hidefTT

from what I hear there is a difference in quality from one company to another.

I am concerned about the softness of the wheel.

Anybody happy with Harttmans wheels?

thx in advance.

CWK_Marin

About a year ago, I placed an order with Achtuning. They were not able to get the wheels at that time. So, I tried an order with Edge Racing. Edge had delays and when the wheels finally arrived, they could not deliver due to a quality problem with the shipment. That was about April or May of 2003. I finally placed an order with The Wheel Exhange. I personally talked to John Firore Jr, the Proprietor, and he indicated to me that the Replica wheels he sells were made by an Italian wheel manufacturer that also makes wheels for Momo. I bought four 18" wheels with Yokohama AVS ES 100 tires moun ted and road force balanced. I also bought from a local dealer the OEM RS4 center caps and followed an Internet article about how to clip off the plastic inner fins so the OEM caps fit in the Replica wheels. I was quite pleased with the purchase because I got four wheels, four tires, and four OEM caps for the price of two wheels and two caps if I had purchased from Audi. The rims look fine and came equipped with chrome valve stems and all the weights are hidden.

In December of 2003 I ran into the pothole from hell that went 1/2 way to China that was hiding in a sheet drain water puddle on my commute home. I bent two of the rims. No fault of the rims. Any wheel with a low profile tire would have bent. So, I changed my TT back to its 17" wheels and tires and ordered two replacement rims from the wheel exhange. (About that time Raffi was having trouble with Audi over his aftermarket shift *****, and I figured I better get my Replicas replaced before Audi went after Achtuning and Hartmann and The Wheel Exchange etc. for selling RS4 Replicas.) Apparently Replicas are still quite available, so my haste was not needed.

If you look at the Hartmann site and at the Achtuning site you will see that they are both located in Redmond, WA. It would not surprise me if Hartman and Achtuning collaborate on ordering RS4 Replica wheels. The key is what manufacturer do they get them from. I would recommend that you call Hartman and Achtuning and The Wheel Exchange and ask each of them separately about the quality, and softness of the wheels they sell, then make your decision based on first-hand information from the vendors themselves.

BTW as far as softness is concerned, I had learned via postings on I believe it was the VW Vortex site that the RS4 Audi OEM wheel was soft alloy and subject to bend. As I recall there was mention of Audi replacing OEM under warranty if the Audi owner knew the way to approach Audi so the warranty was honored.

JPAmerica

I've been running them for a few weeks now with absolutely no problems yet and believe me the roads here in the Northeast are far from smooth this time of year. I too was a little concerned with the softness...but no problems yet.