its gone on endlessly in this and many other forums, so how about a place for everyone to voice their opinions?

reason i was wondering, is after looking at a few threads in the shoes section, there seems to be a strong distatse amongst a few fit freakers for the weight some rims carry. (most notably, enkei branded products.)

how important is the weight of your wheels to you? why? have you been able to gauge a serious drop in performance/acceleration/gas mileage with a, say, 16 rim that weighed 17lbs over one that weighed 15 or 14? to the benefits outweigh the cost?

fire away.


(oh and sorry about the misspelt words in the poll; at work, typing fast, you know the drill. )

 

i personally prefer lightweight wheels because i would only make modifications to my car to enhance its performance, not take away from it. i don't think you're a ricer if you don't prefer lightweight wheels though, because people have their own goals for their cars and really, it would be like criticizing people for not dressing the way i like to dress myself.

 

as long as they are within 20% of the original wheel's weight with tires,
i don't really care.

when you go too heavy (gross weight with tires), you start to really
feel your brake capacity run out. then your acceleration, turability,
all starts going south.

 

mine are quite heavy for 15" 11lbs each

 

Even With my 16" SSR Type C's I feel the brakes suffer at high speed slow downs, which is why I am going to go with 11" discs front and rear. Prolly gonna go with the fast brakes setup.

 

the weight vs. the strength of the wheel is the # 1 consideration for me, followed by appearance. the RPF1 from enkei in 15 or 16, for example, is close to perfect IMO.

reducing unsprung weight has a number of advantages. the most important, IMO, is relieving the suspension of unsprung load.

edit - i did not participate in the poll.there are plenty of ricers that spend mad money on lightweight wheels that do nothing with their cars. it is entirely possible to buy a wheel just because you like the way it looks and not be a ricer. it is also entirely plausible to spend massive money on lightweight wheels for a car that never does anything to justify their price.

 

I think lightweight wheels are this important (imagine my fingers held this far apart):

<-------->

Who's got the link to that SCC article on forged racing wheels?

It's hard to justify the $$$$ for CE28N's or SW388's on a Fit when it comes out to 10% of the car's MSRP. Unsprung weight on the car is already low. A set of 10.5# Heliums on 195 tires seems reasonable to me if you want to reduce, maybe even 13's would be cute.

On the other hand some of us don't like rims which appear to be light but aren't. If it's all for show anyway, may as well get 17's or wha-ever: de gustibus, non est disputandum...

 

i believe the weight of the wheel is something that should definently be factored in when purchasing wheels, but the amount of importance? depends on the goals of the car. Personally, Im not into the glamour of show cars. I hate the crazy paint, crazy wheels, etc....

personally: i would love a super lightweight wheel.
but not ALL OF US can afford FORGED wheels!

therefore, the weight of the wheel must be factored in depending on each persons goals/budget. plus, not all light weight wheels look that great compared to "heavier" wheels. but thats my opinion!

 

wow, so this is whats considered 'heavy' for a 15!

 

agreed. i just wanted the poll selections to sound dramatic!


a few well respected members on this forum (ahem illusive) have larger sized wheels that are not exactly the lightest things ever, but they look great and they are made by a quality wheel manufacturer. and he is anything but a ricer.


keep the responses coming guys! maybe some elaboration on what YOUR goals for your car are, to help put into perspective why this is/isn't that important....

 

exactly. good points.

 

i forgot to mention -
probably, my true #1 priority is price, then weight vs strength, then aesthetics. which is probably the real reason that i think that RPF1s are perfect for my goals.


i have neither infinite money nor infinite self-discipline. i won't spend lot of money to gain a few hp, but i will willingly and happily spend disproportionate amounts of money to gain even marginal improvements on my suspension.

 

i got the hfps and everyone gives me shit for it. personally, the goal/theme for my set up is just to seem oem at first glance or to maybe someone that's not into cars like us, plus i don't want the attention from thieves or cops. trying to keep a clean factory look so that to people in the tuning world will notice that i didn't just drive it off the dealers lot yesterday. anything honda makes performance or otherwise, i want it. it's their car to begin with and they know what goes with it to stay clean. i'm pretty sure we all agree that the fit was nice enough when we sold our souls to get our hands on one. that's my only reasoning behind the hfps. overall tho, i haven't done a really big mod to enhance performance... yet. just a lot of small things here and there that really give it a sleeker more sexy style.

 

On a small lightweight car like the fit, lightweight wheels are more important when it comes to performance. Even a couple of pounds a wheel makes a huge difference compared to an evo or sti.

 

the 'crap' you have recieved for your wheel choice was one of the many factors in influencing me to start this thread.

I was looking around for how much the HFP enkei's weigh on the HFP wheel thread, and there are just a lot of thumbs down, 'they're too heavy', 'not worth it' types of comments.

i happen to like them, they are still a consideration for wheels for me, the others being rota slipstreams and 5zigen fn's. To me, having these is like the equivalent of civic guys slapping on 98-99 si wheels on older hatches because it retains the stock, but slightly nicer than average look.

more power to you man.

 

The general rule of thumb for what is considered to be a lightweight wheel used to be anything under one pound per inch of diameter. Many people really underestimate how the addition or deletion of unsprung weight/rotational mass affect a vehicle's performance.

Car manufacturers constantly play games with wheel weights. Just ten years ago, you were able to buy an Integra GSR with 170hp on 15" wheels that weighed 15lbs. Eight years ago, a Civic Si had 160hp on 15" wheels that weighed 21lbs. Today, we are driving Honda Fits with 109hp on 15" wheels that weigh 17+lbs. Does that make any sense?

 

I would rock CE28N's or SW388's in a heart beat if I didnt have other things in the works or recovery....

Its very important to me and I love the diff it makes,
general performance, suspension weight, rolling mass for accel or brake, torque (not so much now with power steering), MPG...

But I am somehow falling more and more for the Stock FS wheels...
they are growing on me like metastasizing cancer ...yea!!! errr...ummm
gee that wasn't disturbing or anything....

I love "classic" minis with the 10" rims and....WOW you can tell a diff in that car when wheels are bigger or heavier! Night and Day!!!

I honestly dont give a rats nads when it comes to other peoples choices with rims that dont tickle my fancy....so long they dig it and it doesnt hurt me or anyone else.
But I will say this...I hope that manufacturers continue on making lighter weight wheels for thier autos, I think its one of the easy and responsible things to do.

plus many of em look HAWT!!!

now about those "spinners"......
heeheee

i picked the second from the top (unless the order changed )

 

Pretty important. If i didnt care about weight i would get some kind of 16"s but since i care im sticking with the 15"s.
Prolly going with some BuddyClub SF challenge 15". Great looking wheels, not heavy and wont break the bank.

Tyler

 

i second that...thats pretty damn light if you ask me.

 

yeah i know....but after what NJ posted i had to take a double take.

sure it doesn't make sense...

but then again, even honda knows that a fit isn't a gsr or si...those are cars that came with a bit more performance oriented hardware than our little fits do.


thanks for the responses everyone! this is great! again, i'm not using this to help ME determine a decision, its just interesting to know everyones opinion and keep things civil!