Importance of the weight of your wheels???

TROXZILLA

Okay this is going to be a two part question. If this has been answered somewhere else I apologize. I searched for a couple of hours and have not been able to find any solid answers. First question - how important really is the weight of our wheels, especially if we're not autox'ing?? I have the stock 18's and am planning to move to a staggered, flush 19" setup. My Z is a weekend toy which I have no intentions of racing. Sure, I'll step on it and take some fast turns but nothing extreme. So if I move to a heavier wheel am I really going to notice that much difference? Is the performance difference going to be noticeable? I realize going to a wheel that is a few lbs heavier is not a big deal but lets say I throw on a wheel that is 8-10lbs heavier? Second question - if I move to a 19" or 20" wheel, along the same lines am I going to notice much difference? I will be adding HFC's, CAI, exhaust. I don't want to waste performance gains. Any useful info would be appreciated.

clkio

Extra 30-40 lbs is nothing versus the car weight with a driver in it. On the street, I dont think you will notice it at all. With all the bolt-on you listed, you can expect about 30hp gain and your car will definitely be faster than stock even with 40lb heavier wheels.

Chuck33079

30-40 lbs of unsprung weight will definitely be noticeable in handling and acceleration. But the trade off of more rubber on the road may be well worth it.

It's not directly comparable to driver weight since wheels are unsprung weight and that has a much larger effect on performance.

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cooltoy

Everybody talks about the weight of the wheel, but one thing people never talk about is the weight of the tire.

Some tires are much heavier then others and if you pick a lighter tire, you can offset some of the weight gain from the wheel.

From what I have been told Michelin PSS is one of the lighter tires out there. There may be others I am not aware off.

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kenchan

you havent read any of my posts then?

kenchan

if you keep the gross difference within 3lbs per corner you probably wont be able to tell that much.. starting around 4-5lbs difference per corner you can definitely tell you got weight on the corners.

so wat i do is decide wat i want to do with the car first. for instance my G is my dress up car so i run gnosis on her and she is definitely heavier to steer, brake, and accelerate. they are around 27-28lbs per wheel.

on my Z i want to maintain the sporty nimble ride, so i run 19's around 22lbs each. i wont consider running wheels over 24lbs on the Z.

as for good tires, DW are lightest that ive seen, followed by PSS, follwed by RE11/S04. bridgestones are heavier, but they look better at least to me.

SouthArk370Z

For a DD, wheel weight is not that big of a deal. Try to find some light wheels and tires but don't obsess over it - a few pounds here or there isn't going to make that much difference for a DD. Unsprung weight will tell you all you need to know (and more). Lighter is usually better (as others have mentioned, there are some trade-offs, so it's not a hard and fast rule) but if you make a big change in unsprung weight, you will probably need to adjust spring/shock rates.

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TROXZILLA

All good answers. I appreciate the info. I had forgotten about tire weight. Kenchan what wheels are you running? I looked at your profile but no mods listed.

JARblue

They're photoshopped wheels and tires

I think he's currently running OEM Nismos wrapped in RE-11s. I believe he also has a set of Weds wheels that he swaps occasionally.

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kenchan

yah, my mods are all photoshopped

i run the nismo wheels with RE11's and also the weds sa55m's with DW. they are both light weight.

kenchan

i was checking out the work emotions a while back, but they're heavy for a tuner style wheel not sure wtf's going on with that....

DEpointfive0

All works are heavy as a mofo

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kenchan

no one asked for your inexperienced opinion

cooltoy

Guilty as charged.

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kenchan

need to update your sig then...