new Year One pontiac cast Honeycomb wheels in 17" $699/set

[aronhk_md]

I know theres been a lot said about the Year One Snowflake wheels, so I wont rehash any of it. But the new Honeycombs are $50 less for a set at $699, and are pre-order available now I believe for March delivery from what I heard. Here's the link.

http://www.yearone.com/serverfiles/fbshopmain2.asp?cat=4

Not exactly what most consider a pro-touring style...but for those looking for pro-touring handling (obviously limited by a heavier cast wheel and only being 17's, but still a huge upgrade from 14" or 15") with a more original style.....they did a nice job on the design in my book. The website says 17x9 with 5" backspacing. Snowflakes are 4.875".

I sure hope they get buyers....with the economy the way it is it would suck if these new options disappear on us.

42717

[srh3trinity]

That is a pretty nice deal and those are more unique than the snowflakes.

[aronhk_md]

Its a hard to beat price.......especially if you combined it with the other offer I just got from them.....$100 gift certificates for $90 each. If you bought 7 gift certificates that would be $70 off.....or almost free shipping if you want to think of it that way.

Yeah, there are a lot of people who feel the snowflakes looked out of place on the early birds, and the Honeycomb was the early bird style aside from rallys.

I like it. I just wish it wasnt made in china or wherever, and also that it was in 18".

[opnwide]

OMG! I have been waiting for these for FOUR YEARS! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[srh3trinity]

Some reasonably priced 18" rallys would be a done deal for me. I would buy a set of track wheels and rock the rally's when I wanted to change the mood of the car.

[mc84_zz4]

Those are real cool.
They also made the n90 wheel (81 z28) in a 17x8,
Very glad to see them making more modern replacements with stock appearance.

[aronhk_md]

OMG! I have been waiting for these for FOUR YEARS! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes Year One....thank you. At this price point there is really very little available, and they ARE a nice looking set of wheels. I believe the quality is at least decent. I really havent heard too many complaints about the snowflakes. No, its not in the same class as more expensive wheels.....but we are talking $175 each here.

I believe there is a mistake on their pricing for the set with lugnuts and center caps.....they show over $1000, but really it should be $809 if you add the $69 for 4 caps and $40 for lugnuts.

Again, if you grab their special right now for $10 off on $100 gift certificates it should be $80 off that too.

If they were 18" I'd buy them. Its still tempting even with 17".

I really hope we dont lose these companies that are trying to put parts out there for us. Spoke with the guy at Year One and he told me they are now half the size they were a couple of years ago, and that nobody is buying. Economy really sucks...average guy cant afford to do much with hobbies at the moment, and it doesnt look likely to change a lot any time soon.

[70455HOVert]

Very very nice....now if they'd only make larger Rally II's. I'd think that would have been a much better Pontiac wheel for them to have enlarged. The market base would be much larger for them since WAAAY more Pontiacs came stock with Rally II's. Hmmm...wonder what a '70 GTO would look like with Honeycombs. I know they came optional on '71-72.

[aronhk_md]

Very very nice....now if they'd only make larger Rally II's. I'd think that would have been a much better Pontiac wheel for them to have enlarged. The market base would be much larger for them since WAAAY more Pontiacs came stock with Rally II's. Hmmm...wonder what a '70 GTO would look like with Honeycombs. I know they came optional on '71-72.

They ARE coming out with the 17" Rally II's as well. Not sure but they too may be listed on the website. If not call them and ask. I think they are around the same price. I think a 70 GTO would look good with honeycombs. But it would also look good with many aftermarket wheels as well.

[70455HOVert]

It's just that the rest of the car looks 100% stock, except for the set of Hooker Super Comps. I even restored the jack in the trunk. If they make a set of 4 Rally II's for 700, I'm in, since I can reuse my existing centercaps and lugs. I'd love for people to think, "Hey, that's a nice restored GTO" and then do a double take when they realize the running gear underneath.

