Comparison Saleen Speedline Magnesium Wheels versus Saleen Magnesium Style Alloy Wheels (Saleen XP8 Ford Explorer) - Photos and Weight

[MuscleJunkie]

Saleen Speedline 18” Magnesium Wheels versus the rare Saleen Magnesium Style 18” Alloy rims.

I hope this post helps those who have asked these sorts of questions over the past 20+ years .

On the left in painted Oxford White is an 18” x 8.5” Saleen Speedline Magnesium Wheel (from Saleen XP8 xx-xxxx) and on the right in powder coated 2000 Ford Pearl White is an 18” x 8.5” ultra rare (only 60 sets ever produced) Saleen Magnesium Style Alloy Wheel.

The 94-98 Magnesium wheels were initially made by the Italian manufacturer Speedline. Speedline's model number for the wheel is 1908. Most of the Magnesium wheels are of one variety - however there are a couple of differences that have been found.

Saleen also produced an alloy replica of the Magnesium wheel that is very rare.

All Magnesium front wheels are 18" x 8.5", with a 35mm offset. There were two different size Magnesium rear wheels offered - a "standard" 18" x 8.5" rear, with a 10mm offset, and the optional 18" x 10" rear with a 25mm offset. The wheels in this post are the 10mm offset.

Speedline Magnesium

The true Speedline Magnesium wheels have the words on the outer lips between the spokes. They DON'T have any Saleen markings on them what-so-ever. The Speedline Magnesium wheel was only available painted (wet paint + clearcoat). Magnesium wheels are very difficult to powder coat correctly. The Magnesium wheel has aluminum barrel inserts that the lugs seat on. Cracking of those seats is a common problem with these wheels.

Saleen "Magnesium-Style"

Saleen also produced their own version of the Magnesium wheel. Note that this wheel has "SALEEN" cast into the lip next to the valvestem, and was produced in alloy instead of Magnesium. It does not say "Speedline" or "Magnesium" anywhere on the wheel. This wheel was also available in a plated version. Only 60 sets of these wheels were ever produced.

You can see a comparison of these wheels in the photos.

Weights

Saleen Speedline Magnesium Wheel (Painted): 23.60 lbs (10.70 kg)

Saleen Magnesium Style Alloy Wheel (Powder Coated): 30.46 lbs (13.81 kg)

Scale was calibrated at zero w/ cardboard before each weighing.

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[CDW6212R]

Very nice Jim, you did a great job with those and the final result is beautiful. I'm glad you mentioned the weight, that's what I wonder about for any wheel that seems to be Magnesium. I'm wary of all of them due to the many rumors people toss out about weaknesses of them.

I bought my low cost($200 each) 18's in 2006 for my Mountaineer, with tires included. I was very disappointed by the weight of them, 72.5lbs each. That's huge compared to my prior OEM 17" Cobra wheels with 255/60 tires. Those weighed 58lbs and had no noticeable effect on performance. The 18's definitely slowed my truck down a lot. I haven't weighed a stock 15" or 16" set, but I'd bet they are in the low 50ls range. I looked and never really found any wheels I liked a bunch, more than a few OEM's, enough to invest in. Then I expanded my search and saw many that were the wrong bolt pattern etc.


I ended up with the Volk Racing GTC wheels I mentioned to you long ago. They were old enough to not clean up quite well enough, they need refinishing. The bad was that the lugnuts they are made for are a unique 12mm type, the good is that the bolt pattern is perfect. So with minor machining, they can work if I can make use of the 16mm offsets. They are 17x9", and I purposely was hunting a forged wheel as a final choice for my project. They weigh 22lbs if I recall, I weighed them and didn't really write it down, just posted that in a thread or two long ago. I think with the 275/55 tires, they should end up close to 58lbs like my old Cobra 17's. That's a good total wheel and tire weight given the original stuff.