litespeed racing wheels

Wheel Wednesday

I got my Litespeed Racing wheels last April. I have had a lot of fun with them.  They weigh 14.4 pounds per corner for the 9"x19" wheel and so really dominate in the unsprung weight department.  Unsprung weight is always best to eliminate if at all possible.  It allows for quicker transitions and is more responsive to any inputs steering or otherwise.

When I first got the wheels, they were painted the color in the picture below.  I liked that color quite a bit but was having some trouble keeping the paint on the wheels.  So I contacted Patrick from Litespeed and he was super helpful in getting them repainted under warranty.  I picked a different color at that time.

I liked the color that came out but then that paint wasn't done well.  Patrick was very accommodating and willing to refinish them again but I just decided it was easier to go to my local powder coat place.  Sometimes that's the easier road to take.

Because we got the wheels repainted again, the hubcaps didn't match that had been color matched to the second color.  So my dad designed a new hubcap idea out of wood as a template then took it down to a machine shop to have them created.

Below are a couple pictures of the second color and then the hubcaps.  You can see more about it in the video link posted later down the page.

I finally settled on a color after getting a bunch of samples from Prismatic Powders.  You can go on their site and look through all they have then order samples of colors which are painted on small pieces of metal.  It gives you a good idea of how the color will look on wheels or other materials.  You can examine it in all forms of light and talk to your local painter or powder coater to settle on the color.  That in itself was a fun process to do.  Below are a couple pictures of the final product.  In the future I may change again to another type of color.  Nardo lends itself to matching many different bright colors.

Check out the video below to see some more about the process of how the hubcaps were created and installed.

Thanks for visiting and remember to "Strive to Arrive"!