Unfortunately the performance in braking will be around 2% to 3% increase also. Think of braking as dissipating the kinetic energy through drum and disc brakes from a certain speed to rest.

 

The gains are roughly the same all around. You can't expect much when you're talking about </=1% of the car's gross weight. However, the point is that taking the weight off of the unsprung components (more specifically, the rotating ones) will offer more performance gain pound per pound.

 

We have 9.3 lb wheels and saw only statistical difference with 185/55x16 tires compared with stock wheels. But when we mounted 175/60x15's on 3 lb heavier wheels but 2 lb lighter tires the difference in acceleraton was noticeable. Reduced 11.8 sec 60 to 100 by .8 seconds. Both the 175/65x15 and 185/55x16 tires are 24" in diameter and inflated to 32 psigh.
Lighter tires make more difference than lighter wheels in acceleration tho not necessarily on cornering..
cheers.

 

Exactly why I have 15 Lb. tires on my 9.5 Lb.wheels... There are tires that have far more grip but they are heavy and weigh much more.. I don't mind sliding around a little bit and I enjoy the smoother ride as well as the other benefits that light weight touring tires afford me... I just don't even try to keep up with JCrimson around curves on very smooth concrete surfaced roads... I learned the limit of adhesion of my tires in a very scary manner that day.

 

How much do the cdm LX Fit wheels weight? The civic hybrid looking ones.

 

It totally makes sense. The mass of the tire is near the edge, therefore larger mass moment of inertia comparing with the same weight of a wheel. Therefore it translates to more performance gain.

 

So ideally we are shooting for lighter than stock wheels (<18 lbs for sport) to ease the work the suspension needs to do in relation to a heavier wheel, but more importantly, a lighter tire to help with acceleration.

A good setup would keep the majority of the rotating mass close to the hub. So 17 inch wheels (though lighter than stock) with 18lb tires (about the same as the stock Dunlops) would see no performance gains in terms of acceleration and breaking, and may in fact hurt performance as the mass is now a little further out than stock.

Is that about right?

 

No one has explained my acceleration and gas mileage gains with a lighter wheel and heavier tire.

I suppose the extra inch on the tire would account for the extra pound, and the only gain I realize is 5-6 pounds over the stock rims.

 

Since the gvw is exerted on the tires I thought I would share something you can do to determine approximately how much weight is being placed on each individual tire. Not that anyone would ever do it or want to, but its pretty cool.

If you take the footprint of the tire...The amount of surface pressing on the pavement at rest. Use strips of cardboard or paper and place them tight around all sides of the tire. tape them together with exception of one side so you can get the paper out.

measure the footprint in inches and multiply L x W

Take the air pressure of the tire and multiply the psi by the sq. in. of the footprint and this should be close to the actual weight bearing on that tire and you can also do all 4 tires and add them together for the total gvw. should be close.

I would also like to add when I sit in my fit I add another 210lb.

 

Before I'm called out on this...I meant to say the actual vehicle weight and not the gross vehicle weight. I should learn to read what I type.

 

Hi,,,im ben,a swiss living in chiang mai,thailand.i have a ge8 and i saved around 50 kg on my jazz.wheel and tire 16 kg alone. A formula1 enginier once said on tv...for every kg u save on the wheel tire combo,u have to 4x save the weight on the body. Sorry for my english.but every weight saved is importent. Go and run on the beach with hikingshoes.ok ?? Take care

 

Cheapest way to save weight from the car:

Driver mod.

Lose some weight.