24K Gold Volk Racing RE30: Racing Meets Bling

Being what I consider a purveyor of quality JDM tuning, I often challenge myself to great degrees as I aim to push the boundaries of how we see conventional tuning. At the same time I must also balance the respect of the core principals that I love. These wheels simply put, are pushing the boundary.

For the latest car project I’m completing, I must satisfy my client’s desire for bling and showmanship while retaining my hardcore JDM roots. Later on I’ll release my original concept for the project, which ultimately was changed as I was required at the last minute to paint the car to the new specification of the client (red). Personally I don’t like red cars at all, so that posed a lot of frustrating challenges on its own. But working with the needs of the project, I wanted to find a wheel spec and style to match a show car quality red paint hue that unexpectedly forced on to the project. So, what did I do? I decided to embrace the bling and set out to do the first set I’ve ever seen of 24 karat gold racing wheels. Continue reading…

Knowing that adding the gold plating would increase the weight slightly I set out for the lightest wheel with the most aggressive size I could find. 1910 and 1911 Volk Racing RE30s were the answer. After refinishing the wheel in real 24K gold, the result was still a very impressive weight of 21.55lbs, damn good for any wheel of that size! While keeping strength and light weight function in tact, I can still say the famous Chappelle quote: This wheel is “The Most Baller S#!T Ever!”

Feel free to comment about how sacrilegious it is to take a racing wheel and gold plate it–I’m ok with the love and the hate mail. Sometimes I’m confident enough to go against my own theories and still reach the desired result. Same goes with my gold S2000 when I made my own aero parts by mixing and matching and modifying, while at the same time I always talk about the proven theory that mix and match aero doesn’t function properly. I feel that if the confidence, strategy and skill is there then rules are meant to be broken from time to time.