The RG came first, in 1985, and was the first mass-produced one-piece forged wheel with a complex mesh face. The LM followed in 1994, two-piece and named after Le Mans. Today the one-piece line is RG-R and RG-F — and RG-F weighs 4.2 kg at 15 inches.

A genuine BBS RS is a forged face bolted to two rolled barrel halves. Every RS-style replica we could find is one-piece cast. The RS number is a fitment code, not a model. And a legally-sold RS-style wheel, a counterfeit, and a genuine wheel wearing reproduction parts are three different situations.

The name is German. The forged wheels are Japanese. BBS Japan began in 1971 making textile bobbins in Toyama, supplied the forging technology the brand was built on, and now sole-supplies Formula 1 — while the German company has gone insolvent five times.