junkyard dawg

Thanks for the compliment Chris. May be too "bling bling" for some, but I like the look they give the car.

Wildncrazy

OK I will S2k. At one time I had several. I tossed em when I decided to go wider. I have never tried to put together one with stock offsets and widths, I have always tried to widen the track and the rim width.

Thanx for reminding me that the stock offset on the front is 55. I have been worried about my 63 offset on the front/rear. I was worried it would rub on the inside of the front. Now I will rest easier. My old rims had a 48/54 offset and they rubbed on the rear.

I received the 18" Racing Hart CP035R with some damage and am having to return them. I couldn't install them even to check clearances or it would cause me trouble with the warranty and I have been a little concerned. (14# front - 15# rear)

I think you are wrong about the weight of the stock rim tho. I am almost certain that I was reading a thread yesterday that said the American stock rims were 19# for front and slightly heavier for the rears. It said the JDM rims were in the 16# range. I will look for that thread as well.

simons2k

David b, I've done plenty of homework before I bought. In fact it took me close to a year to decide.

I have several factors outside of weight to consider when shopping for a wheel. These factors are:

-must be forged
-size
-weight
-staggered
-correct/acceptable offsets
-looks, compatible to car and color
-mfg. track record

For me, the BBS RGR's fit the bill.

As for the discussion of weight, they are considered light, however, not the lightest. 18 lbs for an 18 inch wheel is acceptable to me.

Good luck in finding an overall diameter (tire+wheel) in 18's that will mirror the oem setup. To get anything near oem specs, you're gonna have to run less than 30 on the tire profile, at least in the rear. You WILL have a challenge with choices in that size profile, if any.

simons2k

David b, I've done plenty of homework before I bought. In fact it took me close to a year to decide.

I have several factors outside of weight to consider when shopping for a wheel. These factors are:

-must be forged
-size
-weight
-staggered
-correct/acceptable offsets
-looks, compatible to car and color
-mfg. track record

For me, the BBS RGR's fit the bill.

As for the discussion of weight, they are considered light, however, not the lightest. 18 lbs for an 18 inch wheel is acceptable to me.

Good luck in finding an overall diameter (tire+wheel) in 18's that will mirror the oem setup. To get anything near oem specs, you're gonna have to run less than 30 on the tire profile, at least in the rear. You WILL have a challenge with choices in profile sizes to match oem, if any.

axis_of_evil

So for 17" ( CE28's ), why do many people apparently have 225/45 ( and 255/40 rear ) instead of a thinner front which would more closely match factory stagger?

Wildncrazy

Go to this thread. It shows the US spec wheels to be 18# for the front and 19.5# for the rear.

http://forums.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.p...ht=jdm+AND+rims

I too have done a lot of research. I originally did not want 18", I wanted 17". I was worried the ride would be too harsh on the 18".

I had a set of 17" Prodrives and BFG KDs that rode very smoothly but were, thankfully, stolen. Why thankfully? They didn't work. I went by the rated tire sizes to buy them (225/255) and the tire sizes were wrong. I had oversteer like a mutha! The fronts were slightly narrower than the stockers and the rears were a whole lot narrower!

This time I didn't settle. I waited 2 months to get the Racing Harts only to have them delivered out of round. I hope it is shipping damage even tho the boxes were undamaged because if this is how they left the factory I would be scared to drive them.

How easily the return and warranty will work out is anyone's guess at this time. The person who sold them to me is working with me and DAZZ (the importer) seems to be cool with it, but the middleman distributor is the issue and DAZZ won't let me sent the rims to them directly so we'll see how this works out.

I already have tires that come very close to factory diameter. They are just a lot wider.

To keep the proper factory stagger the front tires should 83.5% of the rear or another way to say it is that the rears are 1.2 times the width of the fronts. The stock fronts are 7.1" and the rears are 8.5"

I went with the BMW 235/40 X 18" for the front which is 9.2" wide and has a diameter of 25.3" vs. 25" for stock. I figure the rolling diameter is no issue on the front since it doesn't affect speedo or acceleration. Although shorter could theoretically lower the front roll center, but we are talking 1.2% in diameter which translates into about .125" so not an issue. For someone not wanting this wide a tire all around this would make a great rear tire for someone.

I went with the Porsche 265/35 X 18" for the rear which is 10.2" wide and has a diameter of 25.2" vs. 24.8" for stock. This is 1.6% bigger, an insignificant amount and all it will do is help my speedo read more accurate since I have read the factory speedo is about 2% optimistic.

Yes the stagger is wrong. If I mimicked factory stagger the front should be 8.517". I am hoping this simply dials out a little understeer. If it goes too far then I can put urethane bushings on the front sway bar or spring for a slightly stiffer one. A pair of stiffer front and rear sway bars is on my Christmas list anyway.

