anyone know the benifits of lightweight wheels?

[Biggie™]

Originally Posted by gaffo

1. that weight you gave 8-1/2 pounds - was that for steel or alluminum (I LOVE Smootie hubcap retro look so have no need for aluminum wheels).

2. any tire/wheel brand recommendations?

3. can we go even smaller on Yaris? 12" maybe?

1: Steel wheels are heavy, always run aluminum!

2.a: The tire I basically used in my lengthy example was the 215/50-13 Sumitomo HTR 200. There aren't too many good street tires left in a 13", but you can find some nice race tires(DOT and full slicks).

2.b: There are a number of good looking super light 13" wheels , just do some research and buy what you like and can afford. Here are a few examples. They all wont work for everyone, some have rather low offsets for the Yaris, but they are still usable. I'd recommend the Lenso VPD 13x7.5, 4x100 +25 8-10 pounds? There is also an 8 pound TE37 13X8, 4x100 +20, but those are pricey. Here's a list of even more possible choices.

3: You can't find any good tires in a 12", stay with 13's.


Now, I used a 13" wheel to over emphasize my example. We could easily use a 15" wheel and still get similar results, but with more wheel and tire choices. Lets use a better fitting example for our Yaris.

Enkei RPF1 15X7, 4X100 +41 weighs only 9.5 pounds each.
Toyo Proxes T1r 205/45-15 weighs only 17 pounds each.

Those wheels/tires are 26.5 pounds each and are only 22.2 inches tall, so we still get the low weight, lower gearing and the rotational mass is still closer to center than stock.

[gaffo]

i like the yaris with smaller wheels. I think the ones with the stock 14" look noticably better than the 15" ones.

just me taste. I like the 1950's smoothe hubcap look too. old school VW Beetles really look good with em.

thanks for all the feedback - I'll check out your recommendations ;-).

[Biggie™]

Originally Posted by gaffo

i like the yaris with smaller wheels. I think the ones with the stock 14" look noticably better than the 15" ones.

just me taste. I like the 1950's smoothe hubcap look too. old school VW Beetles really look good with em.

thanks for all the feedback - I'll check out your recommendations ;-).

From the sounds of it, these are the wheels you want. I have no idea what they weigh, and the smallest size they have is 15"...

[fu_im_from_texas]

Originally Posted by Biggie™

... Yaris is actually 3.47%. So go back and recalculate using that....

You are correct. I rounded 3.47 down to 3%. Sorry for the confusion... my mistake.

Originally Posted by Biggie™

...
Using your reasoning, adding weight in the form of big heavy wheels and tires has a negligible effect. ...

I simplified the problem, by compairing 15 inch 16lb steelies vs 15 inch 10lb rims. You are very correct with your 17s vs 13s example ... your 17 vs 13, and my 15 vs 15 are apples and oranges...

Sorry for the confusion, I probably didnt make it clear that the > 1% figure only applied to 15s vs 15s.

[fu_im_from_texas]

Originally Posted by cleong

...Then when proven otherwise, you change tack to say that the gain is irrelevant, ....

I claimed that lighter rims would have less than 1% improvement in accelleration. Then, you suggested a 1:4 ratio, which comes to about 3.47 % improvement. Please note that you did not "prove" anything... you simply suggested a different approach ... and I assumed it to be true...

Had I known we were going back and forth over 0% vs 3.5% I would have said "You are right" a long time ago...

[gaffo]

sweet link Biggie thanks!

love the look.

foriegn site - no english ;-/.