Explanation for offset secrecy among wheel manufacturers????

[Poleposition]

Can someone with knowledge on the topic (preferably wheel companies and/or vendors) please explain to me the reasoning behind the secrecy of any given wheel manufacturers offsets on all of the setups we see posted here everyday??? Is there some sort of competitive disadvantage to publicizing this info? Some (very few) dont hide the info and some (most) guard it as if its the Colonel's secret recipe and their business will ultimately end in bankruptcy should this information ever be revealed. Im just trying to understand both sides of the argument. As i look at all of the wheels we see posted, I'm always wondering about the specs and the answers seem so secretive. Why?

Thx in advance

[Ilia@IND]

The thought here is that while a chassis is new and few people have experimented with wheel sizing, knowing which sizes work and provide a great look gives a wheel manufacturer a competitive advantage. The manufacturer that can provide you a great look, fit, and tire size recommendation has knowledge that others don't.

This is an especially large factor with more expensive and rare cars. Because getting an SLR McLaren is costly and difficult, for example, the wheel manufacturer that has good sizes in their database has a legitimate advantage over their competition who might not know where to begin with a wheel order.

At IND our view is that sharing any and all available data is always beneficial not only to the consumer, but to the performance parts industry as a whole. Keeping wheel sizing a secret slows down development, and ultimately simply delays forward progress.

That is why we have openly discussed offsets and tire sizing in each thread displaying one of our own or our client's project cars, along with any other details of note. The more the community knows, the more quickly we'll all see better parts and better cars as a result.

[Poleposition]

Thank you very much for that response. It makes all the sense in the world when referring to rare and/or exotic cars. I get the whole competitive advantage theory. I agree with you in that the more knowledge the entire community has, the better off everyone is. If everyone knew what worked and more importantly, what didnt work, we'd ALL be better for it.

[sales@vivid]

Originally Posted by Ilia@IND

The thought here is that while a chassis is new and few people have experimented with wheel sizing, knowing which sizes work and provide a great look gives a wheel manufacturer a competitive advantage. The manufacturer that can provide you a great look, fit, and tire size recommendation has knowledge that others don't.

This is an especially large factor with more expensive and rare cars. Because getting an SLR McLaren is costly and difficult, for example, the wheel manufacturer that has good sizes in their database has a legitimate advantage over their competition who might not know where to begin with a wheel order.

At IND our view is that sharing any and all available data is always beneficial not only to the consumer, but to the performance parts industry as a whole. Keeping wheel sizing a secret slows down development, and ultimately simply delays forward progress.

That is why we have openly discussed offsets and tire sizing in each thread displaying one of our own or our client's project cars, along with any other details of note. The more the community knows, the more quickly we'll all see better parts and better cars as a result.

Well put.

[Carlos@MORR]

Originally Posted by Poleposition

Can someone with knowledge on the topic (preferably wheel companies and/or vendors) please explain to me the reasoning behind the secrecy of any given wheel manufacturers offsets on all of the setups we see posted here everyday??? Is there some sort of competitive disadvantage to publicizing this info? Some (very few) dont hide the info and some (most) guard it as if its the Colonel's secret recipe and their business will ultimately end in bankruptcy should this information ever be revealed. Im just trying to understand both sides of the argument. As i look at all of the wheels we see posted, I'm always wondering about the specs and the answers seem so secretive. Why?

Thx in advance

Back in 2005, we developed a wheel for the BMW E90 chassis. It was one o the first, if not, the first and only exclusive wheel for the E90 that did not require spacers. We had this wheel ready by the time the E9X chassis was introduced in the US. We spent a significant amount of money, time and resources in order to obtain the perfect offset. This gives you a market advantage. About 1-2 years later, the public started releasing this information and all a manufacturer had to do was search for it on the forums. Finding that perfect offset that clears all vehicle components, including brakes calipers, fenders, struts, and also fitting the largest tires you can, without rubbing on a stock or lowered vehicle, looks simpler than it actually is. Most companies use a trial and error strategy. We prefer to get it right from the start. All of this is part of an R&D process that must be done on each new vehicle platform and is proprietary information.

On every new platform we need to make sure we have outside fender to insider panel distance, rim width, fender thickness, rim to fender distance, strut to wheel distance, caliper clearance, backspacing, x-factor (arbitrary), beadseat diameter, spindle size, offset, pad diameter, bolt pattern, centerbore, bolt size, stud height, load rating, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting. All of this information and more is needed to properly engineer a wheel. It takes time and money to obtain and companies that take the time to do it will guard it.

For certain vehicles, there really is no need to guard offsets. For new platforms, however, the idea of not releasing offsets is to make sure every wheel company does its homework.

[Poleposition]

All great responses and all from vendors and/or wheel companies. Exactly who I had hoped would participate in the thread. I thank you all very much for your responses. Answers all make sense and are as suspected.

[Rich@GTBPerformance]

Originally Posted by Carlos@MORR

Back in 2005, we developed a wheel for the BMW E90 chassis. It was one o the first, if not, the first and only exclusive wheel for the E90 that did not require spacers. We had this wheel ready by the time the E9X chassis was introduced in the US. We spent a significant amount of money, time and resources in order to obtain the perfect offset. This gives you a market advantage. About 1-2 years later, the public started releasing this information and all a manufacturer had to do was search for it on the forums. Finding that perfect offset that clears all vehicle components, including brakes calipers, fenders, struts, and also fitting the largest tires you can, without rubbing on a stock or lowered vehicle, looks simpler than it actually is. Most companies use a trial and error strategy. We prefer to get it right from the start. All of this is part of an R&D process that must be done on each new vehicle platform and is proprietary information.

On every new platform we need to make sure we have outside fender to insider panel distance, rim width, fender thickness, rim to fender distance, strut to wheel distance, caliper clearance, backspacing, x-factor (arbitrary), beadseat diameter, spindle size, offset, pad diameter, bolt pattern, centerbore, bolt size, stud height, load rating, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting. All of this information and more is needed to properly engineer a wheel. It takes time and money to obtain and companies that take the time to do it will guard it.

For certain vehicles, there really is no need to guard offsets. For new platforms, however, the idea of not releasing offsets is to make sure every wheel company does its homework.

And that's why we love you Carlos