Race wheel/tire combo on the cheap?

[quaddawg]

Yeah, a pound of unsprung weight is NEGLIGIBLE at our performance level.. I simply guarantee that it would make NO measureable difference in ANYTHING you personally can do with YOUR car. big ole fat period...

[Safety Guy]

I weighed my 13 X 5.5" VW alloys at 15 pounds each, so your 13 X 6" steel wheels at around 11 pounds each are "light," IMO.

I think my skinny Aspire 13 X 4.5" alloys are probably around 14 or 15 pounds each.

For Speedstiva, I'm going for those Mazda 14 X 6" hollow spoke alloys at around 10.5 pounds each.

You'll need to factor in the weight of your tires, too. Sometimes that info can be found in manufacturer charts.

I have no idea how much weight per wheel/tire combo could make a significant change in handling and acceleration.

One also needs to balance out one's costs. I got my Aspire alloys for $15 each at a 'yard. I think I paid $160 for four VW alloys from a different 'yard.

I'll probably have to pay at least $75 each for those light Mazda wheels I want.

Karl

[Teqnyck]

WES wrote:

A lb is a lb of rational weight...period.

Losing weight from tires and wheels is about the best place to lose it. Excess weight there will slow both your acceleration and suspension travel, as well as "total" weight.

Karl

I completely agree, to a certain extent, but considering the VX wheels are 6" wide, and the Diamonds are 8" wide, you're flattening your tire out, thereby increasing the contact patch. So IMO, it's kinda 6 of one/half a dozen of another. The VXs loose you 4lbs. of unsprung weight, but they also loose you an inch per tire of usable contact patch. Well, maybe not an inch, but you have to run your tire at a lower pressure to maximize contact and not overheat the center, but now your sidewalls are flexing more because of the lower pressure.

IDK, I could go on and on, but I'm probably wrong so I'll apologize for the 30 seconds of your life I wasted on my schpeal. :lol:

[DuritzCrows17]

Are the mazda wheels you are talking about the ones that came on miatas called sunflowers? I love those ones.

[festivaWES]

He's talking about the newer spoke wheel on the miatas, the common one everyone has are called "daisies". The ones he's talking about have a non hollow spoke a semi hollow spoke and a hollow spoke design, all of them weighing in at different weights.

Anyways i went out to the garage to take some measurement pics of them.

[Safety Guy]

WES is right. The "daisy" wheels are only 5.5" wide and they weigh about 13.5 pounds. Still light, but not what I want for Speedstiva and the 195/45-14s I want to use.

Karl

[LittleHoe]

How sticky are those hoosiers? Would they work for the 1/4 mile street legals... or would I be better finding a drag radial? I was looking at the hoosier site but didn't really see anything for drag racing that was a 13 or 14 inch tire....

[muscle_Car1]

Those dont look street legal.

[LittleHoe]

The street legal rules say you can use drag slicks. It is basically just for fun and bragging rights anyways... I just wanna see how fast I can get the festy down the strip...

[Teqnyck]

Get some drag radials. Road race tires won't have the same traction off the line because of the stiffer sidewalls.