victorofhavoc
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Kansas City
Their track prep group buys is an exception. Normal price you won't get near that.
Apex doesn't just "pop out" wheels. They only release things they are comfortable with and can guarantee them to perform under the conditions of track abuse.
Have you actually gone to their website? The ARC8 in a 17x9 et42 is already listed as a 269$ wheel. Certainly not 3-400+ as you're claiming. Considering I've seen other wheel manufacturers produce similar MSRP wheels and sell them for around 200$ in a group buy of 25+ (usually because it takes 100 wheels to make an order from the overseas factories they work with and 4 wheels/car = 25 orders), thinking that Apex can make a 200$ wheel happen, is not that far fetched.
Have you ever seen a wheel manufactured? They most certainly do "pop out". Just like almost every other manufacturer, Apex most likely produces the wheel in China/Taiwan from one of the many factories there that service so many other manufacturers. If they were produced in the USA or anywhere else "respectable" they would claim it loudly and proudly all over their site. After they have a face designed/tested, and they have the barrel stretch down for the size, the rest is easy and the whole process is repeatable in high volume for almost any offset and width within the wide ranging spec.
I'm not trying to knock their wheels, since I do think for the price they offer a good product, regardless of where it's manufactured.