16 or 17
 

was wondering what are the benefits of 16's over 17's? Any? I know the unsprung wieght of 16's is less. Handling the same?

Was thinking of using still a low profile tire, but do they look as nice as 17's under the fenders, or are 16's with low profiles too small?

thanks
rip

the wheel wells on a bug are huge! 17's fill it up more I am going with 18's on my project.

you got the basics of unsprung weight. using 16's with low profile tires is going to hose your gear ratio though and have you turning higher RPMs at lower speeds. 16's are great for autocrossing, etc but go with 17's for street for looks if nothing else. then again, you find some nice 16 Fuchs and that is a different story. :D

According to what Zen said about the tire's dimension use the following calculator www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html . I know its from the miata forum, but it still tells you what you ask it... LOL

The way I see it, the only performance based reason for increasing the wheel size would be to allow for larger brakes.

Some 17s are lighter than some 16s. (I don't know what "unsprung weight" means, so if there's a difference beween that and plopping wheels on a scale, I'm talking about the latter.)

I'm going with 16s. I think they'll have 45- or 50-series tires on it. I cannot imagine going with a lower profile tire would be beneficial in 99% of my driving. I can imagine the rougher ride of 17s having ill effects on the car's components -- or my components. :D

As for brakes, GTI brakes will work with 16s. Anything larger than that on a 1900-pound car has got to be overkill.

Larger wheels and brakes do increase the wow factor -- at least with me it does. There are just so many different road types where I live, I can't have the ow factor surpassing the wow factor, especially with minimal (at best) benefits.

oh like 4pot rx7 brakes :)

Well these RX7 brakes can be used with 16's easily, but was wondering is there any real differences between the 16 and 17's? other than looks. One is the unsprung wieght, plus 16 are usually got a lighter static wieght.

But 17's look cooler. Is the fender to tire clearance any better with 16's over 17's in a hard turn?

thanks for the help guys
rip


oh yea unsprung wieght plays into the idea that the bigger the wheel used, diameter, it's harder to get it rotating than a smaller radius. It has to do with angluar interia and moments.

oh yea what do you guys think of these?

http://www.enkei.com/PerfSpecPAGES/rs5Specs.html

the 16's are about 17.???

and the 17's are 20.1 lbs.

a bit heavy

Ahhh. try 39 lbs for an 18" X 10" rear rim... Thats a bit heavy... :laugh:

Just wait till you add the tire :eek: My 18x10 + 265/35/18 tire = 52 lbs !! :laugh:

Sandeep

I think mine weighed 48lbs with tires.
Almost makes you want to go get some forged wheels huh... Now I'll need a 2270 type 4 just to move the car... :laugh:

well the price for the 16's run about 150 USD. Not to bad. but they have the bolt pattern plus the about the size I want, they ain't no porsche twists but ... they'll do :D

it's odd though the 17's are cheaper, I guess they're just more common.

The nice thing with Enkei is they are Jap made, ask around and that's supposed to be good, they have high standards to follow or somthing. But they also are a OEM for companies like toyota, mazda, and a few others.

rip

Enkei makes the rims for Suzuki motorcycles. Right under the Suzuki "S" symbol on one of the spokes there is an "ENKEI" mark.

rip, keep in mind that there are many more tire options and brands in 17 than there are in are in 16. not a big deal, just factor it in when you make a decision. long term you can expect the 17 options to last a lot longer. 5-10 years down the road if you are still running it, you don't want to be limited in tire selection then anymore than you do now.

Unsprung weight is simply items that arn't 'sprung', ie everything below the suspension, wheels, hubs, disks, calipers etc..

true, I was just giving a general idea in terms of what to consider when purchasing a new wheel. The idea that a heavier wheel needs more force to move it. So the motor will work harder to move the extra weight when compared to a set of lighter wheels. But, yeah in a race situation ... well here I found this if you guys want to see it.

http://www.gmecca.com/byorc/dtipssuspension.html

they explain it well.

thanks for the opinions.
Rip

Rip,

Enkei are a huge after market wheel maker, In New Zealand we have a lot of Japanesse import cars and all the after market parts follow, Enkei are one of the premier wheel manufactures for drag, drift, track and road applications in the import world. If you are really concerned about wheel weight Enkei do a lot of light weight options, the funny thing is you pay more for less (weight).

18" wheels look outstanding on beetles.

To that end, I am going with the recently-purchased wheels below (BBS RX-II 16x6½ et42) but I am opting for 205/55-16 tires as they will have an overall diameter that will be very close to the same as the stock wheels and tires.
http://drivergear.vw.com/vw_assets/i...uct/2091_t.jpg