Wheels 101
09-05-2003, 07:21 PM
#16
Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Land of the landeaus
Posts: 2,956
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
If you use my favorite website (well, other than unmentionables...heh heh), you can plug in the #'s for your wheel choices and see the results. A 45 offset for a 16x7 wheel housing a 205 front tire and 225 rear tire (as you can clearly see from my above picture) tucks the tires in nicely. I went LOWER (24-inches) on my tire sizes to "manipulate" my final drive ratio up to about 4.33 The total weight of each corner is around 33-lbs (both wheels AND tires). I chose Toyo Proxes T1-S (a fantastic wet weather tire for south Florida and above average dry performer). The good thing about the Toyos are they are generally considered to be the lightest tire available for like-sized offerings. My front tires weigh 19.4-lbs and my rears weigh 19.6-lbs compared to 25-lbs for the stock rear SO-2's! We're talking a pretty significant reduction in unsprung weight with this combo.
The reason why it's not considered "perfect" is because if you intend to drop the car with a set of springs by 1.5-inches or so, you might...and the operative word is "might" have some rubbing issues due to the fact you're going outboard .4 inches (front) and .8 inches (rear). What I've seen some inexperienced owners do is buy low offset wheels and try to stuff tire widths wider than 225 to mimic the contact patch of the original S0-2's. Bad mistake. Now, in addition to a low offset wheel which naturally will bring the edge out, you have pushed the edge of the tire further than appropriate.
The difference in the tread width between OEM and what I'm running now with regards to how the car handles (to me) is indecipherable and I'm a very experienced sportscar owner (42 yrs old and on my 23rd sportscar since 1979). The car handles better in the rain by volumes and can be pushed to 8/10ths (which in reality, is about as high as most should drive on a public road, truth be told) without any handling problems whatsoever.
If you're interested in Rota wheels, they also make several other choices which are competitively priced with similar offsets. Best to go with machiii.net, who can ship you a complete tire/wheel package for free with great prices. I actually had a hard time deciding which finish to select since I actually like the full polished look of the Slipstreams and the polished lip/gunmetal vibe but in the end, the flat black just seemed a natural selection if you're going for the Spoon look anyways.
As for the tire/wheel calculator link, check here:
http://gs.tolan-hoechst.com/tirecalc.htm
Another nice wheel is their version of the Volk Gram Light which actually is LIGHTER than the Volks. Only available in 17-inch, it weighs 16.5-lbs which is nice for a 17-inch wheel. It's a half-inch wider than the Slipstreams above @ 17x7.5, offset is 45.
Bear in mind, these aren't Volks, HRE's, Kinesis, Blitz, etc type wheels. They are cast wheels but have a great reputation for durability and of course, price. As far as I'm concerned, from 10 yards away, it's hard to tell the difference from my Slipstreams and a quad of $1800 Spoons, which is fine with me, especially since the offset for the Spoons (front) are only 38 and the weight difference between my $500 Rotas and Spoons is only 1.7-lbs per wheel. If someone steals my Rotas, better them then Spoon wheels! Plus, the money I saved (about $1200) bought me other toys for the car which more than made up the difference in performance ('bout 1.7hp) lost by going to the slightly "heavier" Rotas.
edit: I forgot to mention because I decided to go with the advantages of a smaller diameter tire (24-inches compared to OEM 24.8) I needed to close the wheel well gap that would have been created so I dropped the car with a 1.25-inch Tanabe NF spring kit. Alignment specs were very spot on and the car tracks like a trooper. Just thought that was an important omission to correct.
The reason why it's not considered "perfect" is because if you intend to drop the car with a set of springs by 1.5-inches or so, you might...and the operative word is "might" have some rubbing issues due to the fact you're going outboard .4 inches (front) and .8 inches (rear). What I've seen some inexperienced owners do is buy low offset wheels and try to stuff tire widths wider than 225 to mimic the contact patch of the original S0-2's. Bad mistake. Now, in addition to a low offset wheel which naturally will bring the edge out, you have pushed the edge of the tire further than appropriate.
The difference in the tread width between OEM and what I'm running now with regards to how the car handles (to me) is indecipherable and I'm a very experienced sportscar owner (42 yrs old and on my 23rd sportscar since 1979). The car handles better in the rain by volumes and can be pushed to 8/10ths (which in reality, is about as high as most should drive on a public road, truth be told) without any handling problems whatsoever.
If you're interested in Rota wheels, they also make several other choices which are competitively priced with similar offsets. Best to go with machiii.net, who can ship you a complete tire/wheel package for free with great prices. I actually had a hard time deciding which finish to select since I actually like the full polished look of the Slipstreams and the polished lip/gunmetal vibe but in the end, the flat black just seemed a natural selection if you're going for the Spoon look anyways.
As for the tire/wheel calculator link, check here:
http://gs.tolan-hoechst.com/tirecalc.htm
Another nice wheel is their version of the Volk Gram Light which actually is LIGHTER than the Volks. Only available in 17-inch, it weighs 16.5-lbs which is nice for a 17-inch wheel. It's a half-inch wider than the Slipstreams above @ 17x7.5, offset is 45.
Bear in mind, these aren't Volks, HRE's, Kinesis, Blitz, etc type wheels. They are cast wheels but have a great reputation for durability and of course, price. As far as I'm concerned, from 10 yards away, it's hard to tell the difference from my Slipstreams and a quad of $1800 Spoons, which is fine with me, especially since the offset for the Spoons (front) are only 38 and the weight difference between my $500 Rotas and Spoons is only 1.7-lbs per wheel. If someone steals my Rotas, better them then Spoon wheels! Plus, the money I saved (about $1200) bought me other toys for the car which more than made up the difference in performance ('bout 1.7hp) lost by going to the slightly "heavier" Rotas.
edit: I forgot to mention because I decided to go with the advantages of a smaller diameter tire (24-inches compared to OEM 24.8) I needed to close the wheel well gap that would have been created so I dropped the car with a 1.25-inch Tanabe NF spring kit. Alignment specs were very spot on and the car tracks like a trooper. Just thought that was an important omission to correct.
10-23-2003, 08:19 AM
#19
Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Land of the landeaus
Posts: 2,956
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The OEM wheels weigh 17.8 and 18.6-lbs so Dan is pretty much spot on.
IOW, heavy-ass 16-inch wheels. I previously had 18's on my car (24-lb Blitz-style) and after installing these 16's, the car felt like it had gained 10-15 extra ponies.
IOW, heavy-ass 16-inch wheels. I previously had 18's on my car (24-lb Blitz-style) and after installing these 16's, the car felt like it had gained 10-15 extra ponies.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post