I just bought a really nice TII with 83,000 original miles. Runs great, ordered the REV II full exhaust package by Racing Beat, has HKS blow off, Ordered MeganRacing coilovers. I have some pretty nice SportMax 17's and was considering getting some Volk or Rays wheels for it.

How much difference does it really make getting really lightweight wheels. I figured it would'nt make that much difference. But I have heard it can be as much as 1hp per every 1lb of unsprung or wheel weight. Is that B/S or what?

 

sportmax isn't light. i bought myself set bbs wheels ( 2002 oem rims for Fd) one is weight 44lbs ( with tires). lighter wheels give you better handling

 

by the way, heavy wheels = less miles per gallon and not good for handling.

 

 

the sportmax wheels look great, but weigh ashit load. i know their 962s in 17X9 weigh 27 lbs each. thats just the rim!!

 

I had a set of BBS RGR in 18" for my BMW M3 with Pirelli P-zero Nero tires. They were about 40lbs. My track tires were mounted on stock forged 17" wheels and they weighed a little over 50lbs in total.

There was a substantial difference to be felt between them. The car felt like it shed some serious weight, when in all actuality it was just 40lbs. It definately surprised me. A lot of the weight I shed was in the tires though, you have to think about the whole package, and not just the wheel.

(my 18" BBS RGR weighed roughly 18lbs. the stock forged 17" wheels weighed about 23lbs.)

 

if it was really 1 pound for ever 1 hp, I would really like to know.

 

You need to buy Buddy Club wheels, nuff said!

 

If you are competing professionally or street racing for some huge money, just buy the wheels you like.

Grassroots racing did an article on this years back. It showed a minimal difference in the 1/4 and each wheel was like 8-10lbs lighter than the factory wheels. Made right at .1 difference in the 1/4 I think. Keep in mind it has been a long time since I read the article so I may not have my facts 100% correct.

But as I said, unless you are competing for big bucks, it wont make a noticeable difference.

 

lighter wheels or anything lighter that is attached to your suspension will affect handling. generally speaking, its about the unsprung weight and how much it affects spring and damper compression. less weight=less rebound relative to spring and damper rate means more contact with road.

surprised no one chimed in with this crap. oh yeah, and since ur a noob...and we all went through this-

Use the Search function liberally. i still do.

 

STFU

 

My 7 became more fun to drive. Steering response felt like it improved.

 

The big thing with the wheel wieght is the rotantional mass. If i remember correctly is was discussed in the sport compact's project rx-7, where there said, weight is amplified when it iw rotational mass. Something to the effect of 1lb of rotational wheel wieght is equivalent to like 8lbs of dead weight in the car. So for every 1lb of wheel weight over stock on each wheel is like loading 32lbs of dead weight in the car. so basically if you wheel and tire combo is 5 more than the stock each..that like have a 200lb passenger in the car.

 

http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/pr...t_3/index.html

Heres link to the article..they were talking about brake rotors here..and weight on wheels have more of and effect that the rotors because of the rotational disance away from the center. And i think the big thing is more the tires than the rims. Cuz the tires weigh just as much as the rims and its all concentrated out there and the edge. I weight my Volk AV3s 18x9 with some 225/40 pirellis and it wieght it at like 47lbs..when i removed the tires and wieght the rims alone it was like 25lbs or so i think..i still have the rim unmounted ..will try and wieght it again. But that means the tires alone weigh like 22-25lbs and its all concentrate in an 3 thick section.

 

there are a reasons why some wheels cost more than others. =)

 

"For big, heavy rotors that evenly spread their mass from the hub to almost the inner edges of the wheel rim, 6 extra lbs, according to Hays, is approximately equivalent to a 24 lb of static mass."

1lbs=4lbs static 20lbs=80lbs static. Thats pretty bad.

 

a set of 4 heavy cheap wheels equals ur FC weighing 3000lbs

 

I went from HEAVY stock '87 TII wheels in my car to 16" Volk TE-37.

I could really feel the difference in 1st gear acceleration and indeed it had less traction at the top of 1st despite the 20mm wider and stickier tires.

The ride quality and the ability of the suspension to stay composed over bumps greatly improved as well.

As an added bonus you will be able to research carefully and choose the best offsets and widths for the car- not just some generic fitment.

For instance 16x8 +30 would allow you to run 245/45-16 tires all the way around with just folding the front fender lip up and some negative camber.

Though Volk prices have gone way up there are some nice light rims out there that cost a lot less now and come in many fitments.

Check out Edge Racing's price on Enkei RPF-1 or 5Zigen FNRC-01- they even list weights. Those enkei rims are just as light as Volk TE-37 in the 17" size for instance...

 

Mods -

decent info is here and all, but can this get moved to the wheels section?