From me earlier

"can you really tell a differece in terms of weight when you're driving? I'm about 280lbs... so... my car knows how to handle heavy weights.. haha I don't think an extra 2 lbs per wheel would be that much of a difference would it? What if I lost 20 lbs? maybe I can compensate for the wheel weight? haha"

 

hmmm darn. I'm just trying to make my wrx into a ricer. I converted my intercooler into a rice cooker instead and the BOV lets me know when it's done. No turbo on my rex.. rice takes time to cook. Haste makes waste right?

 

People say they can tell the difference... I couldn't tell the difference at all. I went through like 5 sets of wheels before I settled on my current ones.

 

Dan Whitt here those 15s were first used on a wrx at the 2002 scca nationals they will fit over the stock wrx brakes and any of the brake kits that use stock rotors at least the ones I have tried now they are on an 01 legacy

 

i have an extra 2.5 lb's from the rims i have, and i can tell theres a noticeable difference. dont forget that the tires will be heavier, and the actual size of the rim will affect it all too.

getting rims there? which kind are you looking into?

 

thinkin about it. I'll either get some from subydude or go for the ADRs that I want.. the ADRs are about 500 for 18's... but I still have to buy the tires which will run me about 5 hundred more huh?

 

Help me shes biting me aaaahahaaaaa
you might not notice the difference between 2 pounds but if you were to drop like 3 or 4 pounds and go down an inch or two the reduction in weight and rotational mass would definitely be noticeable like my 15s that weigh about 8.5 pounds everyone who has tried them has noticed a huge difference

 

da hell? hahaha

 

i'd say 18's are some times structurally weaker.
especially the really like wheels such as ssr's

btw, i have 18x8 ssr's
and 17x8.5 (i think) ce28's
had 17x7.5 rota subzero's

and i've tracked them all and 17" tires are significantly cheaper
and i've been able to crack my ssr's

 

I was thinking about getting subzeros...

 

The weight of the wheel has nothing to do with the weight of the car or anything else suspended by the uhh.. suspension, so while you may not notice a difference (some people won't) people that are really in tune with their cars or drive on a track and such will most likely notice. The difference between my WRX (yes I do too I have a WRX) on stockers and the P1's is very noticable, not just the grip of the tires - but you can really feel the weight of the P1's. The car feels slightly more ponderous (hard to explain, think heavy shoes). With the stockers, it accellerates slightly faster - and the car feels more 'flickable' so to speak. The grip of the 225 width Yokos tho is phenominal, and way overcompensates for teh heavy feel. I would LOVE some SSR Comps tho - the grip of the 17's without the weight.

If you only street drive and never go on a track, pick the wheels you like the best stylewise because there's not much point in worrying about it. I had TTE rally 17's on my Celica GT-4 for a while with Kumho Victoracers, and it was so nice compared to the street Mille Miglias in the same size. Those are HEAVY! I wanted to put my WRX rims on the Celica, but they don't fit over the TarOx 6pots. I should put my P1's on my '95 Impreza L - it has 14" steelies on it now, that would totally be night and day and probably completely explain this "feel" thing to anyone unsure.

My track car is an '80 Celica coupe. Someone just gave me some Toyo RA-1's on Pro7 rims, so if they fit - I am gonna run them. Been running 205/60-14 AVS ES100s on that car too, but I killed them at Thunderhill last week, time for competition rubber finally!

-Jacob

 

Neither. Just stockers,2 sets. One for autocross,one for daily. No money to spend on 18's-up.

 

I don't care about looks (thats why I got gold OZ Superleggeras ) it was all about performance when I bought mine (well half)

I got them cuz they're light(ish), look cool, have cheaper tires, are stronger (at least it takes more to bend them which is partly due to bigger sidewalls) and because the tires that fit them seem more readily available, plus its the stock size on the Sti.

I also wanted the ability to rallycross/offroad with them, but my opinions changed, and now I think I'll just use stock rims for that to keep the rim looking better, because in the dirt extra sidewalls not necessarily bad (I think), because of weight, and because I have High perf summer tires on my 17s.

Doesn't SWRT use 18s on tarmac??? so at least subaru thinks they're better for racing on the streets.

 

Short answer, Yes you can.

Long answer, The problem is rotational mass and inertia - the farther from the center the mass is, the more energy it takes to overcome the mass affecting both positive and negative acceleration. Hence notice that most "racing wheels" have 50% or more of their mass at the most extreme distance from the center of the hub, because this mass must be here to cover the inside of the tire while the spokes get small. making the spokes smaller has less effect than making the wheel smaller. On steel wheels for example, only about 40% of the mass is where the tire meets the rim.


My 17" Rota Attacks weigh around 18 lbs they are faster than my stock 16" wheels weighing around 30 lbs, but they are not crazy faster because I have more rotational mass farther away from the center - but I can feel the difference.

This is also why a lightened flywheel gives better response to accelertion, rotational mass even though all you shed was 10 lbs, it's 10lbs the engine doesn't have to spin.

 

Are there really 15's that would fit my WRX? I'd do that in a second if they were light wheels - I took off my buddys 14" steelies, 35 lbs each, from his CRX and put on 8.8 lbs 15" wheels and S0-3's man does his car handle better.