Is Wheel Weight Important? 

Cars and Coffee dudes be like saving 6oz per wheel to shave a thousandth of a second off pulling into their parking space.

I don't even bother running wheels, pure weight savings

I came to the same conclusion. I shaved 4lbs per wheel switching from the factory cast to monobloc forged wheels, and I didn't notice much difference driving around the street and canyons. I added too many mods at once to isolate the feedback of the lighter wheel by itself, but it didn't feel as drastic as I expected. My wallet was definitely lighter though! 😀

RPF1 solves all problems

I removed my stock mazda 5 five spoke, which weighed 24.9 lbs each. And installed a set of Miata club v spoke wheels that weighed 17.5 each, the difference in handling and grip was pretty noticeable. The real ride quality improved too , as did braking and turn in. If you can save 5 or More lbs per wheel you will feel the difference in a positive way. It looks better to with about a 10 mm offset that widens the stance.

In drag racing, a general rule used(for most average cars) is that any 100 lbs of mass removed from the car is worth 0.1 second off the 1/4 mile time. When it comes to rotational mass, every 25 lbs is worth 0.1 second as well. This includes all rotating items..... Wheels, tires, brakes, axles, driveshafts, flywheel, clutches, balancers, crankshaft..... It all adds up. However..... You still need enough material in these to do the job & do it safely. Is 1/2 lb of wheel weight going to affect the time, sure, not a lot, but if it costs hundreds of dollars or puts the part at risk of failure, it's not worth it to most.

But unsprung weight is also important because it reduces the effort of your suspension, making it more sensitive. When the wheel hits a bump, there is a lot more momentum for the spring and shock on the upstroke and a lot more effort to push back on the downstroke (inertia). Thus less strain and makes the suspension last longer. So it's kinda important as well?

Totally missed the most important aspect for a road car - ride quality. Heavier wheels won't move over bumps as easily, making a harsher ride. And this can play into suspension control too (taking longer to slow down, reverse and recontact the road).

I went from a cast Verde 19x8.5 wheel that weighs 31lbs to a flow formed Neuspeed Rse142 19x8.5 that weighs 22lbs and I gotta say it is a BIG difference. Now my car accelerates faster, brakes faster, steering is more responsive, and it corners better. Literally feels like as if 120+ lbs was taken off my car.

Biggest thing I noticed when I saved 5 poulds off a wheel in my car was the braking response. Felt way better.

Some people at autox run stock wheels just because we are cheap asses. Tires are more important than lighter weight wheels. Oh and driving time.

I tried light racing wheels on my MR2 SW20 and several things to note: 1. It would break traction in 1st, annoyingly so because that killed the awesome take-off traction it had. 2. Over potholes it was a dream. I could literally go over potholes at a decent speed and the suspension would just sort everything out. I eventually went back to the bigger heavier wheels. I guess with my particular setup and not taking into account wheel widths and compounds etc 1st gear would just hook reliably each and every time. Unfortunately potholes would sound like you crashed into something at anything faster than a crawl.

Bottom line... lighter is always better.

On my 2012 camaro SS I when from stock to Forgestar F14’s and save 8-10 pounds and it was pretty noticeable.

As a car guy but mainly a cyclist(the sporty overly serious type) i can really relate to that. Although i never heard somone say that unsprung mass is 15times worse than unsprung weight, many say that its at least a few multiple times. The rotational mass matters in my case more since the ratio between rider weight and power to the wheel weight is quite diffrent to cars. Many state that saving 300g on your wheels is like saving 600-900g on your frame. I can agree with twice the factor, but not more than that. For example: My old training wheelset weighs 2,1kg. My newer one 1,9kg. Apart from sightly higher stiffness, everything stays the same. But acceleration and tracking feels so much better. I could easily get some 1,2kg wheelsets that would make an even bigger diffrence. Unsprung mass is a bit more difficult. I changed from a very heavy 1,1kg front tire to a lighter 850g one. Fork stays the same. The suspension reacted noticeably better to smaller bumps and vibration, but bigger hits were just as uncomfortable. But im talking about very minor diffrences. You would have to have 500gish tires to really feel the unsprung mass get less. Sure, your suspension is working more, but is actually less active. In my eyes is the whole brabble about unsprung mass only for the ones that need to shave split seconds

I recently switched wheels up from 18x9 245 front/18x10 265 rear to 18x7.5 245 front/18x7.5 255 rear It was a profound difference in driveability and response of the motor. My first set of wheels were 120lbs for all 4 and my current set is only 84lbs total. So a big difference in unsprung weight (rotational mass) was achieved.

Unpopular opinion: just informing myself to see if it'll impact my mpgs positively

As someone just starting (kinda) with the car scene in general these kinds of channels are a gift from God himself. Do you know how much of googling and info collecting you saved me from? I love you all

Rotary forged is the best bang for the buck, dropped a tenth of second in the 1/4 mile after dropping 8lbs per wheel.

Cornering, acceleration and braking improved a lot after I switched from 25 lbs stock wheels to 17 lbs Konig Ultraform wheels on my Scion. I do not race, but my commute is way more enjoyable now.

