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Since everyone is going crazy about the Camaro wheels...
There was a little discussion on facebook about if Hawks would ever make 17” Formula repos. It was a little bit ago and I dont recall the guys name who called Hawks, but I guess the short answer was that there isn’t enough of a demand for them. I get it, but its just hard to imagine that there is more of a demand for the 82-87 Z28 wheels than the Formulas. I would atleast have thought they would be very similar, not as popular as the GTA or IROC wheels but still in demand. Just pretty disappointing that its not even on their radar as of now. Only options for keeping the stock Formula wheels seem to be sanding to the mirror finish, powder coating, or paying up to see if a machine shop can get a close match to the original finish. Not to mention the 16’s are getting increasingly difficult to find tires for.
IROC wheels are likely to appeal to any 82-92 Camaro owner. That's a lot of Camaros. So from a business and sales perspective, that reflects strong potential for IROC wheels. Still, we are talking about 3rdgen owners here... but enough will probably sell to justify having produced the wheel.
By the numbers, Camaro production was, what, about double that of Firebirds? And of those much smaller production numbers of Firebirds, Formulas were a very small percentage.Then when you consider that the only people who might be attracted to the Formula wheels are Formula owners--a handful, at best... maybe... and here, again, we're talking about 3rdgen owners--the potential sales of Formula wheels is almost non-existent. So right from the drawing board, Formula wheels are a lost cause. They don't interest me, not the least bit.
Firebird owners, who don't opt for the aftermarket, swap to GTA wheels and Firehawk wheels, not Formula wheels. And Camaro owners swap to IROC wheels.
While I, too, would love to see 17-inch Formula wheels made available, you're right. There were just less than 55,000 Formula's (87-92) built. Probably not near enough to justify the cost of design and production. OTOH, think of all the third gen owners that would love to buy a 1.5 DIN modern head unit to install that doesn't look like it came out of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." There's only one that I know of. It's pretty cheap looking but with a list price of $399! They must be making about $389 profit on those.
I completely understand the IROC wheels and the business side of why companies do and dont reproduce certain things. Those are all good points. I get why they they arnt making them, ofcourse I wish they would. I think they would have the entire Formula market, not just 87-92. It seems most people arnt big fans of those old style convex wheels. I just keep looking at the Z28 wheels that are being reproduced and cant believe they wouldnt atleast have the same interest level. Maybe they arnt big sellers and Hawks doesnt want to have another “bust”? Who knows. Cant argue a business like Hawks tho. Sounds like they’ve atleast looked into it before and decided they cant make enough money rather than just dismissing it.
All the twenty slot Pontiac wheels are as played out as the Pontiac split grill. You don't really even pick up on it until you start looking thru the old product line brochures, but Pontiac shoehorned the same 20-slot styling onto damn near every car they built in the 80s and 90s to some extent. They never looked that great, kinda like the 4th gen Camaro Salad Shooters, but styling has long since passed them by. I really can emphasize enough that they're heavier than most other aluminum wheels, either. Always hated trying to keep all the slots clean too. Truth told, the two varieties of 20-slot 16's just end up being dated, heavy, and uninteresting.
The Firehawk wheels scream 90's too, but there was enough interest for Ronal to do additional runs and then finally OER stepping in to reproduce them after being discontinued. I like the 20 slot wheels, but that would be a highly niche and unprofitable market to cater to.
06-29-2019, 07:35 PM
