SSR Wheels (formerly known as Speed Star Racing Wheels) is a Japanese

wheel A wheel is a rotating component (typically circular in shape) that is intended to turn on an axle Bearing (mechanical), bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the Simple machine, six simple machin ...

manufacturer for both

motorsport Motorsport or motor sport are sporting events, competitions and related activities that primarily involve the use of Car, automobiles, motorcycles, motorboats and Aircraft, powered aircraft. For each of these vehicle types, the more specific term ...

and aftermarket applications, headquartered in

Osaka, Japan is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third-most populous city in Japan, following the special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a populatio ...

. The company is often credited as being the first to ever make a three-piece wheel with their MK-I wheel in 1971, and remains one of the most notable Japanese producers of aftermarket and motorsport wheels.

History

Speed Star Racing Wheels were launched in 1971 by Speed Star Co., Ltd. to produce three-piece wheels. The company later launched two-piece wheels, as well as both cast and forged wheels. SSR notably helped motivate the creation of the JWL standard in 1973 and helped establish the VIA third-party statutory board in 1981, in order to certify quality standards within wheel manufacturing in Japan. These standards are regulated by the

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism The , abbreviated MLIT, is a ministry of the Japanese government.国土交通省設置法

. In 1985, a new overseas office in Los Angeles was established for international sales. SSR was the first and only alloy wheel manufacturer at the time to utilize the semi-solid forging (SSF) process in 1991, a process which the company later patented. A new factory in Nara was established in 1993. The lightest wheel by size made at the time, the SSR Type-C was released in 2000. In 2002, SSR invented a two-piece hybrid wheel using both semi-solid forging and

heat treatment Heat treating (or heat treatment) is a group of industrial, thermal and metalworking processes used to alter the physical, and sometimes chemical, properties of a material. The most common application is metallurgical. Heat treatments are a ...

technologies. The company was acquired by Tanabe Co., Ltd in 2005.

Motorsport

1994 Nissan Skyline GTR JGTCC-GT1 Hasemi SSR wheel

SSR has been a wheel supplier to factory race teams of

Honda commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

, and

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

, customer race teams, and operated its own race team, in racing series such as

Super GT Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a sports car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC), the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is the top level of ...

Japanese Touring Car Championship The Japanese Touring Car Championship (abbr: 1985–1993: JTC, 1994–1998: JTCC, officially known as All Japan Touring Car Championship, ) was a former touring car racing series held in Japan. The series was held under various regulations during ...

(JTCC),

All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Originally titled as the , the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It was the top level of sports car racing in Japan. The series was s ...

(JGTC), and

Formula Nippon The Japanese Super Formula Championship is a formula racing series held primarily in Japan. It is considered to be the pinnacle of single-seater racing in Japan or Asia as a whole, making it one of the top motorsport series in the region. The s ...

. Their aftermarket wheels are popular with owners of

sport compact Sport compact is a United States marketing classification for a high-performance version of a compact or a subcompact car. There is no precise definition, and the description is applied to various models for promotional purposes. Cars began to ...

and import cars on the race and show circuits.

Formula racing

SSR's factory race team, Speed Star Racing, participated in the top flight of Japanese single-seater racing in the 1977 All-Japan Formula 2000 championship with

Kunimitsu Takahashi was a Japanese professional motorcycle road racer, racing driver, and team manager. Nicknamed "Kuni-san", he is known as the "father of drifting". His racing career lasted from 1958 to 1999. He competed on motorcycles between 1958 and 1963, ...

, winning 3 races and finishing as the championship runner up. The team also participated in the 1978 and 1979 All-Japan Formula Two Championship with Takahashi, finishing 6th and 4th respectively. Naohiro Fujita finished in 3rd place for the team in 1981. Motoharu Kurosawa also drove for the team in 1981 and 1982, and finished 10th and 6th respectively. From 1984 to 1991, the Speed Star Wheel Racing Team participated in the All-Japan Formula Two Championship, which was then renamed the All-Japan Formula 3000 Championship from 1987 onwards, with

Masahiro Hasemi is a former racing driver and team owner from Japan. He started racing motocross when he was 15 years old. In 1964 he signed to drive for Nissan. After establishing himself in saloon car and GT races in Japan, he participated in his only Formula ...

, Jeff Krosnoff and Yoshiyasu Tachi as the drivers. SSR supplied wheels for the

Leyton House Racing Leyton House Racing was a Formula One constructor that raced in the 1990 and 1991 seasons. It was, in essence, a rebranding of the March team which had returned to F1 in . Leyton House, a Japanese real estate company, had been the team's marq ...

team in

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

for use on their

March 881 The March 881 was a Formula One racing car designed by Adrian Newey, his first ever Formula One car, and raced by March Engineering, March Racing Team in the season by Italy, Italian Ivan Capelli and the debuting Maurício Gugelmin from Brazi ...

for the 1988 season.

Endurance racing

Honda NSX in the Honda Collection Hall 03

In the racing series predecessor to the All Japan Endurance Championship, as well as individual races, Speed Star Wheel Racing entered a

Group 4 Group 4 may refer to: *Group 4 element Group 4 is the second group of transition metals in the periodic table. It contains only the four elements titanium (Ti), zirconium (Zr), hafnium (Hf), and rutherfordium (Rf). The group is also called the t ...

BMW M1 The BMW M1 (model code E26) is a Mid-engine design, mid-engined sports car produced by German automotive manufacturer BMW from 1978 until 1981. In the late 1970s, Italian automobile manufacturer Lamborghini entered into an agreement with BMW to ...

for endurance racing. This BMW M1, chassis #1077, was built and sold by

Ron Dennis Sir Ronald Dennis (born 1 June 1947) is a British businessman and motorsport executive. From 1981 to 2009, Dennis served as team principal, CEO and co-owner of McLaren in Formula One, winning seven World Constructors' Championship titles betw ...

and Project Four Racing in 1979 instead of being used in the defunct

BMW M1 Procar Championship The BMW M1 Procar Championship, sometimes known simply as Procar, was a one-make auto racing series which featured professional drivers from the Formula One World Championship, World Sportscar Championship, European Touring Car Championship, an ...

. In

Group C Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for Touring car racing, touring cars and ''Group B'' for Grand tourer, GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 (motorspor ...

, the SSR M1 won the 1979 Group C Suzuka 500 mile. In Group 4, the team won the 1980 Japanese Endurance Championship, as well as the 1980 Mt Fuji 500 km, 1980 Mt Fuji 1000 km, 1980 All Japan Mt Fuji 500 mile, and the 1981 Fuji 1000 km. The M1 was rebuilt to

Group 5 Group 5 may refer to: * Group 5 element, chemical element classification * Group 5 (motorsport), FIA classification for cars in auto racing See also * G5 (disambiguation) {{Disambig ...

regulations for 1982. In Group 5, the SSR M1 won the 1982 All Japan Fuji 500 km, 1982 All Japan Mt Fuji 1000 km, 1982 International Suzuka 1000 km, and the 1982 All Japan Mt Fuji 500 km, as well as finishing 4th overall in the 1982 World Endurance Championship round at Mt Fuji. With this level of dominance in 1982, the team again won the Japanese Endurance Championship. The M1 was retired in 1984 and has since been used for historic races and promotional purposes.

Team Kunimitsu Team Kunimitsu is a racing team founded in 1992 by Kunimitsu Takahashi. The team has competed in the Super GT Series (formerly known as the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, All-Japan GT Championship) since 1994. In its early years, the ...

raced an SSR-sponsored

Honda NSX The Honda NSX, marketed in North America as the Acura NSX, is a two-seater, Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, rear mid-engined, rear-wheel drive sports car manufactured by Honda. The origins of the NSX trace back to 1984, with the HP-X ...

piloted by Kunimitsu Takahashi,

Keiichi Tsuchiya is a Japanese professional race car driver. He is known as the for his nontraditional use of drifting in non-drifting racing events and his role in popularizing drifting as a motorsport. In professional racing, he is a two-time 24 Hours of Le ...

, and

Ryo Michigami is a Japanese racing driver. He last drove a Honda NSX (second generation)#Motorsports, Honda NSX GT3 Evo for Yogibo Drago Corse in Super GT in the 2021 Super GT Series, 2021 Super GT Season. He won the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship i ...

in the

1996 24 Hours of Le Mans The 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 64th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 15 and 16 June 1996. It was won by a Tom Walkinshaw-Porsche prototype run by Joest Racing with drivers Davy Jones, Manuel Reuter and Le Mans rookie Alexande ...

, finishing 3rd in the LMGT2 class and 16th overall. Speed Star Racing was the title sponsor of Mark Hein and TI Racing's entrant into the 2000 Spa 24 Hours. The team raced an Acura Integra Type R and finished in 24th place.

Sports car racing

1994 Nissan Skyline GTR JGTCC-GT1 Hasemi front

SSR wheels were heavily used in Japanese

touring car racing Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition that uses race-prepared touring cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not move a ...

, most notably by SSR-sponsored team Hasemi Motorsport in the

and

. In these series, Masahiro Hasemi raced an SSR-equipped

Nissan Skyline GT-R The is a Japanese sports car based on the Nissan Skyline range. The first cars named "Skyline GT-R" were produced between 1969 and 1972 under the model code KPGC10, and were successful in Japanese touring car racing events. This model was fol ...

. The team raced in the JTC-1 class of the JTCC from 1989 to 1993, winning the championship in 1989,

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

, and

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

, while finishing in 3rd in

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

and 7th in

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

. In the JGTC, the team raced in the GT500 class from 1994 to 2000, with a best standing of 2nd place in the

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

and

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

championships. Hasemi Motorsport also entered an SSR-sponsored Nissan Skyline RS Silhouette Formula in the 1980's. This car was built to Group 5 standards, and raced in the Group 5 class in super silhouette sports car races across Japan, primarily at Fuji Speedway. This Super Silhouette Skyline went on to win 2 races in 1982 and 5 races in 1983. Takashi Kogure 2014 Super GT Suzuka Q2

SSR also supplies wheels to many teams in the

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing that uses sports cars with two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built Sports prototype, sports prototypes, which are the highest level in sports car racing; or grand to ...

series. The company has been an official sponsor for Team Mugen and

Autobacs Racing Team Aguri Autobacs Racing Team Aguri (ARTA) is a joint racing project formed between former F1 driver Aguri Suzuki and Autobacs in 1997. The team's original name was "ARTA F1 Project," but due to trademark claims based on the usage of the word "F1", the n ...

in the GT300 series, as well as for Team Real Racing and

in the GT500 series. Team Mugen went on to win the

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

GT300 championship, while Team Kunimitsu won the

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

and

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

GT500 championship.

Drifting

From 2006 to 2021, SSR sponsored Chris Forsberg and his team Forsberg Racing in the

Formula D Formula DRIFT (also known as Formula D or FD) is an American drifting series, and was co-founded by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage in 2003 as a sister company to Slipstream Global Marketing, the same partnership that introduced D1 Grand Prix to the ...

drifting series.

Current lines

A Sliver motorcycle wheels in the vehicle wheels

* GT * Professor * REINER * MINERVA * Formula * SPEED STAR * EXECUTOR * ABELA * Blikker * DEVIDE

References

External links

SSR Wheels

Japanese website
{{Automotive industry in Japan Automotive companies of Japan Wheel manufacturers Automotive motorsports and performance companies Auto parts suppliers of Japan Manufacturing companies based in Osaka Manufacturing companies established in 1971 1971 establishments in Japan Automotive accessories Japanese brands