[70455HOVert]

I'll shoot them an email and see what they say. Making a phone call back to the state from where I currently am is a little tough. Makes you appreciate the simple things in life.

[aronhk_md]

When you send the email ask them about the $90 for $100 gift certificate special they had. I got it about a week ago and it said limited time but didnt say how limited.

[srh3trinity]

Cool, Rally II's coming out next. I like the NewGen 500 wheel, but if you are talking about a complete setup for 700 for 17's, that is hard to beat. I am pretty sure I will have to run 18's because of the size of my rotors, but that would be a nice option for a lot of people.

[70455HOVert]

Well, I got an email back. :-(

"Hello,
Thank you for your email. At this time, I am not aware of plans to make
the Rally II wheels in a 17. I will forward your email to my new-product
department to verify."


Booooooo. Looks like it's 15" wheels for me!

[aronhk_md]

Funny.....thats literally the same response I got about the honeycombs from 2 people on the phone the DAY before they added them to the website.....................

[T_Raven]

I like these honeycomb wheels, if they made steel ralley IIs in 17 for $700 I'd buy a set. I'm surprised no one has yet

[tazzz25906112]

Glad to see them out,,,, these guys have balls (bigger than I did) to step up run a production wheel... The wheel looks great and the price can't be argued,,, I really hope they do well with them

[70455HOVert]

Funny.....thats literally the same response I got about the honeycombs from 2 people on the phone the DAY before they added them to the website.....................

Well, maybe hope springs eternal then. I have 5 more months to figure out what to do with my GTO.

[SD428]

Not sure how well the backspacing would work for anything wider than a 255.

[aronhk_md]

Should be fine up to 285 tires at least. I had 275's on the snowflakes I bought from YO.....and these honeycombs have fractionally more backspacing than those had. In fact.....no reason you couldnt run that size front and rear....you just need to modify steering stops so you don't rub the swaybar.....and you might need aftermarket A-arms....which I already have.

[SD428]

That's good to know. I'm in the process of figuring out what offset/BS to use on my stock suspension '70. From my limited research, it seems that the offset of these wheels is .25" to .75" less than what is generally used for 275 or 285 rubber. I'll make sure I take the advice of others and measure for my particular car.

[MMI]

I'm in, if I can get them with gold centers. Exactly what I was looking for - building a '76 SE Trans Am tribute from an original black/black TA with Hurst T-tops.

[year one]

Gentlemen, I thought I would try to answer some of the questions being asked. I am currently prototyping a 17x9 cast Pontiac Rally II wheel. It should be available for pre sales by early summer. 2D CAD drawing are already approved and a sample is in the works. These wheels should weigh in around 27 pounds +/-. All of our cast wheels are currently manufactured over seas and go through the same testing standards that GM imposes on their production wheels. We have not had a single failure to date of any type.

Billet 18" versions of the Honeycomb and Rally II are currently being worked on as well. So far a design has not been approved due to styling issues. More to come.

MMI, sorry about the gold as I will only be offering silver for now. You can always have them powdercoated any color you like.

I would like to thank all involved for the positive comments about our wheels. We strive to offer the best wheels possible at a price point everyone can afford. Many more style are on the horizon!

David

[aronhk_md]

David,

Thanks for joining us here and answering questions. Just want to clarify a couple of things, and I think others will back me up on this.

If you can offer CAST wheels in 18" you will find a MUCH larger sales volume. Especially if you can add some width and offer 10" or even 11". Some of the guys here will go for 17's, but with the long term desire to add BIG brakes, many will choose some other 18" wheel first.

While I realize you will be offering the billet wheels in an 18, for many here including myself the price tag is prohibitive right now.

This is not in any way an effort to detract from what you have done in offering these. We do appreciate it. Its just that I have seen many mirror my own thoughts. I would buy your Honeycombs for my 73 trans am......BUT.....they arent large enough to allow me the vette brakes I want, and they arent wide enough to maximize my power level for rears. And I wont be able to afford your Billet wheels when they come out.

