Thread: Effects of lightweight wheels (unsprung weight)

Originally Posted by 02moltenV

I remember one honda kid a while back said he only ran two lugnuts per wheel to save weight lmao all I could do is

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....of course he would drive a honda haha. I personally like my wheels to stay ON my car... but thats just me

Originally Posted by skwirl

There is a difference between unsprung weight and rotational mass. Like SkinnyPete said unsprung weight pertains to any component not being supported by the vehicle's suspension while rotational mass pertains to any parts that the motor has to turn. Lighter parts for both will increase your vehicle's performance in different ways.

Both of the above apply to lightweight rims though. I went from the heavy stockers to 16" rota slip streams with Hankook RS2s in 215/45/16. Whole different ballgame. The car was just a whole lot more responsive. Do I think it gave me horsepower? No, it allowed what I already had on tap to work with less effort. The smaller diameter and lighter rims wrapped in much stickier rim made for better acceleration. The stockers had the old style azenis on them, both sticky tires.

Originally Posted by spare201

Both of the above apply to lightweight rims though. I went from the heavy stockers to 16" rota slip streams with Hankook RS2s in 215/45/16. Whole different ballgame. The car was just a whole lot more responsive. Do I think it gave me horsepower? No, it allowed what I already had on tap to work with less effort. The smaller diameter and lighter rims wrapped in much stickier rim made for better acceleration. The stockers had the old style azenis on them, both sticky tires.

this is exactly what I was hoping would happen when i get my new wheels

Originally Posted by spare201

Both of the above apply to lightweight rims though. I went from the heavy stockers to 16" rota slip streams with Hankook RS2s in 215/45/16. Whole different ballgame. The car was just a whole lot more responsive. Do I think it gave me horsepower? No, it allowed what I already had on tap to work with less effort. The smaller diameter and lighter rims wrapped in much stickier rim made for better acceleration. The stockers had the old style azenis on them, both sticky tires.

agreed
the car feels different, much lighter and quicker to respond esp in acceleration


going from this, 22lb wheels 23lb tires

to this 15lb wheels 21lb tires

or this 16lb wheels, 20lb tires
cut nearly .2 sec off my et on the 1/4 mile

or in the extreme 11lb wheels 20lb tires [up front]
this was absolutly my fastest roll on combo

at the track 11lb wheels 16lb tires

going from any of those setups to this [18lb wheels 24lb tires

was like throwing out an anchor

my new setup will even tax a 4.1L V6 and is intended for hpde, not acceleration contests,
where for a newbie they may slow things down [18lb wheels but 28lb tires] a bit

This is my point Barry...for drag racing, I can definitely see the benefits of using lightweight wheels/tires for a couple extra tenths, but for a street car that occasionally hits a road track it's not near as important. Especially one that will have 400+hp lol.

If lightweight wheels were so important, then Joe would probably use something lighter than 19.8lbs lol. Track width, wheel/tire width and quality tires are MUCH more important to me than some smaller, lighter wheels. Plus, looks on a street/show car are important as well. I'm not gonna buy a set of rpf1 (which look shitty IMO) just to save a few lbs. If I end up with lightweight wheels, they'll be super lightweight volk ce28n or something like that..but they're expensive as shit and I'd rather have other things right now...just my .02 cents

different strokes for different folks, sean.

no matter what y'all think calipers are yet another big area to save on unsprung weight, as well as rotors and wheels. Where its not so much gonna make a huge difference in a straight line, when your suspension starts moving around with the road its a lot easier for your springs to keep 2lbs worth of caliper planted downward than it is when you have 5lbs of caliper being thrown upward.

I've had a whole plethora of cars, and have always noticed a pretty decent performance increase when switching to a lighter aftermarket wheel. The car just feels better, since it's not trying to spin up an extra 20lbs per corner.