I wrote this a while back in response to another wheel thread here.. I decided to hold off on posting it. The info is dated, so I post it now just as an FYI..
About five years ago I needed some strong 16x12's for a road racing application with TRANS-AM slicks.
Mind you, I had friends who had ripped the centers out of wheels running big slicks while autocrossing. Road racing is far more brutal. A whole season of *heavy* autocross is often less than a single day at the track. So I was looking for *strong* light wheels (rear slicks are 27x14).
I considered Duralights due to their favorable cost and light weight. But feedback suggested they were fragile and probably more suited to autocross.
I initially went with HRE's. There were some issues with lug nut seat inserts (only half the holes had them), the offset not being quite right, and poor deburring on the center castings. They weren't able to correct after a second try.
I think it took about 6 weeks to get the wheels and then I had to ship'em back and get'em again only to find that nothing had really changed.
The wheels they have today are a very different design, so I'm not in any way implying that these comments still apply. I haven't even had a chance to look at their current wheels closely.
I then ordered a set of Fikse's. Those took a really long time. They apparently hadn't done the centers in quite that way before and had to generate a new cutter path for the CNC machines.
Just as it seemed they were close, Boeing sent a big job to Jim Fikse's primary vendor for anodizing and my wheels had to wait 3-4 more weeks.. But when I finally got them, the quality was outstanding. They completely blew the HRE's away - they weren't in the same league.
Unfortunately, Jim made an error in the dimensations. He had a drawing of my brake measurements and simply didn't look at one of the critical dimensions. They would require a 3/4" thick hub-centric spacer to clear my calipers.
He offered to make the spacers, but knowing how hard I was going to drive this car at the track, I had to decline. If I ever switched hats or hubs, I'd need a new close tolerance set of spacers, etc. Not to mention the worries of thick spacers.. I hated to do it, but I had to send them back.
From what I have been able to see, the HRE wheels of today look mechanically similar to what Fikse was doing back then. Based on what I saw 5 years ago, I'd go Fikse over HRE in a heartbeat. At that time, Fikse was doing aerospace quality work, HRE was makin' wheels.
BBS.. Ah, BBS. There is a reason why they supply so many serious pro teams. These are the guys who can supply a pro rally team with 60 sets of wheels.
I called them on a Monday. My wheels were assembled on Tuesday, shipped Wednesday and arrived on Friday. They were perfect. I was completely stunned.
They were very different from the Fikse's. The Fikse's had a perfectly machined anodized finish that made you want to treat them as art. The deep magnesium cast centers of the BBS's made them seem a lot more rugged. They've been flawless workhorses over the years.
Five years is a long time, and I'm sure both of these vendors have grown a lot. All of the vendors were a pleasure to work with, all were professional.