[year one]

Hey Aronhk, I appreciate your comments and agree with them. We have many reasons to build 17" cast wheels and you touched on one of them (the fact that we offer 18" billet versions). Another is that 17" tire cost are more in line with this price range of wheels. With that being said we may build 18" cast wheels at some given time in the future, for now we are still rounding out our 17" line.

I have test fit some of our wheels on different applications that have had aftermarket big brake kits and so far (to my surprise) they have all cleared. The wheel side cores have been specifically designed for our wheels and we have tried to allow for maximum clearances while maintaining structural tolerances. If you look at some of our advertisements you will see that the N90 on the white Monte Carlo SS is hiding the popular Vette caliper upgrade. While I can't assure you they will fit each upgrade I will say to check your car and you might be pleasantly surprised! In some instances a small spacer will give you all the clearance you need (be safe and don't use more that 3/16" though).

David

[aronhk_md]

Thanks for the reply David. While the 17's might fit the 13" older vette rotors there is no way they'll fit the 14" with the Z06 calipers......or the 6 piston Baer and Wilwood setups everyone on this website really wants. To get there I personally have to make some compromises in purchasing some components. On a budget I will likely shoot for something like the Vision Legend 5 142 series wheel in 18x9.5 for around $650 a set initially, because they'll fit the brakes, fit slightly bigger rubber...but I like the look of your Honeycomb better. If I step up a bit in price I can get the Pro Wheels billet x5 model....a great looking wheel.....for around $2000 in 18x9 fronts and 18x11 rear. That would be my next choice.

But I know for a fact we've talked about your Honeycombs over on Performanceyears.com forums.......and there were guys over there quite impressed and talking about ordering them. Many of those guys are not quite as performance oriented as the ones here, and having the largest brakes or rubber available isnt always their biggest concern.

[SLO_Z28]

Funny, I was just looking for your email David when I saw this thread. I think that cast 18's are a terrible idea. The guys that need 14 inch rotors are the ones that track their cars heavily, and they wouldn't want a heavy cast wheel. There's a big misconception that 14 inch rotors somehow brake better and are therefore better when the fact of the matter is that they're the same or worse when cold, add sprung weight, when used how 98% of the cars here are used.

Whats the word on the Z28 Rallys with the right backspacing for 2nd gens? Its been a while since you were "working on them".

[aronhk_md]

The weight difference between cast and billet is often not that much. Look around on here...most of the guys want 18's, and DONT want to spend thousands of $. They are not looking for 17's. And most of them want to eventually run the bigger 14" brakes. They dont brake worse when cold....not sure where you got that info. Take the C5/6 Kore brakes and the Hybrid Z06 they offer. Same calipers, but bigger rotor. The difference being that the caliper is mounted out farther from center in addition to better heat dissipation from the larger rotor. This gives the caliper better leverage on the rotor, and the difference in weight between a 13 and 14" rotor isnt that great.

I will agree that there is a significant difference in weight from a 17 to 18 inch wheel though But I believe as far as braking is concerned that braking is improved with the 14" rotors enough to offset that difference.

[year one]

My belief is that our wheel customer is not considering a YearOne wheel for its track capabilites (although we have autocrossed them many times ourselves). These are stylized versions of the original that allow you to use modern tire technology.

You guys on this site in particular are definitely pushing the realm of street cars and their handling capabilities, I think that is great for the hobby in general. Things get tried, adapted, built and modified to take muscle cars to the next level of handling and performance. We have been building Pro Touring style cars in our own shop since 2002 and enjoy taking them on tours and track days as much as anyone. With that said we have used about every brand of high performance wheel offered today. That experience has given us a unique perspective on manufacturing and the direction that we take when building new products.

I am not sure what the future holds for our wheel line (economy and sales will dictate expansion), I can tell you that positive feedback from people buying our wheels and people not buying our wheels is always taken in to consideration. We try to offer wheels that will please the masses and sometimes the niche guys get over looked. As the line expands we will attempt to address the needs of as many people as possible.

