I'm about to purchase a set of ap1 rims for real cheap and I was intending on using them for the track. I was reading another thread on this and the only thing that was suggested was getting tires with thicker/stronger side walls if I run ap1 rims. Is there anything else I should be aware of? Or does having ap1/16 effect the Ap2 handing negatively. Thanks.

 

I was in the same boat as you, after research I decided against ap1 wheels, it will affect the handling in a negative way, its best to stick with 17"s.

 

I wouldn't say it would affect the handling in a negative way. I have an AP1 and I have used both my Stock 16s and the AP2 V1s on the track to great success.

The down side to the AP1 is the size of the tire you can fit on the rim.

 

An autocrosser commented about doing better with 16" wheels than 17". I'm guessing what you give up in contact patch you gain back with slightly lower unsprung weight and lower polar moment of inertia. Circuit or touge racing may be another story though.

 

You can run them on the track with no problems. Fact is, on track tires, you won't lose much if anything in the way of width vs. AP2 17"ers. If you run Hoosier R6's, with the AP1 rims you'll likely run 225/50-16 F, 245/45-16 R. On AP2 you'd run 225/45-17 F, 245/40-17 R. Same width.

If you're going to be running street tires, you will be giving up some tread width (205F/225R in 16" vs. 225F/255R in 17"), but this isn't going to cost you anything like as much as the fact that you're running on street tires instead of R-compounds. If you're just looking to get track time, it's not going to be that big a deal.

 

Thanks for all the feed back!!!

 

If you have a FSB, run 225 front and 245 rear on the AP1 wheels.

 

[QUOTE=ZDan,Aug 24 2009, 02:35 AM] You can run them on the track with no problems.

 

Tire size availability enters into the picture as there are more 17" options than 16", at least in street high performance tires.

 

You can run 275's whether you're on AP1 or AP2 wheels (and people have done it in showroom stock AX), but in both cases you have to go to a taller tire (275/45-16, 275/40-17, both 3% taller than stock), and you're outside the recommended rim widths for both (by 1" for the AP1, .5" for the AP2)

Theoretically, yeah you could run a +10 to +20mm wider tire on the 8.5" AP2 rear wheels than on the 7.5" AP1 rears. But size availability is a limitation...

On Hoosiers, if you want to keep close to stock tire diameter and stay within the recommended rim width range, you'll be on 245's whether your on AP1 or AP2 wheels.