Lightweight wheels or wide wheels
 

The wider you go the heavier your wheel and tire setup is going to be. I want to find a good middle ground between cornering grip and weight. I dont think I need a 265 tire on this car if my only plans are basic boltons.

I was thinking maybe a lightweight 17x7.5 with a grippy 225 tire. With a +25-+30 offset

Any suggestions??

Also, Does camber + stretch have any benefits to handling? I see a lot of drift guys use it. It cant just be for the look can it?

This car does not need 265 - not enough power. 225-235 is enough. With lightweight 7.5-8" wheels you will end up with the same or even lower total weight than stock.

RPf1's in 17x8 or 17x9 with 225-255's are lighter than stock I believe.

You don't want stretch. It's more just for looks and fitting wheels that aren't meant to fit.

The weight im saving with going with lets say 17x8 with a 225 tire, Justify the loss in grip if I went with 17x9 245.

I think 235 on 8" is top of what makes sense performance wise. Still can be done at the same weight as stock.

Enkei RPF1
18x7.5
-weight 17.8 lbs

Michelin Pilot Super Sport
225/40/18
-weight 22 lbs

Setup weight 39.8lbs

Stock weight 41.5 lbs

Get some super light wheels. Some of the best weight you can lose is unsprung weight. Additionally, I don't think you need the extra grip from a super wide tire; the car just doesn't have enough power to overwhelm then on dry pavement with grippy tires..

If by grip you include braking, you should up size one inch if you go wider. So 18x7.5 or 18x8. (track) If you wider the stock rim and keep the same rim size, the contact patch goes wider but becomes narrower w/o a +size.

For DD I'd be fine w/ 17x7 or 7.5 w/ 215 or 225 respectively and better compound. (street) Even try 16x7 if you don't do brake calipers or BBK. But honestly the tire choices don't make 16's that attractive as tire weight is the most important part of the wheel package's inertia. This is why I started by looking at tires first before wheels.

For all in one, I'd go 18x7.5. Actually you'll be limited by the rims in question so you'll find you'll need to determine between which rims and what sizes they come in.

You do realize that rim diameter doesn't change the contact patch... if the overall diameter of the tire is the same it doesn't matter what diameter the rim is.

17x8 +35 to +45 with a 225/45 sticky tire will be a ton more grip than stock and still very light. The offset you mentioned will poke a lot without running a bunch of camber.

Just to be clear, 17" tires can be just as heavy or heavier than lower profile 18" tires. But there are weight savings in the wheels, as detailed below. Same setup I'd referenced earlier is 2.2 lbs lighter in 17".

Enkei RPF1
17x8
-weight 15.6 lbs

Michelin Pilot Super Sport
225/45/17
-weight 22 lbs

17" Setup weight 37.6 lbs

18" Setup weight 39.8 lbs

Stock weight 41.5 lbs

I went for lightweight 17"x8+42 WedsSport TC105N they weigh 14.9lbs and I went with BFGoodrich Rivals in 225/45/17 and those weigh 23lbs. Grip on this setup is amazing and I am very happy with them. Got the wheels from Vivid Racing (Thanks!) and the tires from Tirerack (Thanks!). Here is a picture I took today for you to see.

I have some 17x7 BBS RK's that weigh 16lbs that have 225's on them. About the same weight as stock wheels/tires due to heavy tires.

msile setup
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...4&postcount=34

Sorry, yes that's correct. If you +size and can maintain the same identical diameter that is correct. Usually though a plus size rim will be mated to a -05 in aspect ration which tends to yield an increase in tire diameter which increases the patch front to rear. But yes, the tire's dimensions are what matters in actuality.

Even if the 18's are lighter, the bulk of the weight (the barrel) is further away from the hub so it might be a net sum of zero or even negative depending on the weight difference. How noticeable that is would depend on how big the difference is and the wheel speeds.

I run 7" RPF1's with 235 ZII's, they are five pounds lighter than the stock setup that came on my car per corner.

wheel weight is one of the more overrated topics ive come across in the car world. grassroots did a little comparison one time where the wheel that was 3lbs heavier was actually faster. dont know why but thats what happened.

i also think its worth noting that tires are made of compounds that are so different than what was out when a lot of these opinions were formed. i would find a tire size you want and put it on the widest rim it will fit. or just ask counterspace or rce or robispec what are the fastest things on the track.

