Legend or Myth?- ENKEI

Ever since I got my driving license, ENKEI wheels have always ring a bell in most of my friends and fellow tuners mind. I mean it's such a revered brand in the days that it didn't require much advertising, the product's quality, uniqueness, racing heritage and attractive prices made it the ideal tuner wheel back in the mid 90's, sunny Malaysia (note: back then RAYS and WORK wheels are still struggling coming terms with nice designs and so fort).


Here's some real classics:

Super nasty limited edition RP-F1 in black with red logo.

The evergreen RP-01 with tasty blue ring on black edition.

Fast forward year 2009, ENKEI ideally remains the No.1 Nihon wheels manufacturer (and by a wide margin I must add), however, the aftermarket division have bite the dust. Gone are their best designs  as they are more geared towards the OEM market and privately branded spectacular aftermarket designs to individual companies and large tire makers (think Advan, Lowenhart, Racing Hart...etc).


I mean it has been a while now Enkei have taken off in any aspects aside from OEM manufacturing prowess. One nasty example, from the Japan range of TMW (Techno Motorsports Work) series of wheels, the CE16-1 model available from 15~20inches.

I mean it's not a bad looking wheel, but comparatively it really looks at some resemblance to an old classic (and much overused style) of Carlsson's signature styling:

Monoblock 1pc version

Multi-piece version.

Of course, once would argue there's a slight diff and additional spokes here and there, but the point is, coming off from one of the the world's largest wheel manufacturers, you would have expected some uniqueness and sensible styles that could spark imaginations? I leave it to the consumers and the real tuners to have the final say. Domo arigato.