Smaller/Lighter wheels?

[zmw]

Yeah... The deal is that unsprung weight on the wheels makes an ENORMOUS amount of difference in performance, particularly on drive wheels. I want to hear back from forgeline because 27 lbs on their wheels seems very high to me, I was expecting somewhere in the neighborhood of 19-21 lbs As for how much you gain, it's all relative I suppose. I can only speak from experience with my GTO and STI and lighter wheels always made a significant difference.

The majority of the weight battle was always with the TIRE though, identical profile tires (245/35/19 on the STI) weighed anywhere from 12 lbs to 24 lbs with no apparent rhyme or reason.

The reason i am harping on the 19" size is because you can buy LOTs of light, high quality wheels in the 19" size, lots of which would fit the srt's. The problem is when you get to 20" + you are almost always stuck with heavy, clunky, truck duty wheels.

I will agree though if it were just performance i were concerned about i wouldn't have gone with the 300C srt8, so maybe i should just let well enough be, because the stock wheels do LOOK great....

I would love to do a little stagger though, like a 20x11 rear and 19x9.5 front - run some fat and nasty 305 rear rubber, 255 in the front - would give it a very angry stance

I dunno - just thinking out loud at the moment - my wife isn't too psyched about the idea of me spending 4k$ on custom wheels, lol.

-Z

[JMatt]

You need to maintain virtually the same outside diameter on the front and rear tires. The ABS/ESP causes problems when the fronts and rears rotate at different rpms.

[Chase023]

Having more choices for the wheels is always good!! I would like to have more unsprung weight, it would help in all aspects, probably even gas mileage.
I think changing out for lighter exhaust would be a start for me, then maybe the wheels at a later date.

Tho personally I would love to buy a custom set of wheels but they cost just too much. Yeah my g/f's friend with a Supercharged IS 350 with custom 19" wheels costed him like 7k+. With that price, I think the GSM Intro 22" doesn't sound too bad.

[zmw]

Can anyone confirm or deny the issue with diameter esp/abs? This would be the FIRST 2wd car i've ever heard of having an issue with different rolling diameters on the front and rear. In fact i've driven an SRT8 with 305/45/20 on the rear and the stock 245/45 on the front - over an inch in diameter difference. - to me the 305's were way way too big, the ratio looked too big but there is no denying that it was a ton more traction... That car in fact is the reason i bought an srt in the first place. I had it for 4 days and fell in love..

-Z

[DZeckhausen]

Originally Posted by zmw

what tire size do you end up having to run on the 18" winter wheels? like a 255/50? a 265/50 is just about the perfect diameter but definitely not the greatest size for performance... 305/45/18 is decent as is 295/40/19 and 275/45/19....

I ran 235/60-18 winter tires. They were Bridgestone Blizzak DM-Z3 Q-rated tires. Fantastic in the snow and on the ice, but very mushy in the dry.

I swapped back to the stock wheels last week, with Eagle F1 Supercar tires, and I'm loving the return to great handling and my renewed ability to launch the car. Of course that probably means we'll get a late season snowstorm, which will dump 8 inches on the ground and keep me stranded for a couple days!

[MANGOPUPPY]

Originally Posted by zmw

Can anyone confirm or deny the issue with diameter esp/abs? This would be the FIRST 2wd car i've ever heard of having an issue with different rolling diameters on the front and rear. In fact i've driven an SRT8 with 305/45/20 on the rear and the stock 245/45 on the front - over an inch in diameter difference. - to me the 305's were way way too big, the ratio looked too big but there is no denying that it was a ton more traction... That car in fact is the reason i bought an srt in the first place. I had it for 4 days and fell in love..

-Z

-Z, there may be some computer issues with different diameters front/back. When I dynoed my car, the electronics flipped out. The computer doesn't like one set of wheels rotating and not the other. That would lead me to believe that uneven tire heights would cause similar problems. Question is, how forgiving are the electronics. Perhaps, just a slight difference would be ignored. BTW, after around one block, the trans went back to normal and everything was fine.

Have you found any rims in 18" that could fit the cars? My goal is to find an SRT looking wheel for the back, in 18", to mount drag radials.

[DZeckhausen]

Originally Posted by MANGOPUPPY

Have you found any rims in 18" that could fit the cars? My goal is to find an SRT looking wheel for the back, in 18", to mount drag radials.

That would be these 18" x 8.5" Borbet Type TS wheels. In the photo below, I have my winter tires mounted. The stock 20" wheel is shown for reference:

[crhemi]

These cars are much heavier than most. Safety would be an issue for everyday driving or road courses (I'm guessing) but straight line racing may not be an issue.
Lighter may be weaker in many cases...

[Chrispy]

My ASA ST3s with pirelli Ice and snows in 19 inch weigh a LOT more than my stock 20s with stock F1s on them. I was amazed given how heavy the stock rims already are!

[MANGOPUPPY]

Originally Posted by DZeckhausen

That would be these 18" x 8.5" Borbet Type TS wheels. In the photo below, I have my winter tires mounted. The stock 20" wheel is shown for reference:

Wow, those do look pretty close. There's obvious differences, but if you roll at all, you wouldn't be able to tell. What kinda price are those? I could put a fairly fat DR on those. And what size tire is mounted there? It looks pretty close to the stock diameter.