Search This Blog

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

The D’Vinci Forgiato Radurra: See-Through Rims!





By David Ponce

Doug McGoon (we love the name) has invented what may be the slickest set of wheels we’ve ever laid our eyes on: clear rims, made from a thick slab of polycarbonate. Now manufactured by D’Vinci Forgiato the wheels are made by

a technique known as bezel setting which only master diamond setters can know, where the diamonds are just slightly larger than the bezel they are set into and are held in place by pressure. Understanding this, we put the same care and consideration towards the Radurra as we would towards a fine watch. By eliminating the alloy center of a three piece forged wheel and setting into its place a hard coated polycarbonate center with a glass-like finish we achieve an amazing and stunning look, with a finished product that looks too good to be a wheel.

We agree, it looks too good to be a wheel, and costs too much to be bought, at least by us. At $5,000 per wheel, they’re mainly showpieces, though the video we link to shows a 350Z with the Radurras on, doing some rubber burning. We imagine people will talk about stress resistance, heat resistance and whatnot, though the company claim they’ve been “SAE tested, certified and passed Impact, cornering and radial tests.”

They were on display a month ago at the SEMA show, and are apparently available for purchase. A custom order takes 6 to 8 weeks to deliver. Keep reading for a bunch more pictures, and links to a video, product page and all that jive.

No comments: