One of the quintessential wheels of the Tuner Era is about to celebrate its 25th anniversary. 5Zigen has quietly teased an image of its FN01R-C wheel hinting at a special edition celebrating a quarter of a century. Like the Volk TE37 and Enkei RPF1, the 5Zigen FN01R-C was a staple wheel at the dawn of the new millennium, but it was far cheaper.
The Volk and Enkei may have been lighter, but the 5Zigen FN01R series was created with the goal of being eminently affordable. It was released as a forged wheel in 2001, but a gravity cast version, the FN01R-C, was soon introduced in 2002.
While the latter weighted three to four pounds more per wheel than the others, coming it at far below $200 each. If you found a deal, you could get a set of decent rollers for 20 to 60 percent cheaper than Enkei RPF1s or Volk TE37s, respectively. Plus, the simple 5-spoke design looked great.
As such, they were the go-to wheels for amateur racers, autocrossers, and drifters alike. They made the Japanese “tuning” culture accessible to everyday enthusiasts, and became legendary in the process. They were discontinued in 2010, and today only the FN01R-C STV, made for modern FF subcompacts, exist. So far, 5Zigen have disclosed no details other than a promise of “coming soon” but hopefully there will be widths and offsets for FR cars when they arrive.
I liked 5Zigen’s 6-spoke Pro Racer GN+ wheels before they were discontinued. They were a nice alternative to buying replica wheels if you didn’t want to spend for expensive wheels.
The FN01R’s are also a cool looking wheel, but I prefer mesh or multi-spokes after a friend bent his JDM 5 spokes after hitting a pothole.