I'll second that. Paul, could you post a pic of silver (better yet, polished) wheels on the car, or even just a straight-on pic from your CAD system rendered in silver (for photoshopping)?

 

I like them better on the car than off. I also like the idea of body colour centres, but there's not enough flat surface area IMO for doing it effectively in velocity red (my colour) on the YAW rims.

I'd love a wheel with reducung concentric rotors :D but the material would need to be too think (and therefore heavy) to support that design.

Being a gram shaver on bicycle wheels, I'm very much aware on the benefits of reducing the outer rotating mass as much as possible... 3lbs would make a fair difference.

 

Hey there,

Thanks for the comments. We're in the stage right now where we need to hear those things and make changes to suit the buyers tastes.

I'm leaning that direction myself. I will have pics of the wheels in silver posted by Friday.

Looks are subjective of course, but I think everyone is more or less in agreement on this one including myself. As I mentioned before, the lip is required for proper mounting of the tire pressure sensor. I think the dark center really makes the lip dimension stand out. I think that changing the centers to silver will make this a non issue.

Years ago I bought a set of 15" Isuzu Trooper wheels for my Mazda rotary pickup. I painted them black, and mounted them on my truck. They looked smaller tham the original 14's!!! I took them back off and re-sparayed them silver, and suddenly they looked 2" bigger.

I also think that the lighter color will make the spoke design stand out more.

The centers are machined from a large lump of forged aluminum, so the shape is completely dependant on the machine work. Adding a large radius adds nearly an hour to the machining time which is why most forged wheels have small face radii.

The production pieces will have the edge softened more, and I think (hope) a color change will add to that effect.

I would be happy to post that, but I'm afraid that it wouldn't have the right look. My software is for engineering, and so the visual effect is not as nice as what you would get from graphic design oriented software. The light just doesn't seem to reflect properly, and there is no sense of depth.

I just tried to pull a file of the wheel in silver and red (Just for fun!) and my floppy drive is screwed up. I'll have to sort that out.

Look for the pics of the silver centered wheels on the car by Friday.

Thanks for all the comments.

 

man there isn't much i like about how they turned out...i'm a fan of pretty simple/big 5 spoke wheels (think ferrari) so i guess i should just keep mine!

 

My photoshop skills aren't the greatest, but here are some pics I hacked together to try it out in other colors

[Deleted Ti, color came out wrong]

 

Yellow

 

Blue

 

Titanium (second try)

 

It looks great on blue and yellow. Titanium is just too hard to reproduce accuratly in photoshop.


Anyhow keep it up the good work, i'll be interested in the final product for my titanium.

 

Thanks Kuf

I'm working on the centers right now.

 

here's a more accurate yellow RX-8 with the yaw power wheels.

 

Wow!!! A manufacturer responding to inputs from his customers? I don't recall ever experiencing this . . . except, of course, at Burger King years ago ("have it your way" or some similar pitch). I've heard theories that businesses could operate this way, but . . . . This is really exciting! I DO like the simple massive 5-spoke appearance of the stock wheels, and these new Yaw wheels are ALSO very attractive. Mmm. Some aspect of these wheels having 'body color' would be very classy! (My '8' is Sunlight Silver.)

 

Holy **** Squidward, how did you do that? If you had been around during the initial design stages, I probably would not have made the wheels the wrong color in the first place!

The wheels are redone in natural aluminum. I will pick them up from the tire shop tomorrow, photograph them and post the pics.

In my opinion, they look MUCH better. I think I realize why, now that they are done. With a dark color, it all just looks the same. The dark color seems to suck up all the light. With a light color there are shadows, so the edge of the spokes really stand out, and the design is more visible.

What I notice looking at the current pictures is that you almost have to concentrate to make out the spoke design.

To LTAGFERN, I appreciate the nice comments. I really don't have a choice but to ask for input, because a wheel is a cosmetic piece. What looks good to me may look awful to everyone else.

When I look at a wheel, all I see is load paths, and stress concentrations. I don't think most people are interested in a cosmetic piece designed by an engineer.

I did try to make them look good, but like I said, my tastes may be very different from everyone elses.

What I hoped for was a wheel that would complement the styling of the car, and not look dated 5 years down the road.

Anyway, thanks for the input. Especially you guys who took the time to photoshop the wheels.

Look for new pics sometime tomorrow.

 

For those who can't wait til tomorrow, here's a little preview of the silver finish.

Well, almost.

 

hoooooly crap. that's hott

 

Wow how did you do that! The silver looks great, good job!

Could you do the car in any of the other colors asked about before?

Black, Blue, Red, etc...

 

Any word on pricing yet?

D-san

 

any word on pricing is right
the silver does look boss

 

This post might be a little different than the others on this thread but...

Are there any plans for a yawpower 17" wheel? There are many people looking for a 17" wheel for winter tires and an aftermarket 17" wheel without the tire sensors might screw up the DSC yes?

Brian

 

Depends on if 17" will fit on the front, brake calipers may get in the way.

 

winning blue metallic

 

lightning yellow

 

nordic green mica

 

titanium gray metallic

 

velocity red mica