There’s nothing wrong with my existing Rota Grid rims - they look good but I
want a change so I have been looking at Rays wheels. They are top quality rims,
the Gram Lights are cast but the Volk Racing rims are forged so are lighter but
more expensive. I believe that both the League and Rota rims I’ve had are copies
of the six spoke Rays Volk Racing TE37 so that’s what I’ve chosen for my
Corolla. The standard colours are bronze and white but I wanted them silver so
Rays have done a special order for me in Mercury Silver.
My order from Co-ordSport was:- four Rays Volk TE37 alloys in 16” x 7j with 42mm
offset in Mercury Silver, LE centre caps with Time Attack red ring, 54mm
centring rings and Toyo Proxes T1-R tyres in 195x45x16. Co-ordSport have a tyre
fitter that they use all the time so I did not have to worry about getting tyres
fitted and praying that the rims did not get damaged in the process.
Rays have just started selling the nuts in Gunmetal so I ordered a set of those
when I picked up the wheels on 11th October. The wheels are gorgeous and
everything is superbly engineered, the centre caps and the centre rings are all
made from aluminium not plastic like with the other wheels I’ve had. Nothing has
been fitted yet as the Corolla had an MOT test, it passed but I had an advisory
to look at the both rear wheel bearings as they were noisy. I’ve had the
bearings changed and the car is now ready to have the new wheels fitted. As long
as the weather holds we should be going to “Sushi Sunday” at Goodwood on
November 2nd so the wheels will be on the car for that.
PICTURES
Fire up the Corolla and enjoy the ride.
That’s how easy it should have been – but sadly it didn’t work out that way. I
drove a few yards and heard a squealing grinding sound coming from the rear end.
Got the car back on the drive, removed a wheel and found that paint had been
removed from the inside of the rim and the alloy was scored. I couldn’t find any
marks on the suspension leg but then the threaded parts are made of stainless
steel so much harder than the alloy wheel. The offset on the Rays TE37s are 2mm
less that on the Rota Grids so I’ve got some 3mm spacers from Co-ordSport.
I’ve fitted them only to the rear hubs as there was no rubbing on the fronts.
Everything looks and sounds OK now.