LOOKS GOOD, maybe the camera angle but the rears look way too tucked in??

I plan on going enkei 17x8. Keeping them light and just slightly wider than stock. Thought about a 9" with a 255 tires but I feel that will be overkill for my dd setup.

Rear camber is at -3, I've ordered camber adjusters and should be able to reduce to -1.5. Will look much less tucked. Having said that, a +38 rear would look much better.

[QUOTE=Moetivegt86;1286482]
I was thinking maybe a lightweight 17x7.5 with a grippy 225 tire. With a +25-+30 offset

Any suggestions??/QUOTE]

I may be picking up a set of Volk RE30s, 17x8" +44 off a WRX to use for the car for track days. Most likely will be running 235/40-17 tires.

My street setup will be much wide/heavier, but it's mostly for looks anyways.

-alex

I have RPF1 17X7.5 wrapped in Pilot Super Sport 225/45ZR17s on mine, according to Tirerack, the new setup is 3.8 lbs lighter per corner (the tires are a pound heavier though so probably negligible difference on wheel inertia). The difference in grip is very noticeable, no discernable difference in turning feel (how fast the wheel returns to center and feedback from the road) or acceleration. The setup does end up making your actual speed/mileage about 1 2/3 percent higher than gauges read.

I was looking for the same offset as stock because I wanted the car to feel the same, just perform better. Changing the offset will give it a more aggressive look, but it will also change the steering with larger changes resulting in more noticeable impact (particularly in performance driving situations). One thing I read in several places was that people with spacers didn't like the steering feel afterwards, this was on quality hub adapter style spacers.

What do you mean by more noticeable impact?

I am running 17x9 Rota Titans with 245/40/17 BFG Rivals. It's about 1lb more than stock. I'll be honest, I could not feel the extra pound in acceleration, braking, handling, etc. The steering feel is excellent, the suspension doesn't feel overwhelmed, the grip is amazing, and yes I CAN STILL break those bad boys loose when I want to. I lost less than .5MPG overall.

Don't be scared to break the rules a little bit. :)

Essentially, this: http://www.clubprotege.com/forum/sho...n-Scrub-Radius

OK so from what I read. A lower offset wheel will give me positive steering am I right?

"A positive scrub radius will increase steering effort, torque steer and kickback on bumps to a considerable degree. At the same time, a blowout or a failure of one front brake could yank the wheel hard enough to pull it out of your hands. The advantage is that there is much greater road feel and feedback so that you can feel when the front tires start to break loose in a corner. "

IMO you need to look at wheels differently.

Think of them like shoes. You can't have dress shoes that you can run in.
Trying to find a compromise is always going to be exactly that.

For poser/street duties, I'll be running 18" Work Meisters. Because they are delicious. They will probably be around OEM weight, maybe a little more.

For track, run a proper light wheel, and a proer light semi slick.
I run a 205/40/17 Achilles semi slick. I weighed one at 7.986 kg.
I run that on a Volk se37k that weights 6.258kg.
So all up, 14.244 kg, or 31.4 lbs.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...ps500f22c7.jpg

And, from looking at my other posts, you'll see I'm trying to go lighter for the track, by going to a 16". Have some SSR Type-C's that are around the 5.0kg mark, will know for sure when I weigh them.

If you can't afford two sets of wheels, you probably can. I recently bought some 2005 Celica wheels that fit, with tyres for $180 for 4, and they weigh only 15lbs. But will be better on the track than 15lb 17's (which are going to be expensive) because tyre will weigh less, and wheel weigh is closer to centre.

Compromises suck.

Edit -
Lightweight wheels don't matter for street/posing. Nice looking quality 18" wheels do.
Good looking/stance/offset bullshit doesn't matter for the track. Unsprung son.

Anyone know what the OEM scrub is on the BRZ/FR-S?

I would have to defer to someone who's able to calculate what offset would bring the car to zero. Once you know where zero is you can tell what other offsets are doing. Also, I think camber plays a small part moving where the center line of the tire sits slightly. I didn't have these answers, but I knew I liked the current setup, so I looked for the same offset. I'm prioritizing feel over looks.