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► Official APEX VW SM-10 Flow Formed Wheel Thread

APEXWheels

Autocross Champion
Location
Bay Area
Car(s)
2017 GSW 4-Motion
The APEX VW-Specific SM-10 is officially here!
Thank you to all of the VW enthusiasts who have helped us make these wheels a reality over the last two years of development. This project wouldn't have been possible without you guys!

Curious about fitment?
You can check out our official APEX MK7 Golf, GTI, and Golf R fitment guide via the following link:
APEX MK7 Golf, GTI, and Golf R Fitment Guide


Questions?
Please feel free to ask any questions you might have in this thread or by sending us a PM!







 
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APEXWheels

Autocross Champion
Location
Bay Area
Car(s)
2017 GSW 4-Motion
VW Community Update 5/6/20

First off, I would like to say thank you to all of the individuals in the VW community who took the time to respond to our APEX wheel survey. With 500+ responses and counting, your voices have been heard and your preferences and concerns have been duly noted. We plan on establishing ourselves within the MK7 community first and then we’ll expand to other popular VAG platforms following our initial product release.

Since originally reviewing the survey responses, our engineering team has been hard at work developing a few different wheel solutions that address many of the pain-points that have been voiced by the community. Some of the more commonly voiced concerns were in regard to track-focused 17” wheels. With a lack of options for wide 17” wheels that clear big brakes, we wanted to explore this project first. Other diameters and sizes are being worked on as well but the 17” project looked to be an area we could make a big difference. We took your feedback and rolled that into a feature/goal list we want to incorporate into our APEX MK7 Golf fitment wheels.

  • Lightweight and reasonably priced.
  • Wider size availability, specifically in 17” wheels.
  • Goal is to clear all or most of the popular OEM+ (TTS, Macan, etc) and aftermarket (Stoptech ST-40/ST-60 355mm, etc) BBKs.
  • Ideal offsets to fit on both GTI and R models with minimal additional modifications.
  • VW center bore specific to avoid requiring centering rings.
  • OEM Hardware compatible.
  • OEM VW centercap compatible.
  • As much concavity as possible given the target sizes and offsets for the MK7 chassis.

While we are still in the R&D phase, we are currently on track to checking each and every box for the features listed above. This is also applicable to the 18” wheels that we plan to offer, with the only exception being that the 18” wheels will be designed to clear larger OEM+ and aftermarket BBKs that are unable to fit under 17” barrels. Moving forward, we will also be exploring both Flow Formed and Forged options in various wheel sizes.

As we continue to develop our wheel offerings for the MK7 chassis, we will need to rely on willing enthusiasts to assist with various fitment tests and volunteering cars for laser scanning of brakes. As some of you might have already heard, APEX is currently looking for a MK7 GTI or Golf R equipped with Macan or TTS front calipers in the Boston area. We are planning to do a full front brake scan with our scanning partner, in order to better understand the specific clearance requirements for those popular OEM+ brake kits. If anyone would like to volunteer their vehicle for the cause that lives in that area, please PM us on the forum, or feel free to shoot us an email at expert@apexraceparts.com

Once again, a huge thank you to this community for making your voices heard! We are incredibly excited to finally be working with VW enthusiasts and we cannot wait to start showing you guys what we have planned for the future. In the meantime, I intend to update the VW community regularly as we continue to make progress leading up to our official release.

As a final note, we are still waiting on approval from the Golf MK7 forum moderators for our vendor sponsorship request. We have taken all of the necessary measures to obtain it over the past month, but have yet to make any progress. If any of the other moderators we have not spoken with have any questions, please feel free to PM us or email us at expert@apexraceparts.com

-Geirsen
 
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APEXWheels

Autocross Champion
Location
Bay Area
Car(s)
2017 GSW 4-Motion
Here is an official sneak-peek at our new VW MK7 Golf SM-10 wheels!

For reference, the first wheel is the Anthracite 17x9" ET42 and the second wheel is the Satin Black 18x8.5" ET43. Enjoy!








For your viewing pleasure:

18x8.5" ET43 SM-10 in Satin Black with 235/40-18 Michelin PS4S tires:






17x9" ET42 SM-10 in Anthracite with 255/40-17 NT-01 tires:







Enjoy!

