Track wheel Enkei RPF1 in 16" ??

[fatoni]

fastest? probably a 17 since that seems to give you a better selection of rim widths and cooler tires in more sizes. 16 is totally suitable and a large factor that seems to be omitted as far as track time goes is the cost of consumables where the 16 dominates. personally i dont care about rim diameter. well i do but its pretty far down the list. i think the focus should be on rim width, durability, and availability more than a lot of the other things. i would rather be on a "dull" wheel rather than at work saving up for a rim i cracked that will take 3 months to track down. and also, dont get caught up too much in unsprung weight. from the only study i have seen, its overhyped.

[Mikem53]

Originally Posted by Trettiosjuan

Miatas run fine on track with 15" or even 14". Hej, even F1 cars do fine with 13", although obviously those are inferior to an FR-S with 18" wheels -sorry for being sarcastic, but really?!?
Fact: a 16" will be even lower in weight and the rotational inertia will be less because of the smaller size even with the same weight. Even 15" would do fine. Of course you will need a proper tire with a stiff sidewall to make it perform! But the only actual racing reason to go big on rims, is because your brakes need to fit. So unless you have (need?) a BBK or are running 400HP and need massive grip from a 9,5" wide rim, small rims are just fine for the track.

Also running smaller wheels will give you a lower final drive ratio for quicker acceleration..
And the weight benefit..

[D1cker]

Originally Posted by Mikem53

Also running smaller wheels will give you a lower final drive ratio for quicker acceleration..
And the weight benefit..

225/50/16 is actually taller than a 245/40/17

[Mikem53]

Originally Posted by D1cker

225/50/16 is actually taller than a 245/40/17

True enough..

[xwd]

You can get the ZII in 245/45/16. Would be good for gearing. The Z1 wasn't a great track tire since it overheated easily, but the ZII seems to be a little better.

[Snake]

I have an AU delivered 86 GT with the stock 16x6.5 wheels with 205 55 16 tyres. I did a track day a couple of weekends ago and ran the stock tyres for half the day and 17x8 Kosei K4R wheels with 215 45 17 Nitto NT01 semis. The difference in feel between the two is night and day. The car felt so loose on the 16s and moved around a heap on the sidewalls. Switching to the 17s made it feel a lot more planted and it no longer felt like it was rolling on the sidewalls. Not sure how much the difference between sidewall size contributed to feel vs the quality of tyres though.

[Trettiosjuan]

Differences are almost entirely because of the tire, the 16" tire model OE is what you would find on a base Toyota Yaris while the Nitto has a performance level higher than the OE tire on a LF-A to put it somewhat dramatically. If one would compare the same tire with the same load and speed rating in those two sizes, the difference would not be big and certainly not night and day.

[Shit Luck]

Originally Posted by Mikem53

Also running smaller wheels will give you a lower final drive ratio for quicker acceleration..
.

that isnt true...
a smaller overall diameter will do that for you not a smaller wheel.

[stevo_12v]

Currently running 17x8 Weds(6.75kg) but I'm really keen to know the weight of the "Compe"'s as that will be the deciding factor for me.
Tyre setup is 235/45/17's too.

I'm very interested in the exact same wheel @Shit Luck has.
However I would be considering running a wider tire setup: 245/45/16in
From the Miata.net Calculator, the new setup will read 0.3% too slow(from STOCK wheel of 215/45/17)

Any track gurus/pros want to chime in whether going for the newer setup is would be worse off than my current setup? I'm more focused on grip than drift to be perfectly honest. And fairly keen on lowering whatever weight I can from my car too.

Thanks

[qoncept]

Originally Posted by ayau

A set of 205 Star Specs will give you more grip than the 215 OEM tires. Grip isn't all about the width of the tire.

And RS3s will give you a lot more grip than that.

I would absolutely not run a 205 on this car, or 215s again after my stockers are dead. I would consider a 16 inch wheel but, alas, the tire sizes just aren't there.

[Spartan65]

These are OEM wrx 16 with 225/50-16. Having ridden in this car, it seems to be just a bit quicker than my stock 17s next to it.

[qoncept]

Originally Posted by Spartan65

These are OEM wrx 16 with 225/50-16. Having ridden in this car, it seems to be just a bit quicker than my stock 17s next to it.

Is that a dildo painted on the spokes?

[stevo_12v]

Scratch that thought about getting these (Enkei Compe)
Just got a message back from Enkei FB.. These are heavy 19.3lbs

They look damn good though

[Shit Luck]

yeah they werent the lightest things out...
the 225 was ok on them. i wish i would have gone with a smaller side wall when i had them.