It was not an easy thing to do and I started regreting it at first. I was kinda shocked at first to see my car back on stock 15's. As long as I have owned the car it's been on 17's. I actually bought the rims before I took delivery of the car and only rode on the stockers for a couple days.

Of course the looks department took a bit of a hit, but over all I am happy I did it. I shed a total of 56lbs of unsprung weight!! I could tell the difference in acceleration right away. My 17" wheel/tire combo was 53lbs and my 15" combo is 39lbs. It's not only the weight, but now the weight is much closer to the hub. It's really fun to drive.

The best part about it is my ride is sooo much more comfortable. It would be hard to know your riding in a car with Eibachs. I can hardly feel the bumps that used to shake the whole car. That increased side wall makes all the difference in the world.

I also thought handleing would be drastically different, but it's really not. I have to push the car real hard in order to tell any difference at all. I put new 215/60 R15 Potenza RE950's on the stockers which were the same tires I had on the 17's but those were 235/45 R17. I took the car out last night after work for some spirited driving and really did not miss the 17's at all.

I might go with some lower springs and 5-10 mm spacers to make up for the loss in looks. If I have to ride on stockers there is probably no other rim I would rather do it on then the forged BBS mesh style wheels that the 96 I30t comes with. At 14lbs a piece these are some sweet stock wheels.

In a perfect world I would love to have some super light 17's but my pocket book does not allow for me to spend 1K+ on rims alone so this is the best alternative. All in all I am happy. If others are in the same boat as I was, sick of riding on heavy *** large diameterwheels and a fairly harsh ride dont' be scared to go back to stock, or even some aftermarket light 15's or 16. Smaller wheels with a decent drop and sticky tires is a good set up. Now my car is even more of a sleeper.....and I like it that way.

 

But you still don't have SAWBLADES, everyone knows Sawblades own all in performance, looks and in ride.

 

Haha, j/k

Being a sleeper is good. Saving weight is good. When are your hopes of going to the track?

 

haha. you know this man.

 

I am going for sure on april 17th but might try and sneak out there on the 3rd as well. I forgot to mention that another reason I switched was that I hated swaping out the front wheels to my millenia rims everytime I went to the track. It kinda botherd me that I was not as fast in my street trim that I was when I went to the track. Now I have a faster street trim set up and I can use my milleina wheels for just my slicks. I have a goal of running 13's all motor in full street trim and this really helps get me there.

 

I was gonna ask about the Millenia wheels, guess that answers that. What's your current best?

 

14.19 @98mph. I pulled that on an perfect track day, high 30's low 40 degrees and the track was real sticky. I probably need another solid .3 and another great weather day inorder for it to happen.

 

Funny you should post this I was just weighing my tires/wheels yesterday.

Stock 17's = 51 lbs
Millenia's with cheap tires = 29 lbs
Kosei K1's with slicks = 25 lbs

I am going to do some experimenting this year with rears as well. I do believe you but I am not quite convinced the lighter rears don't help somewhat, I will have to prove it to myself. I will post when I test. I am also working on another setup for the rear which will be much lighter and somewhat radical and controversial.

The difference overall between my street and strip setup is 96 lbs.

 

Rear-end weight reduction and then donut spares?

 

Tires have to be speed rated to be legal at the track, donut tires arent. You are partly right though.

 

Of course going back to your 15s will help in the ride. My buddy had 18s on his stock suspensioned max and ran on 225/40s and the ride was HARSH. I mean you felt every single rut, pebble, etc etc. Rode worse than my car. He went back to his 15inch sawblades and is way happier.

Im glad i rode in his car because it really shed some light. Theres no way i could get rims now, especially since im lowered. The ride would be just to uncomfortable.


Oh, and i definately see 13s coming for you!





Eric

 

 

Carbon fiber rims

 

yeap. rotation energy + weight difference

 

I hope you prove me wrong. Logically it makes sense that it should be the same, or close to the same as the front wheels, but it just wasn't for me.

 

I'm running 15" on my max. Got these about two years ago with a huge discount. Bought them with carbon-fiber center caps.

I drive on some reallllly bad roads and the sidewall height really makes a huge difference.

An old racer friend always told me... "The key to speed is controlling unsprung weight."

 

I went from 17x8 momo arrows ,back to my sawblades. Now I have a set of 15x7 kosei k-1's going on friday.

 

Here is some pics I took today. Car and wheels are dirty, sorry. I think if I get some lower springs then my current Eibachs and maybe some 10mm spacers it will look better.

 

im ridin on 18s and lowered with sprints and on gr2 my ride isnt that unbareable. i actually like the ride i also used to have 15x7 primax rims they were ugly but i like them. im goin to get some good grippin tires for them and use them as my drag wheels.

 

Funny you should post this...i did the same thing. I took off my 19 MODA R6s to reduce weight from the car for my first track appearance (haven't gone yet). The aftermarket wheels made my car feel sluggish and slow. The stockies are a world of a difference in the looks department from the R6s but make me a hellva lot faster.

