Hai. I have steel wheels on my old RR; 15x7 on front and 15x8 on the back. If I switched to aluminum, I think I could get 8-9 lbs lighter each corner.

If you have ever switched to lighter wheels, without making any other changes such as tire size or gears, did you notice any difference on the butt dyno?

I don't do any racing; just drive around on the street, but if lighter wheels would make it quicker and stop better, I would try them. Thanks.

You wouldn't notice the change.

The new Ford Mustang Shelby GT350-R with the 5.0L flat plane crank has carbon fiber wheels. These are substantially lighter than even the non "R" aluminum versions.
The lighter wheels allowed the car to accelerate 1.1 seconds faster from 50-70 mph. This comes at a very steep price though. The front wheels are $3400 each, the rears are over 4 grand apiece!

If your car is otherwise a total slug, then dont bother. But if its dialed in, then light rims/rollers improve EVERYTHING.

Okay. A 383 RR is not considered a fast car these days, but it's still quick enough to irritate people in modern cars.

I was thinking the way to get more out of it everywhere was either lose weight or more cubes, and more cubes is expensive. If you start playing around with cams and intake and all that, always a trade-off.

I would think 8-9lbs per wheel in rotating weight would be noticeable, and especially on the CF angle. I always wondered why city buses don't have Alum wheels (6?), since they start and stop nearly every block, for their entire life cycle and alum wheels them saves 40+? lbs per wheel, but fire trucks have them and they maybe move twice a day?

Maybe the steel wheel is more durable in that situation, going around all day on bad streets on a bus full of people. If it fails, it would probably bend but not break.

The formula is 100lbs= .10 in the 1/4 mile with a performance set up. Think you will notice that on a street car? You are only talking 32-36 lbs.

I agree but rotating weight might have greater effect.

It's works the same no matter where the weight comes from.

Do it for improved looks if nothing else, weight is a bonus.

Incorrect. Rotating weight has a greater effect. And the farther the weight from the axis, the greater the effect.

Look at the gain per dollar. Wheels and probably new tires @ $200. per corner minimum. For that same $800. you can get that sucker moving a lot quicker than new wheels and tires would.

Seems real interesting most race teams try to remove body and chassis weight rather than lighter wheels and tires. If I was going to spend a pocket full of cash to make my street car faster it wouldn't be spent on wheels and tires which wouldn't produce near as much performance as some engine or trans upgrades for the same bucks.

Shaving tires is an unseen performance advantage and with a significant cost downside , but where weight counts the most, besides it other benefits.

I agree that a swap to lighter wheels is probably not the best "bang for the buck", but the fact remains that reducing rotating weight has a greater effect than reducing an equal amount of fixed weight. And last time I looked, almost every race team used lighter wheels than stock.

Rotating weight is different and will make a bigger difference.

Please explain how it makes a bigger difference.

Every race team uses lighter chassis, bodies and interiors also.

I think you guys are confusing "rotating weight" with "unsprung weight". And generally, when teams take weight out of the car its usually because they've already reduced the unsprung weight as much as possible. And further to that point, weight is often shifted as opposed to removed - to change the center of gravity, etc..

So to the point of "rotating weight", this is more commonly referred to as "inertia" and would apply more to flywheels than to wheels and tires.



Hmmm ... I'll bet you a Nascar wheel weighs more than a stock wheel!


Anyway, the point isn't whether there is something to be gained from lighter wheels, the point is that there are greater gains to be made spending the same money elsewhere. For the price of a set of wheels and tires he could do a cam, intake and carb and possibly more if he bought good used and does the work himself.