Light wheels

[wez]

Hello All,

Are there any decent 18" lightweight wheels available for the supra, if so how much lighter are they and what affect on handling does reducing the weight of the wheels, brakes and suspension have.

http://www.mkivsupra.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/help.gif

[eyefi]

get some made http://www.imagewheels.co.uk/ have been recommended to me a few times.

most manufacturers do a "light" wheel, cant help with the particulars, but when i looked at the volk range alot of them were very light.

there is also a wheel weight list that someone has been compiling, knocking about on the net, cant find that at the moment. if a manufacturer is making a good light wheel, im sure they will make a song and dance about the spec though.

[Martin F]

There used to be a spreadsheet around somewhere with all the weights of popular wheels on. Have to see if i can find it anywhere.

[Rundie]

I've just got some Magnesium alloys, 18". I think they say they are about a third of the weight of normal aluminium alloys!!

Paul

[Chris Rocks]

Volk Gram Light 57Pro are supposed to be one of the lightest around.

fronts are sub 20 lb ~18lb and the rear ~20lb ( w/o tyres ) ?http://www.mkivsupra.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

BUT !!!!

apparently due to the material that i used to make them "super light", they are more prone to bending... http://www.mkivsupra.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

Volk do make excellent `light` wheels tho.

Daz Paynes Volk GT-N`s 18x12.5 rears were lighter than my 18x9.5 fronts.

This is off www.MKIV.com

a set of 93-97 polished stock rims were as follows:
fronts: 24.75lbs
rears: 26.55lbs

-c-

[alex h]

Off the shelf Volk are very light...Speedline are also light and I believe Enkei(sp?) produce lightweight offerings.

Unfortunately you "usuall" have to trade weight for style OR pay an extortionate premium.

The Carbon wrapped items featured on another BBS looked like a disaster waiting to happen...large pot hole, carbon shatters (doesn't bend or flex like an alloy) and then the alloy spoke deforms under the sudden stress (ie being too thin to take the load).

Magnesium Alloys are your best bet, if you can find beefy enough ones.

Thinking about it OZ do some mega light ones that look good too! Mag Chrono Evo or something like that which used to be OEM on the Lotus Esprit or the F1 Cup...I think

[Martin F]

Right found them.

http://www.audiworld.com/tech/wheel22.shtml

http://www.wheelweights.net/

[Chris Wilson]

Some of the more obscure Enkei rims are light (they make an absolutely ENORMOUS range of wheels, many of them re badged (did you know that Blitz rims are actually Enkei?) Speedline Corsa do a magnesium rim. I think OZ do, but getting road car stuff from OZ as a special order is a joke.
Easiest to get might be the Volk stuff, some are very light. Tecno Magnesio do a lot of race car rims, and also road car stuff, again, getting small batches is a bitch. Lightest 18 ince rims that actually fitted a Supra properly in all respects I have PERSONAL experience of were some Volk things. Very light, correct offset, correct centre bore hole diameter, not multi drilled to fit different stud patterns, and powder coated black so didn't need polishing http://www.mkivsupra.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Mark Browns Supra has some light alloys on it, I can't remember what they were, but they were correct and light, not mag though, and fitted over AP front 6 pot brake kist OK.

[dandan]

Hi Chris,

Bit of an odd comment this....

Can you remember my wheels? Gold 5 spokes on the gunmetal car you decatted a month or so ago. (remember there was some ceramics in the top cat?)

Just thought I'd bring this up, as you mentioned at the time they were a light wheel for the size.

WedsSport RS-5 Split Rims 18"

Regards

Dan

(ps going to Thor on sat so I'll let you know what difference the decat made http://www.mkivsupra.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif )

[Chris Wilson]

Quote[/b] (dandan @ Jan. 28 2004,11:51)]Hi Chris,

Bit of an odd comment this....

Can you remember my wheels? Gold 5 spokes on the gunmetal car you decatted a month or so ago. (remember there was some ceramics in the top cat?)

Just thought I'd bring this up, as you mentioned at the time they were a light wheel for the size.

WedsSport RS-5 Split Rims 18"

Regards

Dan

(ps going to Thor on sat so I'll let you know what difference the decat made http://www.mkivsupra.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif ?)
I think I do recall them, yes. I see some real boat anchor rims, and this really does spoil the handling, if you are buying new rims you MUST consider weight, and correct fit. On road cars ingeneral, with aftermarket rims, I see about 1 in 70 with correct spec rims fitted. 99.9% of wheel resellers haven't a CLUE what they are doing. As 99.9% of the buyers haven't either..... http://www.mkivsupra.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif It is very important to buy rims that are correct, it's about the easiest mod in the world to make, and one of the harder to get right.

[tlicense]

For what it's worth,

When I worked for Jordan, one of the vehicle dynamics chaps produced a pie chart of what a 10% improvemnt in all areas of the car would produce in relation to lap time.
Unsurprisingly, a 10% increase in tyre grip performance gave the largest time improvement, followed by aero, and then bhp.
A 10% reduction in unsprung mass counted something like 0.5% of the the lap time.
We used to spend weeksea, each season re-designing upright's to be lighter and stronger. After this we just built them to be as strong as poss (within reason of course), and left them unless other design factors were involved.
My point is I really wouldn't spend out to get "lighter alloys" over any other factor. Get Wheels that A) Are correct dimensionally, B) Are going to be strong enough and finally C) Look right with your car (Not strictly an "engineered" factor, but we all like what's pleaseing to the eye
http://www.mkivsupra.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif ?)

Regards

Tony License

[Chris Wilson]

Unsprung mass reduction on a car with preloaded, zero droop, insane spring rated suspension isn't going to be as beneficial as it is on something with (relatively) blancmange like suspension as a Supra road car. The fact road cars have rubber bushed suspension means the gyroscopic precession a heavy rim and tyre has is relatively unchecked. I might not work for Jordan, but honestly, it's VERY important and worthwhile on road cars. I am curious, what did you do at Jordans? A very good friend does some jig work for them, and I used to go to their factory quite often.

[Mark Brown]

The wheels Chris is referring to are Panasport, a USA co. They were on the car when I bought it 18" and just clear the AP brakes They have a web site Panasport.com.

I don't know, but have a feeling they are forged not cast, perhaps Chris may know.

Mark Brown

[tlicense]

Chris,

I was an Aeromechanical design engineer. I started in '98 left in 2000, went back in 2001 and left again in 2003. I now work for Williams doing the same job.
Unfortunately I would have never bumped into you though because the wind tunnel where I was base, is in Brackley (The old March/Comtech/Leighton house building) rather than the Silverstone main factory.
What's your mates name? If he worked in the DO I would have definitely known of him. If he worked on the shop floor possibly not.
Cheers