wheel help

where can i find info on wheel weights. i need a 17" rim that will bolt up to my thirdgen that is very lightweight and looks somewhat decent if possible.

i can loose the looks if necessary....any ideas?

I know Brent Franker has a list of common wheel weights somewhere, hit him up.

The lightest OEM wheels for "these" cars that I ever heard of, were the 16x8" Enkei style wheels, 16 or 18 pounds a peice is what I heard. As for 17" though, your looking at 22-24 pounds for a standard wheel, I forget "exact" numbers though.

they must have lighter....i have to go 17 because of the front brakes....i suppose i could go smaller in the rear though, just might look funny but it's for the track so it doesn't have to be pretty. :)

Lighter exist, but not OEM. Lightest I can think of would be in the 16-18 pound range, and they are around $1800 a set, depending on size. The MFG would be Monocoque, but they do not sound good as far as time to ship goes. The guy I know who got a set waited 2 months, and was given a tracking number several times before actual shipment. However a Viper buddy of his got 4 sets within about 2 weeks from order date, in other words they cater to race teams not casual folks.

What I heard through the rumor mill though, was that some custom wheel MFGs are quitting due to not getting the type of aluminum stock that they use, due to the main MFG quitting making it. So the remainder of the stock was bought up by larger MFGs, leaving the little guy with nothing.

Supposedly this includes CCW, but I'd be interested to know if this were true or not, because I was looking at custom wheels myself in the future :( CCWs are not the lightest but they have a great reputation, and are still plenty light and strong.

From a Porsche site

In general, 4-5mm is sufficient thickness on street rims. For racing, a 3mm thickness is OK. On a roll-formed rim half, a minimum of 5mm thickness is suggested. Beware of thin or racing rim halves for street use...one good pothole is all it takes!

If this is for a road track, I'd be very careful to get a "track" wheel, not a "drag" or other wheel (which is most likely lighter). You need something strong for the track, as your wheels can take a beating. I've been there, I broke a "light" wheel on the track. Now I've got CCW's, and am much happier :)

Dave

For everyday driving, I'm sure these 17x9.5" Firehawk replicas for 3rd gens would be fine:

http://www.slponline.com/view_product.asp?PARTNUMBER=80035

those are heavy aren't they?

24 or 24.5 pounds each?, Brent may know or simply call SLP. Unless you want to pay another thousand bucks you aren't going to get lighter than that for the price, and again strength can be an issue if you try to get something built paper thin.

Are you AutoX ing or road racing or ? If you get big wheels, they will weigh more, thats pretty much the cost of putting bigger rubber on the car, the tradeoff is worth it IMO. You may find more weight savings in carefull tire buying than 2-3 pounds here or there in expensive wheels. Coil overs will help drop weight at each corner also, although not helping rotational mass of course.

why are people so against coilovers?

Dunno, there are several recent threads as to the + / -, some people just plain dont need them.

http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/fbody/weights.htm