HRE Performance Wheels

So in my previous posts I mentioned how the raw materials, namely forgings, can help make a wheel lighter and stronger; essentially a better canvas with which the engineer can create his masterpiece. I also mentioned why making a wheel lightweight is important. Now I think I’ll start the discussion on design and answer the question of whether or not I believe form should follow function.

Most companies use a design-flow process that starts with design then progresses to engineering (hopefully they have that step) and then to production. I don’t believe in that. For me it is very important that the designer and the engineer and the production team all work together simultaneously. It doesn’t work if the engineer changes the design such that the designer’s vision is lost or the designer and engineer design something that the production guys can’t produce. So how does HRE do it? Well basically the engineers do the design and work hand-in-hand with our production experts. This gives us a very intimate knowledge of our production capabilities and allows us to design wheels that don’t create quality problems as we try to manufacture around unrealistic constraints.

Sounds good, but wait… what happened to the designer? Well… we let the engineering drive the design. I have a fundamental belief that the most efficiently engineered designs tend to be the most beautiful designs… and not just in wheels; in everything. Look at your iPhone and tell me this isn’t true. The engineering leads us to create designs with the most natural balance and efficiency and I believe this is what our brains look upon as beauty. People sometimes critique us for not adding features that I’ll call “do-dads” to the design to add to the style. Why don’t we? Because these features tend to add weight or take away strength and those are the things are simply opposite to our nature. Designing bling simply isn’t in us. The features in our wheels are there because they usually remove weight; adding to the style happens to be a very cool secondary benefit. This extra engineering refinement is what gives our wheels the “pop” and that ever so common “I can’t quite put my finger on why… but those HRE wheels are simply beautiful” factor. It isn’t a design feature. It’s an engineering feature that happens to also be beautiful.

So should form follow function? Absolutely! In my mind there is no question.

Okay… so letting the engineering drive the design is important to HRE. But how do we do the engineering? That’s the topic for my next post.