The 17x8 5 Spoke tool has been made now for the third time (cosmetic issues only). A sample is on the way to us for testing and approval. No word yet as to time frames for its availability.

David

[aronhk_md]

Thanks David, I meant it all in a positive way...as I think you know. Thats why I posted the wheels here in the first place when I saw you come out with them :) This is a huge niche from what I've seen...this website is as busy as the PY board, and a LOT more money gets spent by these guys too.

What btw is the 5 spoke tool??? I tried looking it up in your catalog, but I dont have good luck with your search engine. For example, searching for "5 spoke tool" in the firebird catalog return 597 results.....and I didnt look through all 597 but it wasnt on the first pages...lol

[The_Humbler]

Cool wheels. Now they just need to make them with up to 20" diameters and with different backspacings and I'll sell my Bunik's and buy these, which is what I really wanted, just not in the sizes they make! The Budnik's were the closest I could get!

Hopefully if they sell enough, they'll do it. But they probably never will. Can't imagine these selling a ton.

[year one]

I definitely took all of your comments as positive and appreciate hearing them. Other forums aren't so courteous.


The "5 Spoke tool" I mentioned is the fixture in which one of our wheels is manufactured. SLO Z28 is on another board that has been waiting on the 5 Spoke wheel in an 8" width, his posting was asking for an update. The "right" backspacing is subjective to each car owner and the ride height of the car itself.

The Honey comb is being protoyped in a 20" now, however it will be billet and will be priced accordingly. No 20" cast are being considered at this point.

David

[opnwide]

David,
You've got me nailed on my priorities. My '76, although crazy fast, will never see the racetrack. After dumping $30K and about 2000 hours into it, I really don't feel like beating on it like I do my daily driver ('97 GTS that just won't break!). I DO plan on going through multiple sets of rear tires every year, but that shouldn't stress those cast wheels too much:)
I'll be placing my order very soon (I've got a YearOne gift certificate!) I've already got the tires picked out-- Kumho Ecsta XS.

[Throttle]

OMG! I have been waiting for these for FOUR YEARS! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I knew I would find you in this thread.. :D

[BonzoHansen]

FWIW they are finally shipping 17" N90s. I think they nailed the proportions pretty good.

original 15 vs YO 17"
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/03/30bcoeg-1.jpg

[dxgxmx]

Very nice!!!

[opnwide]

I just wanted to post photos of the new honeycombs. I posted these on performance years as well. Tires are Kumho XS 275-40-17. Model is from Cuernavaca, MX.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/03/frontsilverinternet-1.jpg?t=1299279036

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/03/rearsilverinternet1-1.jpg?t=1299279102


And an overall shot of the car.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/03/transamcristysilverinternet-1.jpg?t=1299279135


Fit is tight on the fenderlip. I hope YearOne didn't use this backspacing for their camaro wheels.

More info on my other link.
https://www.pro-touring.com/showthread.php?67507-Trans-Am-SacrilEdge-is-free!&highlight=

[BonzoHansen]

Fit is tight on the fenderlip. I hope YearOne didn't use this backspacing for their camaro wheels. Yup, they did on the 5 spokes. So now they are trying to make a 17x8 version that will fit.

[LeighP]

Having run 275 tyres on 17x9" rims at the rear, I found that I needed to trim some of the fender lip away and slightly roll the remainder of the lip otherwise I'd get some contact right near the turn of the tread to sidewall area when I went through a dip at speed...especially with passengers in the car (77 Trans Am - stock height). That said, mine were 275/50, not the more common 275/40 that most would run.
I've ordered my set of these YO Honeycombs and they are on the way. This time I'm running 255/50x17 all around (Nitto INVO).
I think YO hit the market for these wheels exactly.....track guys would likely not run them, but the large number of guys who like their musclecars "stock" will see these as a reasonable alternative to original.
For me, they fit perfectly into the theme of my build, and the way I'll use/drive the car (on road Grand Touring).