 

Mike, this is why it's so hard for me to go out and invest in wheels. I want my car to keep the explosive feeling with the 15's. The only thing is that you lose about 2 to 3 mph at around 75 or 80.

 

can't see the pics

At least this gives me an excuse to stick with my sawblades, other than my poor taste

 

damn imagestation

 

Switch to Cardomain. It's easy and everyone can post from it.

I weighed my 17" ASA LS5s with mostly bald Sumitomo HTR+ 235/45s. They weighed in a 39lbs. I then weighed one of my 15" blades with new 215/60 Sumitomo HTRs and they came in at 43lbs. Even though my 17s are a bit lighter, the extra inertial mass and added drag from the .75" wider tires do suck out about 1mph from my trap speeds. The 17s don't seem to suck out any ET though. I'm getting 225/50 Kuhmo KH11s (P-Zero knockoffs) put on the 17s right now. I imagine I'll gains a few lbs of mass from the full tread.


Dave

 

That is a light 17" combo. My stock 15's with the new 215/60 RE950 weighs 39lbs as well. I only use Bridgestone tires for certin reasons, they are great tires but on the heavy side. The 215/60 950's weigh 25lbs. I bet that same size tire is 20-22lbs form a different company. What do the stock saw blades weigh?

 

I recently filled up my mountain bikes tires which were pretty low and the handling is much better but I can REALLY tell the difference in acceleration. It's much harder to get going fast now. It really hit home to me how much rotational mass matters. This is just compressed air we're talking about here.

I don't have time to look up how much compressed air at a given pressure weighs, but if you have heavy tires at 40 psi, all that weight is farther from the center than almost any part of the rim itself, so it matters more than the rim.

Obviously the tire and air weighs considerably less than even titanium (although Ti is pretty damn light), but what I'm getting at here is, very light 17s with lower profile tires could end up being equal or lighter than stock 15s with high-profile tires with twice the air. Dave B's 39-lb 17 inchers save 16 pounds of actual weight over the sawblades. The question is how much rotational mass are you gaining with the 17s? If you figure it out, I'm sure more than 16 pounds, but with very light 17 inch rims and light low-profile tires, you might be surprised at how little of a performance hit you're taking.

 

Sawbladez rool!

 

The sawblades are 16 1/2 lbs.

And I have a set for sale

 

Mike-

I was swapping the BBS for my Milles in the parking lot and was amazed at how easily I coudl lift the stock rims. I wish that they were a bit wider. I like the looks of my Mille rims a lot, but the weight of the BBS makes me almost want to get some nice 15" tires and sell the Milles.

I thing that 10mm spacers would help you out a lot. How wide were your 17s? My 16's are 7.5 and the BBS are 6.5, so to be even on the outside edge I would need a 1" spacer, PLUS the offset difference of almost 10mm (might only be 5mm).

 

Sawblades prob would look good on an I30

 

My 17's were 7.5" wide with a 40mm offset. I found out that H&R does not make 10mm spacers, only 5,15,20,25. I think I will go with 15mm in the rear and 5mm in the front. The spacers are not cheap, it will be $150 for all four.

That will still not bring my 15's out to where my 17's were, but I just don't feel comfortable running anything more than 15mm spacers.

You were complaining about ride quality. Sound like you might really like the BBS with some nice sticky tires.

 

Saw blades don't deserve to be an I30's spare tire.

 

Yeah, btu the Milles look a lot better. I am thinking it all over now, though...I may go back to 15"s w/ good tires...

 

When I decided to get rid of my 17's I went with a set of 3rd gen RX-7 wheels. 16x8 and 16 lbs. sounded good to me. I've never regretted changing. These rims can be picked up on ebay relatively cheap too. There's 2 sets on there right now for $250.

 

I got my new 225/50R17 Kuhmo KH11s installed today. They're pretty nice, good looking, and I'm surprised at how well they ride for not having been heat cycled. The combo weighs about 41lbs. I did gain about .4" of tire diameter going from the 235/45R17 (full tread measure) to the 225/50. I also lost about .5" in sectional width (8.6" vs 9.1"). The slightly taller and narrower tire should help improve the ride and possibly handling. My 17X7 ASA LS5 rims weigh 17lbs each according to the Tirerack. That means the KH11s with air weigh ~24lbs.

Mike, post up some new pics 15s. I dying to see what it looks like. And you're right, sawblades would never do a I30 justice. The only thing I really like about my sawblades is the ride, but for looks they're not at the top of my list.


Dave

 

Try getting the URL or the pic from the properties then opening the pics in a new window. It workes for me. If you do get to show up imagine how it would look a tad lower and the rear wheels brought out flush in the wheel well.

The intial shock of seeing my car of 15's has wore off and it does not bother me at all anymore. I like the way it is and am happy with my decision.

 

Mike, I have 4 spacers sitting in my garage off of my brothers old Max. Let me know if you want then.

 

best balance for a 4th gen is some lightweight 16s. with nice rubber.. cheap, still light and a little bigger than 15s which look like crap on 4th gens..

 

 

Did you get my PM.....have not heard from ya.