RAYS Volk Racing TE-37 Wheels

Volk TE37

[6/5/2002] Reviewed by: Michael Thomas - mtmx5@yahoo.com

Applicable to: '90 - '97 '99 + 1.6 liter 1.8 liter

Ray's Engineering Volk Racing Wheels ... TE37 ... 15x6.5" ... 39mm offset ... 4x100 bolt pattern ... silver finish with dark blue lettering ... clean six spoke design ... forged alloy ... 8.8lbs each.

Product came carefully packaged from Ray's through Carboy in Houston, TX. Carboy was excellent to deal with. Ask for Hank. Purchased for 1395 USD shipped. Silver was 30 USD extra per wheel. Also included were 16 silver lugnuts (no locking ones though, had to use 4 ones from my original wheel for that) and four fabric wheel covers (which now cover my 96M Enkeis which will be used with snow tires). Had them mounted, Hunter GSP9700 balanced, and Lanny's Spec aligned at CSE in Oreland, PA. Bill Sherwood at CSE was great to work with. Tires used are Bridgetone Potenza S-03 Pole Positions 195/50ZR-15.

Wow, love the look, ride is alot more crisp and responsive than before. Pressure is set at 31psi all around, though I may drop this to 28-29psi. Couldn't find center caps to work with these. I think they only made bronze center caps for 15" Volks. What people have been saying about light wheels is totally true. They were really expensive but they dramatically change the look and feel of your Miata. Also, from what I've read, they're pretty hard to damage. Pics can be seen at the bottom of this page ... http://miata.cardomain.com/member_pages/view_page.pl?page_id=178370&page=2

Under 30 minutes to remove completely


[1/28/2000] Reviewed by Brent Bice - bbice@persistence.com

Applicable to '90 - '97 '99 + 1.6 liter 1.8 liter

15x7 +43 mm offset Volk racing TE37 Rims

 Hard to find anyone who has them in stock, but worth the wait!!

It took quite a while to find anyone who had a set of these in stock. Most places I called had to order them from overseas (30 to 90 day delivery time).

But once I found some and got them, they were worth the wait! They're EXTREMELY light. The mechanic who mounted the tires on them (Toyo Proxes RA1) said they were over 4 pounds lighter than the same tires on the Panasports he normally recommends.

The TE37s also have the same offset Mazda recommends (well, nearly - grin). So under heavy braking the car tracks straight and true, and even when only one wheel hits a bump the car doesn't jerk to one side (something you might see with rims with the wrong offset).

The lower unsprung weight (I used to have the stock base model rims on my '99) seems to have improved the car's grip on rough surfaces too.

They look great too, and you won't see 'em on every other Miata. You can get a look at them at http//www.volkracing.co.jp/lineup_1999/volkracing/j_te37.htm

Not an installed item


[12/4/99] Reviewed by: Anonymous

Applicable to '90 - '97 '99 + 1.6 liter 1.8 liter

Volk Racing TE-37 15x6.5" +45 offset 4x100 Bronze.

forged aluminium alloy (bare) rim weighs ~9.5 lbs.

sourced from "CarBoy" shop in Houston, ~$280 each.

fitted with Kumho VictoRacer V700 205/50-15 tyres;

sourced from TireRack.com, ~$110 each.

 Our TE-37's were shipped directly from Japan, oh - about ~90 days wait. They arrived beautifully packaged, including fitted fabric covers with RAYS logo for each wheel. BTW, you can peel the stickers off the wheel (as we did) if you desire a cleaner appearance. Colours other than White or Bronze are available for around $20/wheel and up.

Center ("hub") caps are not included but, may be ordered separately. New blue-anodized alloy tyre stems with RAYS logo are included with each wheel as well as new (steel) lugnuts. We also ordered a set of (exceptionally light) blue-anodized "duralumin" alloy lugnuts from RAYS; this kit has 16 lugnuts plus 4 extra, "locking" lugnuts and a special, 7-sided locking lugnut socket you MUST use a torque-wrench with alloy lugnuts; we used about ~80 ft-lbs to mount these wheels to our '96 M-Edition.

The 205's are an "ideal" fit on these 6.5" wide rims; otoh - were we racing - the TE-37 15x7.0" +43 wheel would be a better choice, with 205's, imho.

 The OEM Miata wheels were '96M 15x6.0" +45 ENKEI-2 alloys with Bridgestone RE-010 195/50-15 tyres that weighed about (+5 lbs more) ~33 pounds... we still use them on the highway - and put her "dancing shoes" on in the twisties ;)

You feel the lighter weight wheels+tyres when you "launch" off the line; you feel the lower unsprung weight in the damping/rebound actions of your suspension; the 205's helped the P/S to feel less "quick", imho; and the DOT racing rubber is simply outrageous on the street.

 Under 30 minutes to remove completely


Back to Product Reviews 23 June, 2002