The front tires weigh:23.5#
Front wheel/tire combo weight: 37.5#

The rear tires weigh: 26.5#
Rear wheel/tire combo weight: 41.5#

I don't know what the stock tires weigh, but with the same manufacturer and the same style tire they cannot be significantly lighter than these. (3-4#?) Even if they were 5# that would only offset the weight difference in my rims vs. stock.

My rims are 8" wide front and 9" wide rears.

I have more rubber on the road and better stability and yet I will bet my combo is still the same or lighter than the stock set up.

If I were to put together a combo at 6.5"/7.5" with 7.1"/8.5" wide rubber like the factory this weight could be much less than stock.

WRS2K

Let me first say, good thread.

And while generally speaking good info is being passed around, a lot of us here are most definitely splitting hairs here, especially if you don't have the skills to run in the advanced group at your local track days (me! me!).

I used to be very strict about rim fitment, but I've slowly learned that for street driving, get what brings greatest value to you. For example, fight for the lighest rims you want, but come straightline race time, which by far is the easiest measure of speed for most of us wannabe racer drivers including myself, you will most likely find yourself disappointed that the dude with the 20+ lbs. three-piece wheels is keeping up or passing you with your JDM super-lightweight racing wheels.

It's just too close to call, but here are some examples of 18" wheels I'd consider for the S2000 (assumption: you are lowered ~1-1.5"; anyone that tells you it still looks good not lowered when running on anything but the stock rims is blind and/or as no modding taste whatsoever):

Workmeister S2Rs - Offsets are just about ideal, but with great S2000 offsets come the "small lip" look.

BBS RG-Rs - Offsets could be better, especially in the rears as you will most likely rub especially when lowered. It's got a good sized lip on it. It's light and what can you say about BBS wheels other than there is no substitute.

SSR GT3s - Blinging wheel with good lip. You will most likely rub the rears here, but you can fix that with a few ghetto mods.

SSR Competitions - Very light wheel with decent offsets (you will most likely rub w/o modifications to the fenders), but only comes with the dark centers and the lip ain't even polished. It's more of a matte, machined look.

OZ Superleggeras - Great F1 brand bling, awesome construction and light. A good example of how quality cast wheels are just as good if not better than many of the forged wheels (I mean, really, not all forging processes are equal, right?) However, the front offset kinda sucks worse than others.

Just avoid doing anything blatantly stupid with your selection (e.g. riding on non-staggered wheels; going cheap on tires). And remember, forged rims still lose to uneven concrete at speed.

Good luck,

simons2k

David b, you've done your homework. Hope it all works out for you.

WRS2K, nice summary on wheels.

Wildncrazy

Thanx Simons2k, it has taken a lot of work to gather that data and a lot of false starts.

I didn't have time to spec out a more factory set up last night, maybe today or tonight. The big deal is getting the actual widths, several manufacturers don't list real widtghs. Usually that means they are narrower than other manufacturers (MIchelin & BFG) but Pirelli widths seem to be pretty good.

I have had the opportunity to physically measure several brands, unfortunately in the wrong sizes for us, but it has let me compare those dimensions with tires that do publish widths to see how they stack up generally to the other brands.

So far every brand that does not publish, except for Pirelli, do so for a reason. The reason is that they do not compare. They usually are significantly narrower.

BFG is the odd duck. They don't publish, but info from before they decided not to publish shows that occasionally they have a size that you would consider normal sized instead of undersized.

Dark_Sub_Rosa

I feel like I am in the same dilemma, with the 17 or 18 argument. I eventually would like to track the car and want some light wheels. I also want the correct stagger and everything to keep the handling but would like to go a little wider. At first I wanted 17's no questions asked, I did not hassell of rubbing and etc, and figured I could get a lighter wheel/tire combo that did not lose any acceleration due to upsizing the wheels.

next issue was finding wheels i wanted or liked... here is when the main problem arose, I want a wheel with a nice lip, i really like the volk GT line-up but a lot of them are not available in 17's. My question i keep asking myself is can i find an 18 setup that is lighter than stock and my car would not get sower because of wheels. also if i ever plan to track the car is the 18 setup just an overkill and end up having to downgrade to 17's or 16's.
I have read that with the 18's its good to get the gear set, but if the combo is lighter and close (within 1-2%) of the stock diameter, why would the gear set be needed?

Everybody is coming up with good information but I would like to try to find someone who has a Volk GT setup who could post the weights and experience with running these before I can make up my mind as to succumb to the 18's. If not then the search for 17's will keep going.