I want to buy some polished ZR1 replicas but I can't justify spending the money if it will slow me down.

I hear that bigger wheels/tires = rolling weight = loss of power. Has anyone actually experienced a loss? Anyone have numbers to prove it?

Anyone know the weights of salad shooters?

Thanks!

 

Yes this is true.
For example:
LIttle brother's 96 Z28 consisted of K&N FIPK, cutout, TB bypass and stock salad shooters with regular street tires. Best 1/4 time was 13.58 at like 103 or 104.
LIttle brother's car with everything the same except for 17 X 9.5 LG motorsports World Challenge wheels front/rear. Best he could muster was a 13.9 at like 102 mph.
Went back to salad shooters and back down to 13.5/13.6s.

 

I can't see justifying a couple tenths and a mph or two for the difference in looks. ZR1's compared to salad shooters isn't even a comparison. You can easily make that time up with another mod or two, and your car would still look great. Getting really fast times is when it gets hard to drop a few 10ths. Also if it's that big of a deal to you but you want some new rims just get draglites or something. Smaller,lighter,etc. Plus they still look good.

 

Get rim's for racing.. and rim's for the street/look's.. Thats the way most do it anyway..

 

If its the track thing your worried about keep the salad shooters and still buy the ZR1 switch them out when at the track.

 

Any other experiences anyone have? I changed from stock 16" 5 spokes to 17" WS6 rims. I really never paid attention, but luckily I still have my old ones. I can't believe you'd lose almost a half a second from something that seems so little.

Edit: Do you happen to know the weight differences in the the rims he had?

 

I was at the track when a guy was switching between 17x9.5 ZR1 style wheels and veggimatics for the rear only. He was consistently seeing a two tenth increase with the veggies on there. He'd put the ZR1 style wheels back on and lose two tenths for a couple runs. Put the veggies back on and gain the two tenths back.

 

That is soo far off it's funny. The OE weight for a '97-'99 18x9.5 is 21.5. Hell, the front '97-'99 wheel only weigh like 19 pounds. I don't see where people are getting an extra 7.5 pounds from .

 

So what are most guys using for there drag wheels? I sold my salad shooters a long time ago

 

Vettes have 18's in the back and 17's in the front, so the rear wheel is heavier.

 

Hence the 2.5 pound difference, not 10 pound difference.

 

FWIW...a stock 4th gen. WS6 wheel weighs in at 17.5 lbs....didn't see that on the list.

 

Salad shooters.

I sold my stock 5 star wheels to buy some ZR1's a few years ago then got a pair of salad shooters for the back and BFG dr's with 15x4 Telstars up front just for the track. You can pick up a pair of salad shooters for like $50 or less.

 

You could go with bigger wheels and a shorter sidewall on the tires and keep the same diameters.....that way you wouldn't be changing sizes, technically.

 

m*ther****er! I just had along reply typed up and I got a damn error message when I tried to post

Ok shortened version... I weighed some salad shooters with BFG drag radials @30% tread vs. some "real" ten spoke SS wheels with Eagle F1 tires @40% tread and the SS wheels/tires only weighed one pound more.

Maybe the aftermarket wheels weigh more? If there is any loss it has to be due to rolling resistance, but couldn't you negate most of that by putting more air in the tires?