To move their high-profile wheels, Norman and AC Celik sometimes get high.
So high, the cofounding brothers of Forgiato once booked an employee on Delta Airlines with a set of the company's forged-aluminum wheels to deliver in time for a Texas car show.
Based in Arleta, Calif., Forgiato ("forged" in Italian) manufactures luxury wheels for high- performance vehicles such as Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Porsche, Mercedes Benz and BMW. These luxury cars elicit admiring looks without Forgiato's - and coveting stares with them. The Celiks' American alloy wheels, built in their factory/ warehouse to jewel- like specifications, are available in 17 styles, with unlimited finishing choices.
If Forgiato wheels are car jewelry, rich and tasteful accessories to a mobile work of art, this is by design as well as by training. For more than 10 years, AC was a diamond setter and Norman a goldsmith. "Using our jewelry experience, we have |
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been able to create styles and finishes that have never been seen before in the wheel industry," Norman says. "Our wheels have to be seen to appreciate the drastic curves and fine detail we put into each one. And, when you add to that all the experience we have in actual fitment of wheels, the final Forgiato product is unparalleled."
In 1993, the brothers entered the business by wholesaling wheels. By 1996 they were importing and customizing wheels and selling directly to new-car dealers and custom-wheel shops. They began D'Vinci in 2002, inspired by the Italian master's balancing of high art with exacting science.
They began the Forgiato three-piece line in 2005 and sold D'Vinci the following year to offer the Forgiato line to the most extreme luxury- and performancevehicle owners. "By then," AC says, "we knew we had found our dream - to combine our love of wheels with our experience in jewelry manufacturing." Today the company employs 37 people in sales, support and manufacturing. |
