Carbon or plastic: what the money actually buys.

You can buy a universal aero disc on eBay for around ninety dollars for a set, and you can buy ours for several hundred. That gap deserves an explanation that is not just the word "carbon" said louder.

The honest part first

Our discs are a carbon composite, finished in gloss black or satin black. It is not a structural carbon fibre laminate, and we are not going to let you infer that it is.

So what you are paying for is not an exotic material. It is rigidity, how the disc mounts, and whether it actually fits your wheel. Those are the three things that decide whether a spinning disc stays quiet and stays put, and they are what the rest of this page is about. Anyone selling you the word carbon instead of those three things is selling you the word.

What the cheap ones are

Commodity aero discs are typically injection-moulded or vacuum-formed plastic, produced in one or two popular diameters, and held on by clipping to the rim or by trapping the cover under the lug nuts. They exist, they work, and for some people they are exactly the right purchase. If you want the look on a daily driver and you are not precious about it, buy those and spend the difference on tyres.

Where the differences actually are

Rigidity is the one people underestimate

A wheel cover is a large, thin disc spinning at speed with air pressure changing across its face. A flexible panel in that situation moves, and a panel that moves makes noise and works at its own fastenings. A stiff panel does neither. This is the practical, day-to-day difference you notice, more than any aerodynamic argument.

Fitment is the other one

"Universal" in this category usually means "fits the two most common sizes and you may need to modify it". A part you have to modify to fit a rotating wheel is a part you should think carefully about.

Ours are made per diameter, 18 through 20 inch, and mount through a multi-pattern spacer covering 5x112, 5x114.3 and 5x120. The centre post is drilled so the standoff can be set to the wheel, which is what lets one disc sit correctly on wheels with different dish. You can check your own car onthe fitment tool.

Where the money goes

• Material and tooling. A composite disc costs more to make than a moulded plastic one. There is no clever way around that.
• Machined hardware. The spacer, the stainless centre post and the anodised centre nut are machined parts, not clips.
• Per-size tooling. Three diameters means three sets of tooling rather than one.
• Made to order finishing. Badging, accent colour and anodising are done per customer, not pulled from a shelf.

Which should you actually buy?

If the car is a daily you are not attached to, and you want the silhouette cheaply, buy the plastic set. We mean that.

If it is a car you have already spent money on, if you want it to match something specific, or if the thought of a cover flexing and buzzing at seventy would bother you, that is what ours is for. Seewhat customisation looks like on a real car.