Come one I know for a fact you would be expierencing some accelleration differences. Exspecially with those fat chrome 20s on there. You have added alot of weight with those wheels so maybe you aren't driving it right. I felt a difference and mine where forged aluminum even.

And yes 19s would be in the middle of the road but I don't think it would justify it cost wise but thats just my opinion. There is a big difference from 18 to 20 not so much in the 18 to 19 and 19 to 20.

I mean I have 18 and 19 in my sig, can you really tell a difference?

 

ladies love the 20 inch ramssss

 

Nope, I'm not expereriencing any difference....that's not to say that there isn't, but if there is, it's not enough to make a difference to me. As far as I'm not "driving it right," obviously that doesn't make any sense because my driving style is a constant; it hasn't change from when I had my stock 17's to my chrome 20's, so as long as that is the same, the wheels are the only changing variable.

Besides, these wheels are pretty light compared to many 20's...I forget the exact weight, but someone from cruizinconcepts can probably tell you.

 

I'll be putting some of these on the car after the first of the year. 18x9.5'' 19 lbs. ea. w/275/40's all round.

float like a butterfly and all that ****

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/Wheel...All&sort=Brand

 

I was just kidding about the not driving it right. But you could be very right in saying YOU don't feel anything. It's kinda like when people say that they can feel a difference when they install a CAI.

O and Rub those wheels are scary lite!!! Sometimes I wonder about the structual integrity tho.

 

I've only read about half the first page, so perhaps it's come up since. Some practical stuff (I'm an old-ish engineer), and some is visual.

Short sidewall tires are much more likely to suffer pinch flats and similar road damage. There are a couple of 3000GT cars on my block, and at any given time at least one of them is riding around with the little donut spare on one corner or another. Or one wheel flange is right down on the pavement. So consider your environment (I grew up about 20 miles south of you, just east of Rocky Marciano's hometown).

The short sidewall does improve cornering response (aka "turn-in"), so in normal to even fairly hard street driving they may well feel better. Particularly if the wheels are of adequate width. By that I mean at least the "measuring width" for whatever tire size is mounted on them, given that you aren't buying "R-compounds" as used in autocross and/or road course lapping. IMO, 265-wide pure street tires on 8" wide wheels doesn't make the cut (no offense to anyone here).

Not all gravy, though. There's still a handling/cornering "cost", in that it will be more difficult to keep a really short sidewall tire right at the peak of its limit. The drop-off in grip if you try to go too far tends to be more sudden. This should not be an issue in street driving, but it is something to be aware of as another sort of compromise (or if you do end up auto-X'ing or tracking it).

Visually, I'm not at all crazy about 20's. Styling is all about proportion and, to me, they are still a little bit oversize for a car, and this was best described by somebody else something like "if I look at the car and all I see is wheel . . ."). OE brakes tend to look too small. The car wouldn't really even want 18's if Ford had been a bit subdued with the wheel opening sizes (4th gen F-bodies did just fine with 275/40-17's).

I think body color has a lot to do with it, too. Dark cars, especially black ones tolerate a larger "fender gap" better than contrasting light colors simply because the boundary of the gap is not as distinct. At a glance, the body color, the dark wheelwell, and the tire sort of blend into each other a bit and you do not see hard lines.


Norm

 

Yes, they are. You would think at the expense of ruggedness, but DAMN I'd love to see how the suspension/car responds with those!

 

i got my 20s for a number of reasons. A. I had the first set of the black 20" with polished lip shelby razors in the united states. B. I nothing else, at the time, would fit over my Baer brakes, C. they look freakin amazing. I run 285 35 r20s on the street and i also road race and drag race my car with those, however I do have a set of 305 35r20 nitto 555r drags for when i mean buisness.

 

+1

They are for looks. The same reason you have a GT front on your V6. The same reason people put GT500 fronts on their GT, and every other appearance mod people tack on. I think they look awesome with the right wheel choice... so you loose a tiny bit of acceleration/braking, rah rah.

 

That's the first thing I noticed, those wheels are pretty damn light! I've been looking for some lightweight 17's, those are only 16.5 lbs! Leave it to somebody else to find it for me...