Cuppa's S5 Coupe (Supercharged / Meteor Grey)

[Cuppa]

Before...


After...

[Cuppa]

A8 heated washer jets. Only takes a couple of minutes to swap over.

[Cuppa]

And for the keen eyed amongst you, yes 21 bolts so I have a spare.

[Cuppa]

I'd always wanted to change the wheels, but could never find something I was totally happy with until now and was going to be close enough to OEM, but still OEM+++++++. I'd always had a bit of a phobic reaction to most aftermarket wheels I saw so this was always going to be a really tough, drawn-out decision and very specific design for me to be happy.

Re OEM - I'd always loved the rotors - classic, but a little overused by Audi these days. Recently I had been tempted by the V-spokes - very nice looking. Between these two I abstracted the design cues and came up with the following:

- 5 points of symmetry look best to me (rotors and V-spokes both have this)
- Open design of the V-spokes to show off the brakes
- Concave as I could
- Colour to blend with the dark chrome I've done recently
- 21" to show off the brake setup
- Option to customize (more to follow on that one later)
- Michelin PSS tyres - I desperately wanted to keep the option for these as I love the tyre for many reasons including the kerb protection

This narrowed down the search and with the help of a few people (you know who you are [;)] ) then I got down to a shortlist. Then I spotted the P104 from HRE and knew these were the ones.

HRE’s Street Collection combines the technical expertise from our championship-winning racing wheels with an uncompromised attention to detail creating the ultimate in lightweight, high-strength performance forged wheels. This race-bred philosophy ensures enhanced braking, acceleration and handling while also reflecting your distinguished sense of style. Each model in HRE’s Street Collection of custom wheels is designed specifically for supercars, sports GTs and performance sedans.

http://www.hrewheels.com/wheels/series-p1/p104

Specifications

• Monoblok 1-Piece
• Modern Conical profile creating the strongest, lightest P Series yet.
• Aerospace-grade 6061-T6 forged aluminum for high strength-to-weight ratio
• Side Cuts and backpad pocketing are standard to minimize unsprung mass and rotational inertia for maximum performance and handling
• CNC machined to custom specifications for your specific application
• OE TPMS and lug hardware compatible for ease of installation

A big BIG thank you to the guys at HRE (you know who you are) for taking the time to take all these wonderful photos of my wheels in production. I am no expert, so as much as I'd like to do a detailed write-up and sound really knowledgeable I can't, but again the guys at HRE have supplied some notes I have posted along with the photos.

Stage 1: Forging staged for production with an assigned traveler. Each customer order goes with and stays with the forgings on their journey. All information (width, offset, finish, etc.) is on this sheet can be referenced at any point during the journey.













Stage 2: All four wheel forgings at the lathe, being machined. This is where the face of the wheel is refined. It’s at this stage that the center bowl takes shape.









Stage 3: From the lathe, the wheels are then sent through milling. At this stage, the wheel “windows” and spokes are sculpted and carved out, using a variety of tools – each wheel takes about 2 hours (roughly) to complete at this stage. The Series P1 involves a milling process called “kellering” which allows curved and sculpted milling to take place vs straight ball cutting which is utilized on the Series P40SC. This process adds a considerable time to the milling.

[Cuppa]

Stage 4: Brushing - each of the P104s were brushed by hand, each taking approximately one hour to complete for a total of four hours. Finishing happens on a foot controlled turning wheel and will be slowly finished outward at a consistent speed to ensure quality and uniformity.

[Cuppa]

Finer brushing...

[Cuppa]

Stage 5 - Rinsing - Washed thoroughly, again by hand, inspected for any debris then wrapped in plastic to avoid contamination and sent into the powder coat booth queue.

















Stage 6 - Powder Coat - the wheels are then sent into the powder coat booth queue. Here, they were examined once more before applying three coats of powder (base, dark tint and clear – baking followed each application). The entire powder coating process took about three hours, the majority of which was spent in the oven, baking. Plastic powder receives an electrical charge to adhere to the wheels before baking in an oven. Three coats in total are applied with a bake between each coat.

[Cuppa]

Post bake cooling before a third coat of powder coat applied! Post “baking” the white powder turns the requested tinted clear to reveal the finish























Stage 7 - Cooling, QC and final touch-ups - wheels complete.

[Cuppa]

Finally get to touch...so so light...



Colour matched the lettering to my calipers

[Cuppa]

[Cuppa]

Took some pics, but typical British weather it rained torrents all afternoon so not the best.































Tyres are Michelin PSS 295/25/21. No spacers.

[Cuppa]

Weight of the wheels (in lbs):



Weight of the Michelin PSS in contrast:

[S4 CKR]

Thanks for the detailed wheel journey!

I made an impromptu visit to the HRE factory last year when I was driving down the Pacific Coast Highway. Was given a tour and shown various wheels which were either in production, or ready to be shipped out.

I was very tempted to go for the super concaves but concerns regarding after sales support? (Not wanting to rain on your parade Cuppa) - the HRE rep said if the wheel gets damaged, it needs to get shipped back to the US for assessment / repair

Nice setup though!

[rossi46]

Attention to detail is epic .. great work

[Cuppa]

the HRE rep said if the wheel gets damaged, it needs to get shipped back to the US for assessment / repair

This is the price you pay for them unfortunately - just have to be careful.