-Geirsen
 
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Mini7

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
Car(s)
2017 GTi Sport PP
Awesome!!

Very happy to see Apex supporting the MQB community. We need your wheels for track duty!

Welcome!
 

Gvazquez

Go Kart Champion
Location
North Carolina
Just took the survey
 

APEXWheels

Autocross Champion
Location
Bay Area
Car(s)
2017 GSW 4-Motion
Awesome!!

Very happy to see Apex supporting the MQB community. We need your wheels for track duty!

Welcome!

Thank you for the warm welcome!

Any chance the Apex FL-5 will be considered for the MK7 chassis?

At the moment we are focusing on some of our other wheel designs, as they are better suited for our planned VW fitments from a functionality standpoint. However, that is not to say a VW-specific FL-5 is completely out of the question for a future offering.

Apex FTW! Needed to post in here so I get thread notifications! ;)


Thank you for your support! Diggin' the red centercaps on the E36.

-Geirsen
 

Raguvian

Autocross Champion
Location
Bay Area, CA
Car(s)
2019 GSW 4MO 6MT
At the moment we are focusing on some of our other wheel designs, as they are better suited for our planned VW fitments from a functionality standpoint. However, that is not to say a VW-specific FL-5 is completely out of the question for a future offering.

-Geirsen

Could you expand on that? Just curious why the FL-5 isn't well suited for VW fitment.

I'd be curious to see how much (if any) lip would be left if you made an 18x8.5 +45 FL-5. I do wish we were able to run the deeper dish (+22) wheels as I love the FL-5 design with the deep lip.
 

APEXWheels

Autocross Champion
Location
Bay Area
Car(s)
2017 GSW 4-Motion
Hope my 18x9 wishes come true haha, 265s!

Don't you worry! We are planning on offering wider fitments to support the wide-tire track crowd as well!

Could you expand on that? Just curious why the FL-5 isn't well suited for VW fitment.

I'd be curious to see how much (if any) lip would be left if you made an 18x8.5 +45 FL-5. I do wish we were able to run the deeper dish (+22) wheels as I love the FL-5 design with the deep lip.

Of course! You actually touched on the main issue, as the FL-5 is technically a SM-10 with a lip, rather than having the spokes reach the outer rim of the wheel. Having a lip on a slimmer, higher offset VW fitment wheel is quite difficult to make work while still being able to clear certain brake kits. Due to this, a VW fitment FL-5 would have such a small lip that it would lose its design appeal and would more than likely end up looking very similar to our current SM-10 design.

-Geirsen
 

Raguvian

Autocross Champion
Location
Bay Area, CA
Car(s)
2019 GSW 4MO 6MT
Don't you worry! We are planning on offering wider fitments to support the wide-tire track crowd as well!



Of course! You actually touched on the main issue, as the FL-5 is technically a SM-10 with a lip, rather than having the spokes reach the outer rim of the wheel. Having a lip on a slimmer, higher offset VW fitment wheel is quite difficult to make work while still being able to clear certain brake kits. Due to this, a VW fitment FL-5 would have such a small lip that it would lose its design appeal and would more than likely end up looking very similar to our current SM-10 design.

-Geirsen

Thanks for the reply! That does make a lot of sense. I am just not a huge fan of wheels where the spokes touch the outer barrel. To me, it looks like the spokes are poking the tires. :ROFLMAO:

I also prefer the "Y" 5 spoke design on the FL-5 over the uniform 10 spoke on the SM-10, but I am just nitpicking. :)
 

jmblur

Autocross Champion
Location
Massachusetts
Car(s)
2017 Golf R
Will be excited to see what comes out! Filled out the survey before. 17x8, 18x8 or 18x8.5 ET45 for me! I'm probably the outlier running 225/45R17 or 225/40R18. Of course I'm only in the 350-400hp range so anything wider than a 235 is parasitic drag.

Easy to clean would be a huge pro, YellowStuff are some dusty beasts at track days haha.
Ceramic coat and a good wheel cleaner makes a huge difference! Just don't clean em hot...

I may be even more of an outlier, I'm thinking one set of track wheels for autox (17 or 18), and one set of winter wheels (same set most likely). Nothing like strong wheels for winter use!
 
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