GM Design Chief: We’re Headed Towards 24-, 26-Inch Wheels
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At this year’s SEMA Show in Las Vegas, we got a chance to catch up with President and CEO of Brembo North America, Dan Sandberg. We spoke with Sandberg about a number of things (more on that later), including his podcast, Brembo Red, which hosted GM design chief Michael Simcoe back in September. During the podcast, Sandberg and Simcoe discussed the design of the “corners” of the vehicle – the wheels and brakes. One of the more intriguing topics is the move towards larger wheels.
Sandberg discussed the importance of wheel design with regard to consumer perception of a vehicle, noting that the wheels are some of the most attention-grabbing features in terms of aesthetics. Prior to Brembo, Sandberg was with Maxion wheels, so the importance of a good-looking wheel package isn’t lost on him.
2014 Chevrolet Silverado Tony Stewart Concept
Simcoe agrees, saying “any designer you’ll talk to will talk about how to make a vehicle look good and lower, longer, wider. And you add to that large-diameter wheel and tire.”
“Where we are today, an 18-inch wheel is a small wheel,” Simcoe added.
Later, Simcoe indicated that the future of wheel design, and naturally GM design as well, will be bigger and bigger – upwards of 24- and 26-inch wheels, in fact.
“We’re headed toward 24- and 26-inch wheels,” the head of GM design said.
Sandberg also asked Simcoe about the look of the wheel itself, and whether he thought the future was with in open designs, or a more closed design.
“The wheel style will be styled to suit the vehicle itself, so pretty much anything goes. Clearly as we brand the vehicles, we style the wheels too,” Simcoe said.
The GM design chief also talked about mating wheel style with brakes, mentioning how Brembo has worked with The General in colors and styling of the calipers. Simcoe mentioned that brakes “used to be just a functional item,” but are now part of the overall aesthetic of a vehicle.
To note, Brembo has provided braking components for a number of high-performance GM vehicles in the past. Some of the most recent examples include the new 2020 Corvette C8, which offers Black, Bright Red, Edge Red and Yellow calipers. Other examples include the Cadillac CT5 and CT4 in the Sport and V trim levels, which offer Red, Blue, and Black calipers from Brembo. Meanwhile, the Cadillac CTS-V offered a yellow brake appearance package, while the current line of GM full-size SUVs on the K2 platform (Tahoe/Suburban, Yukon/Yukon XL and Escalade/Escalade ESV) offer an optional high-performance brake package from Brembo with red calipers.
Do you think bigger is better with regard to wheel sizing? Are you a fan of stylized brake designs? Is this the direction in which GM design should be headed? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section, and don’t forget to subscribe to GM Authority for around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Source: Brembo Red
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Just finished reading all the comments above. With the exception of a few, sounds to me like I’m not the only one who feels this is a bad plan. Couple of good points from above:
1. Ride quality will suffer.
2. Cost factor will go way up.
3. No, run flat tires do NOT ride well. I’ve had many clients who have gotten rid of a car just because of them.
4. Not everyone wants to see all the brakes, hardware, hoses, rust, etc.
5. For snow states: What about the extra build up of ice/snow within the rims? Bad.
6. They can certainly design very attractive 17, 18 and 19″ rims.
One thing I have not read above is the extra road noise this will create. Remember, as the tire size goes up, so also the width normally goes wider. If not, then a huge rim/tire with a narrow width just looks stupid.
I think he is referring to the market in general. Cars can’t and shouldn’t get any bigger than 22’s. If there is anything larger on a car it is aftermarket and had to be fabricated. Trucks and suvs on the other hand, have not reached their limit yet and what i feel the article is truely pertaining to. The smallest wheel on a new full size truck is 18 inches. The largest you could fit without aftermarket fabrication is probably 26 inches. Trucks and SUVs are taking over the market, so naturally the brake and wheel guys have to conform. By the way, crossovers are cars, with more ride height so expect 22 inch wheels on large crossovers later.
So much for the thought that larger 24+ inch wheels may cause handling issues or additional overall vehicle weight.
With style changes to vehicles, the larger rim is very attractive. As for sedans, a 22″ rim is sufficient in style sizing. Now with SUV’s dominating sales, the 22″- 26″ rims are not out of line for an appearance that is appealing to the vehicle. Until the next mahor gas price hike, this is all fine & dandy, as do remember, smaller rims and tires get the best gas mileage. For now, style and appearance will lead us in to a new territory.
This is just mike simcoe talking out of his ass. This has no bearing on reality at all, not even close.
MPG regulations will always keep wheels small, at least for volume selling models. Sure there will be optional 22″ rims for the Escalade. Who cares? Most people won’t option them. They’re heavy, and expensive.
Remember, these design people work in some studio somewhere, sketching out concepts all day. Drawing things that look like they came out of an Anime. I think they forget sometimes that nobody actually wants to drive a car that looks like that. Well, maybe a few enthusiasts who love huge rims, you know, car show type people. But not real normal people.
Larger wheels on vehicles look good up to a certain point, after that they look like cartoons. I wouldn’t want them just based on that let alone all the other functional issues that were mentioned in other comments.
The vehicles themseLves wiLL suit rim sizes 24-26. The standard wiLL be chrome or matt black. The styLe will not vary from average spoke selection styles to date. Thus the point is the average acquirer of said vehicles is the internet money maker nerd group of professional gamers whom are the new siLent thousand to millionaires. It will work as a game plan.