correct me if i'm wrong, but i think u can really improve performance with some lighter wheels/tires on this thing. most of the gains would come from going lighter at the drive wheels, right? minimal difference from lightening the front? not that i would only change the rear wheels or anything ; just wondering. also, lighter wheels wouldn't be anything like changing to a lighter flywheel, correct? i don't really want to change driving characteristics as much as that would. just looking for a little more response. thanks a lot.

 

Same benefit at the front as at the back. They both have to be accelerated (linearly and rotationally).

For performance gain you can actually detect (as opposed to placebo effect), you're likely to be dissappointed with lightweight wheels. For one thing, the stock AP1 wheels aren't all that heavy, and for another, the tire will contribute a lot more to the wheel/tire polar moment of inertia than the wheel does.

If you need or want new wheels anyway, of course get lightweight ones. But if you're specifically buying them for improved response, I think you'll be disappointed.

 

ZDan is right, the weight reduction will help just the same on both the front and rear wheels. However, I would disagree that the change is too slight to notice.

I just recently swapped my street tires from a set of lightweight rims (OZ Allegeritta) back to my OEM AP2 rims (about 5lbs/corner more) so that I could use the OZ's for my race tires. And the car feels substantially different. The acceleration hasn't changed much, but the increase in unsprung mass has made the ride a noticeably harsher, and much less stable over bumps.

 

The improvement in ride quality from lighter-weight wheels will be more noticeable than the improvement in acceleration for sure. While tire mass is a bigger driver of polar moment (which is the main resistance to acceleration) than wheel weight, the ride/handling benefit from reduced unsprung weight is strictly due to static weight, and doesn't care whether that weight is close to the axle or out at the tire tread.

Long/short, reduced wheel weight is a bigger boon to ride/handling than to acceleration.

 

thanks for the info, guys.

doing a little research on tire weights. looks like the lightest ones would be track/competition tires. would it be completely insane to have those on a weekend or evening fun-time car? i see myself only putting a few thousand miles on her a year. if i sound crazy, just yell at me.

 

Even though it's very tempting, don't buy tires based solely on weight, buy based on actual performance.

I'm a HUGE fan of minimizing weight, particularly unsprung and rotational weight, but I just bought a set of quite-heavy Dunlop Star Specs, because the performance is much better than any lighter-weight street tires available for the AP1. Well, except the Yokohama AD08's, but they're $165 more...

I definitely don't recommend running track/competition tires on the street! Though I have done it a few times going to/from events...

If you're willing to shell out a few extra bucks for less weight the Yoko AD08's are probably the way to go. 3 lb. per corner less than the Dunlops. Now that I think about it, I kinda wish I'd gone that route.

 

I agree with ZDan,

When it comes to tires buy the best tire for the price you can afford. Weight should not be a factor, performance should. When you think about it you can leave belts out of the tires and they would be light but sidewalls would lean in corners.