AmericanICON

I've noticed in pictures that some of the guys that are running the fastest 1/4 times here are using what appears to be the stock bullit rims.
How much does tire/rim weight factor into your time?
If you took a 14 second car using the stock bullit rims, and then take the same car and put the stock 16" rims with good tires, how do you think that would effect times?

Or what about the guys using 18's, or chrome? Are they hurting performance with the bigger, heavier rims.

I'm debating 17's or 18's, and just wondering what effect they have on performance.

Backlash

well a bigger rim is going to hurt performance in acceleration, because it will be heavier. just get steeda's ultralite rims.

jericho73

The 16's to say the 17' bullits won't affect performance noticably as the weight isn't that different...but as a general rule if you really care more about performance then looks, don't go bigger then 17' rims, maybe a lightweight 18 and definetly don't go chrome at any size. Chrome rims...they're like anchors on the car. I shake my head when some complain the car is slow and then have heavy chrome rims weighing it down.

Rrruss

Whn I installed GT takeoffs on my car I took the time to weight them.

The premium wheels with the 16' tires weighed 50lb each. The GT takeoffs wer 57lb each.

I remember seeing on the forum somewhere that each pound of unsprung weight was equal to 3 pounds of sprung weight.

So adding the GT takeoffs should be like adding 84 pounds to the car. But the looks more than make up for the extra weight,
( I still need to get some new pics with the takeoffs though ).

Jimp

It's not only weight, but size as well. A smaller wheel will help your 1/4 mile times. If you look at the serious race cars they use 15s. It has to do with inertia but i don't really understand it enough to explain it. =)