Yeah its so marginal its not even worth mentioning. Also its the rear that matters, not the front when calculating the gear ratio and mileage.

Fact is, 16" are inferior in every way on paper and on the road. If someone likes them for arbitrary reasons such as thicker sidewall look, that's fine, to each their own. But you cant argue they are better on this car performance wise. I already laid out why in my past post along with others.

 

Well, there is the unsprung rotating weight thing? But, you are probably right on this if the driver is looking to eek out every ounce of high speed performance.
I'm using 17s now. I have used 16s in the past, both oem and bbs jdm. For street driving, I honestly don't think there is a hell of a lot of difference. My limited experience is that tire choice has a more significant impact than wheel diameter for the street driver like me. My current set up is Firestone Indy 500 tires on 17" s2k spec CE28n wheels. I don't want a harsh ride. This set up is not harsh. I like it. Plenty of performance for my needs. Not stiff. I can get the same out of a good light set of 16" wheels and the right tires.

 

The tire is the other part of the equation on weight, and considering you need a stiffer sidewall construction to offset the added sidewall height (which surely adds some weight) and tire weight has a larger impact on performance then the wheel because its the furthest point out from the center/hub. What/how many tires are available in 16" that offer oem/S02 sidewall stiffness in a proper width/size and favorable compound grip are things people need to really look at and consider.

17" are the sweet spot.

 

I know my back definitely preferred ap1 jdm bbs oem rims over the ap2v3 rims every time I had to remove my wheels, lol. I ran asymetric tread tires so I was rotating wheels side to side and moving the rims around a bit more than others might have. The Ap1 USDM oem rims weren't that much lighter than ap2 rims surprisingly.

I loved the look of the USDM ap1 rims in terms of design, if they would have made them in a 17 inch size they would have been perfect.

 

Too bad they don't make them anymore...

 

The Enkei F3 rims look decent, not quite as nice as the ap1's but at least they come in a 17 inch size. When searching for rims for my track car I found a very similar looking wheel as the USDM ap1's but they are only available in 14 inch sizing, 4x100 too lol. Maybe okay for an 80's Honda but not an S2000 lol. So close though.

 

awww...don't say that...they's the bees knees!

 

Measuring the wheel and tire together, my AP1 fronts are each 3.6 lbs lighter than my AP2v1s and the rears are 5.5 lbs lighter.

 

This thread has me thinking back to the Best Motoring video where they compared the performance impacts of the larger AP2 wheels to the smaller AP1 wheels. Based on that and much of the discussion here, I would guess that the truly skilled drivers are much less impacted by any negative impacts the smaller wheels have. I would imagine that someone like myself would likely benefit more from the larger wheels/tires than the next guy when I am really hustling along. But I do not likely push things enough most of the time that I would benefit from the difference. It is not like I am busting the rear end loose every time out.

My question would be if the smaller wheels/tires would make the handling any less predictable? As long as the predictability remained I doubt that I would have any problems with the smaller wheel/tire setup but if I was truly fixated on performance I would likely benefit more from the larger wheel/tire combo than a more skilled driver would.