wheels

beadyeyes420 · 11-08-2002, 12:29 PM

i was thinking about gettin 17 inch wheels from wheelmax.com and my friend said that its gonna slow my car down. is he right??

**seth98esT** · 11-08-2002, 12:34 PM

well i dont think u would notice a whole lot. but if u were runnin on some dubs u definitely would notice.

plus if u get some 17s with nice tires it could help u.

**evil-G-nius** · 11-08-2002, 02:13 PM

I have 17" and trust me they dont slow you down, unless you get chrome. Chromies are always gonna be heavier than alloys cuz of the extra coating. But 17' are good man, go for it

G · 11-17-2002, 05:31 PM

I've got 18" Neeper Concept Daggs (chrome) on my ride and I can tell you that I lose almost a full second in the quarter mile compared to my other set of 14" alloys. If you are concerned about losing power dont go with a large diameter chrome rim. Try a good lightweight 16" wheel like Kosei's or something similar. Many of these lightweight wheels are 15lbs or less and can actually improve your cars quarter mile times. Another thing to remember, the larger you go in diameter the wider the wheel gets. A wider wheel and tire puts more rubber in contact with the road which does improve traction but also increases the rolling resistance. Think of it like this...Why do you think that road racing bicycles have such narrow tires? They have little need for gobs of traction so the skinnier the better. Drag racers are the same way, ever notice how skinny the front wheels are on a top fueler? They are trying to reduce rolling resistance as much as possible to maximize their e/t's. The rear tires are a different story since this is where the traction is needed. An interesting note however is that the tire is widest at the launch before centrifugal forces become so great that the tire actually gets taller and skinnier. Pretty cool really, the tires are wide when you need the most traction and become narrower once the car has hooked up reducing rolling resistance even more. But I guess that is probably more than you needed to know...

BEAST · 11-21-2002, 07:27 PM

Sprung weight is heavier than unsprung weight. Or maybe the other way around. Either way, lightening your wheel and tire weight will make huge difference compared to lightening your car's unsprung weight such as taking out your spare tire or back seat. What I am trying to say is that say if all four of your stock wheels say weighed 80 pounds together and your new wheels weighed 60 pounds together that the 20 pound difference will be a lot more dramatic then taking 20 pounds out of the car.