Project Zeus: 20/21 OZ Racing forged wheels for the FF

When I decided to put my FF on winter tyres last year, it was my intention to relegate the stock cast wheels to winter wheel duty. This meant that I would need to buy a new set of wheels for the summer tyres.

I started to look for a summer set of forged wheels from Ferrari and found several designs that I liked but came up against the problem of maximum wheel loadings. The FF is a heavy car and the 458,488, F12 and 812 designs that I liked were not rated for the FF’s axle loads.

Most frustratingly, the wheels I really liked (the TdF wheels) are made by AppTech who refused to tell me the max wheel loading of those wheels, as did Ferrari.

So I had to go custom. If I couldn’t have Ferrari wheels, I wanted to choose something with a strong connection to Ferrari - and what could be better than OZ Racing. If it’s good enough for the Scuderia then it’s good enough for me.

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Given that I was going custom, the next question which needed answering was wheel size. There are plenty of owners who have gone for 21/22 setups but I haven’t seen any 20/21 setups on an FF or Lusso. It looks good on a 458 that I’ve seen so I’m going to give it a try on the FF.

After months of playing around on the tiresnrims calculator, I came up with a set of wheels which are TUV certified, meet the load ratings, tyre speed ratings and have a width and offset which should enhance the look of the car while maintaining the handling balance.

I’d like to thank Il Co-Pilota in particular for some detailed advice on final offset and tyre choices. I’d also like to thank (in no particular order) other forum members who have posted pictures and details of their non-standard FF/Lusso setups - Altoria F, Brian L, Autolove, ttforcefed, Chris0315 and Mickey Bharat.

The impact of COVID meant that the production of my wheels was delayed but the distributor received them yesterday.

Here are the fronts 20x9 ET 44. They’ll be shod with MPS4S 265/35/20.

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And the rears: 21x10.5 ET43 shod with 315/30/21

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The wheels are due to arrive tomorrow at which point I will weigh them. One of the attractions of the TdF wheels is how light they are. I like the design of the OZ Racing Zeus as it’s quite close to the TdF open spoke look.

Unfortunately, my Indy is closed for the first half of August so the tyres and wheels don’t get mounted until the 18th so I just have to be patient!

 

So they’ve arrived and the numbers are in...

Front wheels weigh 24.2 lbs
Rear wheels weigh 26 lbs

for comparison, the AppTech TdF wheels weigh 20.5 lbs at the front and 23 lbs at the rear.

The OZ is more comparable to the F12 superalloy forged wheels which come in at 22 lbs F and 24.5 lbs R.

I had hoped that the OZ Zeus would be lighter than it is but given it has a much higher max wheel loading than the Superalloy wheels (by 17-20%) then I can’t really complain.

The full set of OZ Zeus wheels and tyres will come in at 216 lbs. The lightest F12 wheelset comes in at 207lbs (Superalloys+Pirellis). The only way to go lighter is the TdF set on Pirelli’s which comes in at a miserly 201 lbs.

 

Here they are now that they’ve been unboxed to weigh them.

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the rear wheels are totally concave but the fronts have a slight bit of convexity to them - stock wheels are the same. I guess it’s for brake caliper clearance.

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the powder coating is a bit thick in places (particularly around the stampings on the back of the wheel) and some of the milled edges are very sharp so I’d give an 8/10 for quality of finish.

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Looking forward to seeing them displayed on the car. Do you mind sharing the cost of these beauties?

 

Not at all. I was able to get them for €5,500 including shipping and 20% sales tax. That probably translates to something similar in US$ before shipping and your state sales tax.

They come in other finishes as well as custom widths and offsets but the sizing I chose and the finish I chose are out of the ‘standard’ catalogue. As you can imagine, going custom on sizing would have added some extra cost but it wasn’t off putting - it simply wasn’t necessary. I also looked into the brushed clear lacquer finish which would’ve added about €800 to the cost.

 

Thank you for sharing

 

Very nice wheels Reg, I'm impatient to see your FF fitted with them!

 

When I was younger, I had a BMW 335 xi, and I got my dream wheels, OZ Ultra Leggera. However the front wheels was just like this picture, and the wind noise created by them when driving in more than 70 km/h was well bad. I can only hope you will not get that. I prefer thw tdf wheels myself, load or not load, however thoose wheels you got seems vety nice!

 

Thanks for the feedback. You’re right that the Zeus look like the Ultra Leggera. I hope that they aren’t as noisy - I’ll report back once they’re on.

 

That is very doubtful. The way the air flows around the FF is completely different. I have driven several cars with Ultra Leggera wheels and never experienced wind noise. I think that was something unique to your combo, and if you look closer, you can see that this is actually a very different design compared to ultras.

 

Really looking forward to seeing the result. Hope your tyres can be mounted soon.

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Can't wait to see them mounted. Luckily you had them out before Ferragosto kicks in.

 

Reg, it just dawned on me exactly what your FF needs. Vanity plates that reads ZEUS. I dare you to do it

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Although OZ managed to get the wheels delivered before Ferragosto, I unfortunately ran into the Dutch equivalent where both of the chassis specialists at my independent Ferrari specialist are on holiday for the first two weeks of August. So the appointment has been made for the 18th to have the wheels fitted - a fortnight today. I can’t wait to see them mounted either.

I would love to fit vanity plates and the God of Thunder’s name is very apt for an FF given the noise it makes on startup! However, vanity plates are not available in NL. The Calvinist Dutch see it as too much like showing off. They have a saying which captures that mindset; “be normal, as that’s already crazy enough”

 

So the wheels go on tomorrow. I thought I’d take advantage of having the unmounted wheels in my possession to ceramic coat them.

Gyeon Q2 Rim gets good reviews so I thought I’d try it out. The application process isn’t as tricky as I feared (lots of warnings about letting it set too hard before wiping off). Time will tell if it’s been worthwhile, especially as our CCBs don’t create a lot of dust. Two coats on the wheelset has only used half the bottle.
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Looking good Reg. Looking forward to see it all done.

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The wheels are on. I’ll let the photos do the talking.

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I’ve been advised to stick with the stock suspension settings as the wheel arches are nicely filled by the slightly larger diameter tyres.

 

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That's amazing! Thanks for sharing the story. Can you weight the OEM wheels + tires so that we see how much weight was shaved?

 

Thank you. Unfortunately, I forgot to weigh the stock wheels before they went into storage - and they’re fitted with winter rubber too so will weigh less than a stock summer setup.

 

That looks great Reg. Very OE in the right way. Liking the arch contour between arch and tyre.

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Maybe take the rear down 5-6mm if anything.


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Thanks - we did consider it but would have lost some rake in the process so the decision was made to keep it as is and live with it for the rest of this summer. It can always be adjusted next spring if it feels too big.

The true arch gap is difficult to convey in the photos as the Pozzi blue of the wheel arch vertical and the arch well itself tend to blend into each other. And the play of light on the tyre sidewall can make the sidewall seem shorter than it is. I need to get some better photos but these were all I could grab in the excitement.

I’ve only had the car up to 140kph but no wheel noise, tyre noise or tramlining to be felt. It’s rock solid.

Turn in is positive and with all the traction nannies off, will happily break the back end away under power - so your recommendation of 265 width fronts was spot on.

 

Hehe nice. That's how it should feel

When you have run the setup for a bit and gotten used to it, the suggested rear drop will further enhance the positive response and the cars abillity to rotate.
But it sounds like a great balance as is, so leave well enough alone for now

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