I've owned many wheels, in fact wheels seem to be my new obsession. Just within the past 2 years I've owned a set of OZ Racing Ultraleggera, HRE 547, IForged Seneka, Work Equip Anhelo, Advan Racing RG-D, SSR SP3, and now a set of Kansei KNP. The impact that wheels can make to a vehicle visually is almost second to none. It could change the look of your car from a show car to a full race or drag car depending on your choice of wheels. I'm pretty obsessed with wheels I even have wheel shirts from here: JDMMerch.com
To be honest I haven't paid much attention to Kansei Wheels until I started to see and hear more of them online. I guess their marketing department did their job well in getting the brand out there. The craze in the world of wheels is all about "real wheels" and "replica wheels." This has created a huge brand loyalty towards more established wheel brands like Work Wheels, SSR wheels, Rays Wheels, etc.... So when a new company tries to enter the scene it is very difficult to prove yourself as a "real wheel" or legit company. People will compare you to either the high end brands or the lower end replica brands. Kansei Wheels has done a good job of entering the game and giving themselves an image of their own. Their cast 1 piece wheels are actually flow formed to increase strength, durability, and decrease weight. They do offer a full custom line of 2 piece forged wheels too that are built in the USA.
Things have a way of working themselves out. In this case after watching one of my favorite YouTube channels they did an in depth review of Kansei Wheels. This led me to do more research of my own because I liked their KNP classic 5 star design wheel. The KNP wheel kind of reminds me of the Desmond Regamaster or the CCW Classic 5. In this day and age it's difficult to not look like another wheel due to the market being saturated. The KNP wheel is still unique in it's own as it has a small lip around the center face before the actual lip that gives it a 2 piece look. Also the center face is concave to add a more aggressive and unique look.
Coincidentally an old co-worker and buddy of mine is the Sales and Marketing Director for Kansei Wheel. I reconnected with him and we talked about the good ole days, our families, and where we are now. Since now I had a personal connection to the company I decided to purchase a set of wheels. Kansei Wheels has multiple designs of wheels from a R34 GTR homage wheel to a mesh style wheel. I chose the KNP 5 star design wheel because personally I like the classic 5 star design wheels more. Personally I love the wheel, it's lightweight, it looks nice, and it's cost effective. I would compare these wheels to something in the Enkei Flow Form line as they share similar attributes. I would chose this wheel over the Enkei line because it's more cost effective and simply Enkei doesn't offer this style of design that I've seen.
The featured picture is my personal daily driver with my set of Kansei KNP wheels. These wheels are 18x9.5 +22 square with 235/40R18 BFGoodrich tires. The fitment is pretty good with my H&R lowering springs and is perfect for daily driving. The driveability and comfort has not changed much from the car's original equipment. Even though the wheels are wider and larger in diameter they are actually lighter than the OEM equipped wheels. I have noticed more gain in performance and handling with not much loss in comfort and mpg remains the same. Overall I am a very happy customer and would recommend Kansei's 1 piece cast wheels to anyone in the market looking for a high performance cost effective wheel. Thanks Kansei!