they are well made.

I ordered the 16x7 Anthracite with the correct FiST hub bore. Since I won't need them until April I decided I wanted the right bore and not have to deal with hubcentric rings. I've never custom ordered a set of wheels before, I was pretty happy that the only additional cost was time.

 

[BlackBird]

You can't go wrong with Team Dynamics. Lots of Fiesta and Focus people have them, and for good reason. Lightweight, strong motorsport wheels.

 

[BlackBird]

That is actually be part of the reason (imho) that there are more reported bent wheels of the lower lines-people pay significantly less attention to road hazards when they pay <$1k for a set of wheels with tires than they do when they pay >$1k for wheels only. Even with cheap tires my 1.2's had cost around $2k (tires, tpms, mount/balance/shipping, etc.), and coupled with my suspension setup I was significantly more aware of my surroundings and speed than I currently am..

I feel like a lot of people are pretty inattentive when it comes to that. Both my fiancee and I have always been spatially-aware for that reason--even replacing or repairing an OEM wheel is money I'd be loathe to spend since it's usually avoidable.