![]() ![]() ![]() With the unveil a few years back of the ‘Vintage’ version of the wheel, the TE37V, owners of older more classic cars have been able to tap into the whole ‘ Touring Evolution’ look beautifully with some awesome, smaller diameter deep-dish offerings, like those fitted to the Rocky Auto RB30-powered S30 above. … as much as drifting and any other discipline! An example is the T&E Vertice Design F360 Modena that was shown at the 2003 Tokyo Auto Salon, riding on big 19-inch, flat-face, matte bronze versions.īut the TE37 will always be a performance wheel… RAYS pretty much made the TE37 available for any sort of application – creating convex versions to be used with smaller cars like the Nissan March in the March cup, to large PCD versions to be used on 4x4s, as well as catering to import and exotic cars like Porsche and Ferrari. … the car was of course running on TE37 Forged MAGs. When Keiichi Tsuchiya set the record around Tsukuba with the #8 Arta NSX – a 51.875-second lap… A street version of the TE37 MAG was on sale for a few years at around a 60 percent premium over its regular aluminum alloy counterpart and was only offered in a deep blue hue. Of course these wheels were actually the Forged MAG – magnesium alloy versions that, thanks to the addition of the lighter metal into the mix, boasted an even lighter weight. The TE37 dominated the field in the JGTC series with countless top level GT500 teams running the center-lug version of the rim. In the early 2000s RAYS launched the 19-inch version of the TE37, and I recall shooting my friend’s R34 just after it was fitted with a custom-painted set in that size. The above shot was taken at a Top Secret organized soukoukai at Tsukuba around 2002. The Top Secret Z33 was one of the first new-gen Fairlady’s I saw wearing the TE37s. RAYS offered (and still does) the possibility to customize the coloring for a small fee of ¥3,000 (approx US$30) per rim, allowing you to go color-matching crazy! This is still true today, except more and more people are experimenting with wider rubber and therefore wider rims. RAYS offered what quickly came to be known as ‘GT-R size’ or 18×9.5J +12 – a perfect mix of width and height that would allow 265/35R18 tires and get the most out of the RB26-powered generation of Skylines. The TE37 was an especially big hit with the GT-R crowd who literally went crazy for the lightweight design. The satin finish was to become one of the most recognizable factors of the wheel and its maker. RAYS was always trying to come up with innovative ideas and one was to use a matte bronze finish for the TE37 that would not require any paint so as to keep the weight of the rim at a minimum. Some tuners like Top Secret collaborated with RAYS to make its own special versions of the TE37, as seen above fitted to its legendary gold BNR34 demo car in a shot I took back in 2002 at Tsukuba. The wheel could be seen at paddocks across Japan and in gymkhana trials that were quickly becoming popular in the mid to late ’90s. Tuners across Japan jumped on the TE37s and it quickly became the demo car standard. Enthusiasts loved the fact that they could fit a wheel that was being used in the N1 Taikyu (now known as Super Taikyu) series, on their own street cars. To say the wheel was an immediate hit would be a gross understatement. If you are wondering where the ’37’ comes from, it was the target weight of the entry-level size: 3.7kg for the 15圆JJ. The TE37’s six-spoke design would give the best possible stress dispersion over the whole inner and outer circumference and efficiently take the abuse of competitive racing. The two main aspects that were focused on were ultra-light weight, and maximum rigidity. The name itself “ Touring Evolution” emphasized the direct link with the racing world and RAYS continuously developed and advanced this particular model with the feedback and data it received from teams that used the wheel. RAYS launched the TE37 in 1996 with the idea of creating a wheel for both motorsports and street applications. Having owned two set of these wheels – the latest soon to be fitted to Project GT-R – the TE37 is a wheel I have always appreciated and liked, and also photographed on many cars over the years. So I thought I’d take a little step back in history and see how the TE37 came to be. Its ageless design has stood up to the test of time, slowly but steadily evolving through the years, boasting better and stronger construction and spawning off a variety of other versions that, to this day, continue to be desired. There is no doubt that this particular six-spoke, one-piece forged rim has come to be a defining detail in the JDM aftermarket scene. If someone was to ask you to think of a Japanese wheel – any wheel – chances are the Volk Racing TE37 would pop into your mind. ![]()
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