Heavy wheel regret?
 

So I bought Xxr 530s 18x8.75 wrapped in sumitomo rubber and the car has lost a lot of feel. It feels sluggish and the tires feel squishy. I can deal with a little sluggishness bc yes they are heavy but if the tires and response and corner grip are not going to improve with a few more miles on the tires I need a new setup. This is really bothering me so should I let the tires settle in some or do I need to go another route? Help!

Try tires with a super stiff sidewall, only thing that might help I can think of.

If I buy anything else it will be lighter rims

Your tires are contributing a lot more to the lack of feel that you are describing. The weight of your wheels matter little at all here. I'm assuming that you bought HTR ZIII's becuase they're inexpensive and are pretty sticky. The downside of these tires are that they are known for having soft sidewalls. Since they were inexpensive, you could just wear them out and then replace them in about 10k miles, or sell them used for about $50-$65 each if you want a more responsive tire right now. Buying new wheels wont fix this.

Thanks for the input. It is just so much more unresponsive. It feels like I'm riding on a hair brush with the bristles on the road. It just wobbles all over the place its driving me nuts

Yep. That'll happen with tires... I have Ventus V12, which aren't necessarily known to be overly soft in the sidewall department, but they are still soft feeling compared to stock. Stock tires have fairly stiff sidewalls. You can really tell the sidewall stiffness when you switch lanes at speed on the highway. It makes it comfy, but you're right... It's all in the tire! wheels don't make a difference here.

So I have a set of pirellis that are 225s instead of 235s which is what I have on right now. The stretched tire should stiffen it up huh? And I would think the pirellis are all around gripper and stiffer

To be honest i'm not sure stretch of that magnitude makes a huge difference. I'm running 245s on 9.5" wheels. This is only a slight stretch, and I don't think its affected my sidewall stiffness much.

In addition to the tire, the wider and lower offset wheel impacts steering feel as well since you're changing the scrub radius.

My personal experience: I used to run 17x9, +35 Enkei RPF1 with 245/40/17 Dunlop ZII Star Specs, and sold them recently in favor if going back to a stock-ish setup (see my signature). The car feels so much better now! To hell with the aesthetics and excessive grip.

Don't cheap out on tires, they are the single most important part of the suspension on your car.

I've run Sumitomo HTR Z3's (not 2's) in 215/45/17 on a 17x8 wheel and didn't experience anything like what you're describing, even on the track. Maybe check tire pressures, balancing and mounting first if you haven't already. If your car has sat for a while, could also be flat spotting on the tires.

I had HTR Z-IIIs in 225 45 17. Steering feel was a little worse than the 215s on the car previously. I recently put on 235 40s and it's even worse steering feel than the 225. This is not surprising, but may help you understand why you're feeling what you're feeling. Combine that with wheels that are too large in diameter, too wide and heavy and you have a recipe for feeling what you're feeling.

Thanks for the feedback. How can I gauge sidewall stiffness when doing research? I compared a lot of tires for the price and the Sumitomo's seemed like a great bet as far as grip. But it makes sense....grip without the sidewall stiffness the tire just folds over like a wet sponge.

Is it worth trying the brand new set of 225/40r18 Pirellis I have? I don't think they could be any worse? Or should I shell out the money for MPSS or go with an entirely new setup all together.