VMR V710 Review - 8V A3 - Picture Heavy
After much debate and deliberation I decided to pull the trigger on another set of VMR V710s for this summer. This will have been my second set of the exact same wheel in two years, so I thought it might be a good opportunity to give it a bit of a review for any of those that are interested, or on the fence about these wheels, or even VMR in general.
Purchasing Process
As stated earlier, this is my second set, so in turn it was my second time working with the staff over at VMR. My first purchase was a set of Titan Bronze VMR V710s. The “Titan Bronze” is one of the many custom colors they provide over there. The powder coating process for the custom color took about an extra 4 weeks for delivery of color, and stripping and repainting the wheel. The cost was around $400 which isn’t bad, at least for the D.C. area. A lot of decent places around here will charge $650+ for a one color flat coat, and for anything more specialized, closer to $950+. So definitely worth the time to have it done at VMR directly, and again this was a year ago, so don’t quote me on prices here. I was also notified on my second purchase that VMR will look at painting colors not in their catalog if you wanted something a bit different.
The customer service has been excellent both times. On my most recent purchase, I worked with Tracy at VMR, and he was super helpful with measuring out the wheel wells, the wheel caps, working with tire rack, and working with my deadline. Some of you might know Tracy as he was the VMR contact on audizine for a while. Anyways, I had a tight deadline for my last set, and Tracy was able to urgently process my request and get me a full set of wheels, mounted and balanced with tires in less than a week and a half’s time. Pretty incredible from California to D.C., I think.
Wheels
Let talk about the wheels a bit since that is why you’re all here. Here are some quick specs while you reference the pictures: wheels - 19x8.5 et35; tires – 235/35/29 Conti Extremecontact DWs
So first things first, these aren’t the lightest wheels you’re going to find on the market. Granted these are from their “Luxury Series” and not the “Flow Formed Series”. If you’re looking for a more significant drop in weight from OEM, look at the FF series as you’ll see a way more noticeable drop in weight.
As for build quality, these things are solid. I ran the same exact setup on the Titan Bronze’s all last summer and they withstood the harsh roads of Washington D.C. like a champ. I am of course running a slightly larger tire than I would l like to compensate for some of the texas-size pot holes we have around here, but even on some of the harder hits the wheels never bent or curved in any way. The lines on the 7 spoke design are clean and sharp and the concavity of the 35 offset is quite noticeable. I am also running a 35 offset to get a flush wheel placement without spacers. The paint finishes are also another stand out feature. The titan bronze had a semi-matte finish and would look bronze in the shade and almost have a gold flake in the sun. There was an issue here though, as some of you know city parking can be brutal on aftermarket wheels. So it was bound to eventually happen but I did get a small bit of curb rash on one of the wheels. This caused the metal to show through from below (silver not bronze). VMR could not provide any kind of paint pen for the custom color. This was at the time I requested about a year ago, so things may have changed, but just an FYI. The new hyper silver ones I have just received look absolutely fantastic in the sun. They are extremely bright, and have what appears to be a little flake in them, and they were just the contrast I was looking for.
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TL;DR: Fantastic looking wheels with loads of customization options from factory, built more for looks than performance. 9/10
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All photos below are of the hyper silver, if you would like to see photos of the titan bronze, view my build thread where there will be some pictures of them. I will be updating that as well with the current wheels. All photos are done by myself and fellow member, Michael Vera, who previously owned an S3 but is now in an S4.
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Originally Posted by fhwang
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