Published in Monterey Car Week (HRE Performance Wheels)
By: D. Brian Smith
Photography: D. Brian Smith
HRE Performance Wheels held its annual Open House on Saturday June 7, 2014. Knowing that the six-hour celebration of automotive excellence and righteous rolling stock would be packed with participants and spectators, Monterey Car Week made its way to HRE’s Vista, CA headquarters not long after the official start of the event. We managed to arrive before many of the party’s participants showed up in their custom, vintage, exotic and sometimes race-ready rides.
HRE Performance Wheels
We saw every manner of Porsches to satiate the pallet of the most discerning Porsche aficionado. Luscious Lamborghinis abounded. Audis, both hopped-up and stock, were auspicious in their presence. Fittingly, we found just one Bugatti Veyron. They are still quite rare and rightfully so. Several Ferraris were personal favorites of the event. Just one Le Mans white striped over Navy Blue Ford GT was on hand. Of course, a bounty of beauteous BMWs reposed in the California sun. Many mighty Mercedes that had been customized within millimeters of their AMG badges were a big part of the scene. A cadre of Lotus Ellises reminded us that the term “form follows function” came by example and practice from men like Lotus’ founder Colin Chapman, whose most famous admonition to his engineers and designers was always “add lightness.”
A particularly scrumptious Dino 246GTB in Fly Yellow captured our attention, while a silver Mercedes-Benz Gull Wing appeared ready to perform a hot lap at the Nurburgring. Volkswagens, a few old and most spanking new, offered a great blank canvas for the addition of the perfect set of HRE rims, some suspension mods and perhaps a bit of engine and or computer chip tweaking under the bonnet. All sorts of automotive finery were on display, from European supercars, luxury performance sedans to American muscle.
Plenty HRE dealers, tuner companies and a variety of some of the most notable automotive aftermarket companies were part of the Open House displaying must have performance products and services.
But the best part of the day for yours truly was taking the tour of the facility, with HRE President, Alan Peltier conducting a very illuminating, interesting and inspiring overview of the HRE Performance Wheels offices and production facility. Mr. Peltier showed us how the one-piece forged and three-piece forged aluminum wheels are produced. He also shared with us a bit about the secrets of the company’s success. Teamwork, integrity, ability, engineering, trust, European certification, pursuit of perfection, culture, striving to do better, always learning, design and execution – these are many of the concepts that HRE’s president espouses and champions. They are the human elements, so to speak, that go into every wheel that HRE designs, engineers, creates and manufactures. Form follows function. At HRE Performance Wheels elegant form follows elegant high-performance function. It’s evident in every wheel that HRE lathes, mills, polishes, powdercoats, and puts together.
We came away from the event wanting to put a set of HRE rolling stock on one of our vehicles. So why don’t you check out the photo gallery and discover why you need to make your way out to Vista, California next year for HRE Performance Wheel’s next Open House. You can also drop by sometime in the meantime when you’re in the area. An HRE teammate will be happy to give you a private tour.
