IND | The Road to SEMA – BBS USA Tour
In the years that IND has been attending SEMA and having one of our portfolio builds on display at the show, the formula to getting our vehicles there has been tried and true. The vehicles are prepped, and put on a vehicle transport to arrive in Las Vegas in time for the show. This year however, we chose to put our Gelbgrun M2 on a slight detour to Las Vegas.
BBS‘ US facility in Atlanta, Georgia is a true extension of the facility in Germany. Though no wheel forging and manufacturing is carried out in the facility. It still has the same feel and atmosphere of the head facility. It is here that our M2 would travel before SEMA, with a special addition fitted just for the show. Upon entrance to the facility, we were greeted by a wheel display in the main lobby.
The original BBS FI design wheel from 2007 was part of the display in the lobby. It is hard to believe that BBS created this design 10 years ago. This was a 18×12 wheel made for a Porsche application.
Moving into the warehouse of the building, there were many shelves and racks housing wheel faces and wheel barrels. BBS manufactures all of it’s 3-piece race parts in Germany, and the US facility makes it a point to keep a good supply on hand to service race teams in North America in a timely fashion.
There are also some historic wheel pieces stored within the warehouse. Namely this wheel center from a March Formula Atlantic car from the 1980’s:
Pictured below is a lonely E75 cast magnesium center that was quite popular for OEM chassis development. Because of the wide range of applications, many European and some domestic OE manufacturers have used BBS wheels for prototype chassis development. Our wheels can be seen in many spy photos of cars being developed.
E88 Motorsport wheel centers in various finishes are kept available at the facility:
Classic cast magnesium E55 design center for old BMW race applications like CSL coupes or M1 race cars. These will be at SEMA on a BMW show car built by Stanceworks.
One-piece forged aluminum wheel from an IMSA DP (Daytona Prototype) race car.
An Older E76 cast magnesium race center, no longer produced. This particular item was cast in the 47th week of 2007.
BBS inspects damaged wheels and replace parts that are no longer in spec. The outer rim and barrel can absorb a lot of energy during an impact and help save suspension and other components.
The warehouse also holds various race wheels that have been used in the past for display purposes.
When servicing or assembling motorsport wheels, the work is done in an established assembly area within the facility.
Classic RS wheel (15×12) for wide body Mercedes. BBS made many special tuner wheels for different companies back in the 1980’s. This wheel was produced in 1985.
In another area of the massive facility, there are storage racks that house aftermarket wheel inventory. Due to BBS’ substantial wheel catalog, many wheel styles are kept in stock.
For customers that are owners of older, discontinued wheel styles, BBS carries remaining stock of single replacement wheels in the case of damage or loss.
Nearing the end of the journey, we reached the service area of the facility where the IND M2 would be fitted with BBS’ new RI-S wheel in preparation for the trip to Las Vegas.
20″ BBS CI-R wheels fitted to the right side for SEMA. The driver side gets the new RI-S 2 piece forged wheels.
BBS RI-S wheels mounted to the driver side with Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires fitted to each wheel.
On the front walkway of BBS. In the distance, Lanier Raceplex is visible and beyond the trees on the left is the famous Road Atlanta Race Track. Both excellent neighbors for a motorsport driven company like BBS.
From the facility tour, to having new wheels mounted onto our M2, both IND and the car were ready to make the journey to Las Vegas for SEMA. We’d like to thank our friends at BBS for everything!
Below you’ll find the tour IND took of BBS’ head facility in Germany:
http://ind-style.com/inds-tour-of-bbs-head-facility/
