I hope someone can help clear this up. I've been looking at getting some lightweight Rota alloys for my WRX. I noticed that there is a group buy at the moment through midland wheels for Rota alloys, for Redlines and Tarmacs, but on the Rota dealers website (rarerims) they are called SDR's and GRA's.

Redline = SDR.
Tarmac = GRA.

I just thought this was some sort of marketing thing, but it turns out, according to the thread in Group Buy section from RotaRimsUk (something like that) that the alloys from Midland Wheels are not Rota rims ????

Is this right, and if so does anyone know the difference between them, ie quality, strength and weight etc. Have people been buying them thinking they are Rota alloys ?

Cheers for any help.

 

Not looked at the group buy, but the SDR (Prodrive PFF look alike) and the Tarmac II (Prodrive OZ lookalike) have as far as I can make out been re-branded, SDR now Redline and Tarmac II now GRA, so they are still all Rotas.

If you look at the Rarerims site they list SDR/Redline on the home page, although do not actually show the wheel in the catalogue...

That said there is another copy of the PFF out there, not sure of the maker, think it's Dare??

 

the group buy on the alloys from midland wheels are not rota and are not advertised as rota. I have set of tarmacs of midland wheels and they are great the only diffrence between the two are the price midland wheels are very cheap and great to deal with.

 

I got my wheels from MWS a year ago, they have an 'R' on the centre cap, and are identical to rota's, i would say that mine are rota's, maybe they've changed suppliers, but i doubt it...

 

Well, having looked at the pics on the group buy those wheels are identical in every way to the Rota Tarmac II wheels, as seen here:

http://subydude.com/osc/product_info...694cce03cb99d5

If they are not called Rotas by MW (although the styles have the same names!) Rota must be selling the same wheels to MW under a different brand name for whatever reason..

 

rota dont sell to mws the wheels they sell are made by a company called inovite and have a massive buying power thats why they are a lot cheaper and better quality check out how many people have bought the wheels of mws and see how happy they are

 

You must work for either Rota or MWS to be able to say that with such confidence........ why do the wheels from MWS have 'R' on the centre cap then...???

 

live just down the road from mws allways there for tyres and stuff i know they used to do rota about a year ago

 

I'm sure they will be great , I have had Rotas in the past, the wheels advertised from MW must be Rotas by another name, at least made in the same factory in the Philippines as the Rotas, look at the pics, even the pressings on the rims are identical and they even use the same style names, and the faux carbon centre caps are identical to my Rota ones only the sticker is different, or maybe someone else is making replicas of the Rota replicas LOL..

Anyway, the original poster was looking for reassurance, IMO you are getting Rotas mate, so if you have seen these in the past and like the look of them, should not be a problem.

 

Well, whatever, these came from MWS about a year ago.... just before the first group buy, if i remember correctly, it was immediately before the group buy, so unless they changed suppliers inbetween, the group got the same ones as these aswell......

 

I've got the Rota GRA's in gunmetal. I'm not sure whether they're fron MW as I bought them SH (they were only 2 weeks old though, result! )

Great wheels.

 

Thanks for the response,

Thats put my mind at rest, just seemed as though something strange was afoot, but if they are actually the same wheels at the end of the day, just coming from a different supplier, then for £495 I'll be a very happy man.

Just hope I'm not to late for it, I'll phone them tomorrow.

Thanks again.

 

Well, I guess if you really do want to be sure about what it is you are getting maybe put a call in to the guy at MW and ask the question when you call...

 

I've looked at the pictures in the group buy, and the centres are not the same as mine, i fear they may have changed suppliers since i got mine, although saying that, the wheels themselves look the same....

 

Ron you have the flat plastic centres, Rota supply those and also the 'cone' affairs as seen in the group buy.

Look closely at the wheel pic on the group buy against this pic of a Rota,

http://subydude.com/osc/product_info...694cce03cb99d5

Even the 'pressed' lettering/symbols on the inner rim are identical... and if you scroll down the page there are the exact same cone centre caps

 

I got 3 sets of centre caps with mine. The "cone carbon" ones, the standard colour coded ones and the black ones with "R" on them.