[SD455]

/Users/Brianwmathe/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Previews/2011/04/18/20110418-200136/DSCF0374.JPG

[SD455]

4610946109
/Users/Brianwmathe/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Previews/2011/04/18/20110418-200136/DSCF0374.JPG

Still trying to figure out how to post a damn picture!!

Anyways, if it shows up here they are. Tires are 285/40

[aronhk_md]

edited......cause I see you got the pics attached....lol. They are a bit small, but the wheels look good from what I can see.

[aronhk_md]

One of our fellows that just purchased the new Honeycombs is the first to have the rears widened to 11.5" They look really good. Heres the link....just scroll down to the bottom.

http://forums.performanceyears.com/forums/showthread.php?t=652593&page=2

[Morgan]

I definitely took all of your comments as positive and appreciate hearing them. Other forums aren't so courteous.


The "5 Spoke tool" I mentioned is the fixture in which one of our wheels is manufactured. SLO Z28 is on another board that has been waiting on the 5 Spoke wheel in an 8" width, his posting was asking for an update. The "right" backspacing is subjective to each car owner and the ride height of the car itself.

The Honey comb is being protoyped in a 20" now, however it will be billet and will be priced accordingly. No 20" cast are being considered at this point.

David

Hi David.

[SD455]

One of our fellows that just purchased the new Honeycombs is the first to have the rears widened to 11.5" They look really good. Heres the link....just scroll down to the bottom.

http://forums.performanceyears.com/forums/showthread.php?t=652593&page=2

Any idea on what is done to his car to accommodate that wheel? It looks like he still has leaf springs. I personally think he nailed it....totally, looks killer.

[aronhk_md]

Not sure really. You could ask him. It looks to me like they just added extra rim to the backside, so that would increase backspacing. If the BS was 5" and they added 2.5" then I'm not sure how he could run it without moving springs and shocks inward.

But for example NOT A TA is running I think 6.75" or 7" backspacing on his 73 TA clone with no mods. But he doesnt have the car lowered either.

[opnwide]

SD455,

to post a photo, start by typing https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif I store my photos on photobucket and link to that site. You can copy and paste the link to insure accuracy.

also, try to keep photo size small around 640X480 so we don't have to scroll to see the whole picture.

It looks like you may be trying to upload a photo directly into the forum. That will result in a small thumbnail that people need to click on to see full size.

good luck,

greg

[TorontoTA]

Having run 275 tyres on 17x9" rims at the rear, I found that I needed to trim some of the fender lip away and slightly roll the remainder of the lip otherwise I'd get some contact right near the turn of the tread to sidewall area when I went through a dip at speed...especially with passengers in the car (77 Trans Am - stock height). That said, mine were 275/50, not the more common 275/40 that most would run.
I've ordered my set of these YO Honeycombs and they are on the way. This time I'm running 255/50x17 all around (Nitto INVO).
I think YO hit the market for these wheels exactly.....track guys would likely not run them, but the large number of guys who like their musclecars "stock" will see these as a reasonable alternative to original.
For me, they fit perfectly into the theme of my build, and the way I'll use/drive the car (on road Grand Touring).

How did the YO Honeycombs fit? I'm running 275 60 15 back and 235 60 15 front - from my calcs I should be fine but I've heard about interference? Any advice from your expereience?

[TorontoTA]

Should be fine up to 285 tires at least. I had 275's on the snowflakes I bought from YO.....and these honeycombs have fractionally more backspacing than those had. In fact.....no reason you couldnt run that size front and rear....you just need to modify steering stops so you don't rub the swaybar.....and you might need aftermarket A-arms....which I already have.

I would really like to get the honeycombs for my 78 but have read about rubbing. I'm running 275 60 15 out back and 235 up front with no issues. My calcs say I should be ok with 275 40 17 but I want to be sure - any thoughts - would a wheel simulator provide all I need to be sure.