I'm a total novice when it comes to tuning and I am trying to determine how wheel size effects handling, speed, etc.

What happens when you put bigger wheels on an evo and what happens when you put smaller wheels on an evo?

Thanks for the help!

 

you wanna stay around 17's and run 18's if u move up to slicks

 

It's called unsprung weight. It is weight that's not supported by the suspension and the more of it you have the worse it affects performance. Wheels, rotors, calipers, and parts of your suspension are all unsprung weight.

Think about spinning a bucket of water in your hand. The more water that is in it the harder it is to hold on to due to centrifigal force. Same happens with your wheels/rotors. So weight is the biggest concern when it comes to wheels and unsprung mass. The heavier your wheels the more work you suspension has to do to keep your tires planted on the ground.

Saying 18's to run slicks is ridiculous. You can run smaller weels with a wide tire just as you can run an 18 with wide tires. A 16" lightweight wheel will perform a lot better with slicks than an 18" with the same size tire.

 

BlackonBlack2 & Cirrusly Evolved,

Thanks for the explanations. This helps.

I've been reading a lot about unsprung weight and its effects on performance.

One thing I'm really fuzzy on is the performance differences betwen a 16" wheel vs. 17" wheel other than those having to do with unsprung weight.

I'm guessing that wheel diameter and width must have an effect on handling and performance

It seems as though for street the 17" is pretty common but on tracks some cars run fitted with 16" wheels.

Weight seems like one area in which the 16" wheel has an advantage but does the smaller wheel have a disadvantage?

Are the track guys running on slicks which factors into the 16" wheel? And a wider wheel too?

Bottom line, why wouldn't I want to put 16" (lighter) wheels on my evo for street use?

Again, total novice here. Sorry if any of the above constitutes a "dumb question".

Thanks!

 

16" wheels are stupid. Crappy tire choices and they might might not clear the Brembos.

You won't find anyone putting 16s on an Evo. 18" wheels aren't silly, the slick offerings are more diverse for 18" wheels.

For a daily driver 17" wheels are great. If you want more tire get a set of 17x9" wheels

 

CRX2EVO, I get the feeling he's not even talking about an Evo, since he keeps mentioning 16s. His listed car is not an Evo, so maybe he just came to an Evo site hoping to learn about rims?

OP, do you have an Evo or nto? If so, then don't even talk about 16s. We have 17s, because that's what we need to clear the calipers. You only go DOWN in size if you install a smaller set of brakes (calipers).

As for wheels and performance, unsprung weight is just one part of the whole equation. Wheels alone don't change performance that much, but you get certain sizes in order to fit certain tires, and it's the tires that make the biggest difference in performance. For instance, our stock Evo rims are 17X8, so the largest PROPER tire width for that rim is 245. Many of us do 255s, but we are not optimizing the contact patch of the tire. On my race setup, I have 18X9.5s with 285/30-18s. The 9.5s allowed me to go really wide with the tires while fully-utilizing the contact patch, and the 18s allowed me to get 30-profile tires, which help the tire not be too tall, so they fit inside the wheelwell. The rims are 19.5lbs each, which is about 2lbs heavier per wheel than my stock rims, so I have more unsprung weight (tires are heavier, too), but the difference in grip far outweighs (no pun intended) the change in unsprung weight.

 

i went with a 17x9 wheel myself , Comming from the Stock Wheels and tires , Going to these wheels wich are lighter , and fitting 255's with NO rubbing , Just makes the car handle like a a dream. It looks mean as a added bonus =)

 

wow 285's , What did you have to do for fitment for them.... and i thought 255's were pretty wide

 

Well, "handling like a dream" is probably not how your car is with 17X9s and 255s, but I'm sure it's a little better. To handle like a dream, you'd need much wider rims and tires, tires that are basically slicks, and a top-of-the-line suspension, so let's not get carried away when describing a mild wheel upgrade.

 

Nah, 255s are what most of us use for daily driving - RT-615s. No big deal there, and those are just street tires anyway. Those of us who race competitively tend to use 285/30-18 r-comps on wide 18" rims. To do this, we use spacers (size depending on setup), around -3.0 front camber, and rolled fenders.

 

Well comming from a 350whp FWD Eclipse , With 215/45/16

Going into an evo with 255/40/17 , With AWD , ACD , Brembo's.. So The car handles like a dream to ME on the street

and that wasn't my question I asked how you fit 285's onto the car.

 

And I answered...

 

yes, but with degrading like you usualy do. making yourself out to be better then 80% Of the people on this forum. Im not questioning your knowledge of anything , I know you are very knowlagable on most topics in here. You just have a way of presenting it that degrades us "noobies"

i said it feels like a dream to me , if thats what i feel , thats my opion , you have no right telling me how I feel. But im not trying to take over this thread i just had to get that off my chest iv been "Lurking" on here for serval months and have seen you post things like that multiple times

 

Your right, But, what you histate to understand..... like always..... is that your bringing your own experiance into it and talking down to the kid with a degrading way.


Your still picking on the new kids to make yourself feel better???

 

he's not picking on anyone

he's tired of repeating himself