Back in 1995, when I was obsessing about how to get HAMANN parts here in the US, I got in touch with Wheel Power who had a BMW E36 325i and an Audi B5 A4 running this very unique wheel design from a German company called MAE. The one piece and 3-pc MAE Monoblocks was manufactured by OZ Racing and sold under the MAE label.

MONOBLOCK

MONOBLOCK 3pc

I actually even met and had lunch with the President of MAE once when he came to visit Wheel Power. He barely spoke english so communication was tough. I used to have this catalog of crazy looking benzos one after another just running crazy aggressive offsets with their fenders all pulled out to the max. The 3 piece was the stuff. All the cars I’ve seen them on had major lippage, it was awesome. They knew the proper stance and they did it before poke and stretch was even popular. These days, I have seen these on BMWs, Benzos, Audi’s and VWs. You either love it or hate it. No one was in the middle ground in terms of their opinion on this unique design.

But then that unique design didn’t last long as I came across a blatant copy in the 1st SEMA International Auto Salon some few years after MAE released them. This company which I rather not say, had a booth and was flaunting it – my first exposure to how this industry is screwed up with FAKE WHEELS. I don’t know whatever happened to MAE wheels. Their website have been down forever. Part of their problem was they didn’t produced new products to keep up with the ever changing scene.

Another German company though seemed to keep the MAE torch alive by producing wheels which looks like how MAE Monoblock design would’ve evolve to the present. Below are pictures of bad ass E60 M5s sporting some wheels made by Domanig-Räder.

Silver finish

Black centers on a white E60 M5..

Both cars are running on 3pc 20″ 10.5″ width in the front and 13″ width in the rear. “Steam Rollers” is never out of style haha.

Here’s the rest of the DOMANIG Gallery.