Good thing I'm a normal person that drives normal. . . for the most part:D

hahaha :thumbsup: yeah so people like you get to enjoy fancy nice wheels and people like me worry about the smallest little details rather then just driving hahaha

While I understand this in concept, I'm not sure I agree with it in reality. Isn't the concern with powdercoating the heating of the wheel, thereby changing the grain structure and brittleness of the wheel? I believe powdercoating is done around 400 degrees F.
Maybe that's too hot for a wheel. I just don't know. But how hot do wheels get on the track? 300 in an extended session? Probably hotter at the hub and not that hot at the barrel. Thoughts?

Simple:

The cars got bigger, factory wheels got bigger.

There are simply more cars with factory tire width of 215 (or larger). Back in my days (mid-90s), cars had 185 or 195 tires and wheel widths were in the range of 5.5 to 6.5"

Now, 7" is the OE norm and the aftermarket adjusts accordingly.

-alex

BTW, THE lightest 17" i found, that is still made & can be bought by mortals, happens to also be 17x7 with weight of 6.0kg. Yes, there are few forged (and some magnesium forged) 17" that are lighter (by AG Forged, Veloxx, Racing Hart, Watanabe), but most of them are discontinued, and have to be hunted in used wheel sales. Lightest cast one also is 17x7 (Kosei K4R) with weight of 6.35kg.

Though imho 17x8 still has something even for pragmatically minded ones. It can fit most of tires for 17x7 just fine, not that much heavier (eg. TWS T66-F 17x8 is 6.32kg), but if ever needed to, one can slap also wide & sticky tires on them. A bit like of one wheel set for most uses.

17x7 with stickier tires (compared to stock)

given that my engine is still basically bone stock (intake and exhaust only), the car feels so much lighter on it's feet again compared to when i was on 17x9 with 245 tires. it also helps a lot that they're super light too

My comments are regarding my personal experience with having (2) sets of wheels (RPF1s) powdercoated. I kick myself for not having more scientific data to support my experience :bonk:
The actual wheels had smudges on the face of the wheel. Almost as if someone rubbed that section of the wheel while it was hot. It resembled running your finger through butter. Aside from what looked to be cosmetic, the wheels never gave me any problems (holding air, cracks, etc.).