I feel like the drift community has both types of people

I had a 98 Jetta that I put 17” tsw imolas on in place of the factory wheels. The handling felt better but it felt slower and took away about 7-8 mpg. Not sure what the weight difference was between the two but it must have been a bit to rob that many mpgs. I loved the look and kept them on for years, to me the look was more important than performance because it wasn’t a fast car anyway.

Great video guys, well done

Steeda did a dyno video on lighter wheels. Each wheel was 12 lbs lighter than stock and they gained 6 hp. Only 2 wheels running of coarse, so 24 lbs for the 2 wheels added 6 hp or 1/4 hp per pound

Sry didn't hear what you're talking about because of this spectacular NSX. Daaamn boi...

my commuter car is 2100lbs and has 94hp. my stock wheel and tire combination was around 60lbs per, I reduced this 33lbs each by switching to a forged set and lighter tires. The improvement in efficiency is noticeable as is the handling, and this is just a basic commuter car I drive like an old man.

Yes, wheel weight is important. A large, heavy flywheel is harder to spin from stationary and harder to stop once momentum is up than a smaller flywheel. I prefer smaller wheels generally (I like small, lightweight sportscars and zipping through forest roads - calling for constantly changing speeds and direction), but I do have to admit - bigger wheels allow for larger brakes and that is definitely a positive when high performance tuning.

I got a 2018 ram sport a few months ago. It came with the R/T style 22x9 wrapped in Fortera 285 45R22. They weigh in at 90 lbs each. I'd love to shave off some poundage. But there are so few options for a sport touring type concave style of wheel for a dodge ram. It's been lowered 3/5 so the big offroad wheels with a -50 offset are out of the question. LOL!

Went from 14in steel wheels with 195 all seasons, to 15in Enkei RPF01s with 205s and there was a noticeable difference in acceleration, braking and turn in. There was about an 11lb difference between the two setups.

I have a G37 IPL and when I got new tires that were 2 pounds lighter than before the first thing I noticed was how much lighter the steering got, so I can only imagine how much of a difference lighter wheels will make. They are 27 up front and 28 in the rear. Hopefully there will be some good black Friday sales this year......

When I bought my car it had 17s that weighed 24pounds each I got stock 14 inches and went with a slightly lighter than sock which is about 12 pounds each. And the improvement is dramatic. Before when I would Cruze and let go of the throttle I seen my speed drop like an anchor. But now that I have way much lighter wheels I gain speed easier and can coast without having my foot on the throttle. Saved me a lot of gas. As I’m handling I’m not sure about the heavier wheels wasn’t really driving aggressively when I first got the car. That was the first mod I did to my car. I remember looking at the car when I was buying it and thinking those rims have to go.

The thing is, the better driver your are and the more cars you start to drive, the more and more you feel the small changes in a car.

THANK YOU SO MUCH. I WILL USE MY STEEL WHEELS FOR NOW. THEN IN THE FUTURE UPGRADE TO AN ALLOY WHEEL. GREAT VIDEO AND EDUCATION. THANKS FOR SHARING. I LEARNED SO MUCH.

I used to have an SRT-4 and the difference between the stock wheels and the set of forged wheels I had for it WAS TREMENDOUS. They were 7 lbs lighter a piece than the stock wheels and that car was a handful with them lol.

I just replaced my factory wheels and tires (20x8.5 w/ 245/40R20 Potenza's) on my electric car with Enkei`s RPF1 18x8 and 235/50R18 Michelin Energy Saver's. My weight at each corner went from 65lbs to 43lbs. The resulting range improved by 30%-52% depending on my driving style at the time and oh... my acceleration is very noticeable. Although this is more of a racing/sport thread here, the fact that I have seen a dramatic improvement in efficiency confirms to me that weight does matter.

Something to consider in rotational mass is tire weight, something ppl don’t necessarily think about. A similar tire while 2lbs lighter will make more difference than saving 2lbs on a wheel due to the weight being further from the center

The benefits of lower unsprung weight is more noticeable on roads that are not as smooth. Less unsprung weight is easier for the dampers to accurately control. This translates to the tires making or maintaining better traction with the road surface. Lighter wheel/tire packages also have better gyroscopic properties (motorcyclist know this all to well) making it easier to transition steering angles.

Getting rid of heavy runflat tyres was the best thing I ever did.

I just recently found out that wheel weight is very important a month or two ago upgraded my wheels from 18 X 7 and 1/2 to 18 x 8 and that half an inch sure did a lot of weight my car now takes longer to to accelerate and my fuel economy has went down if I had known then what I know now I would have just stayed at the regular with

Great Video. gotta add with rotating mass, its way more noticeable effect with lower power vehicles, especially motorbikes and ebikes.

I noticed my car's absorbers worked a lot better when I changed to lightweight rims. On top of that I used to run 25mm spacers with stock rims and unsurprisingly it caused the wheels to lock up a lot due to how heavily it is, so much so the car had a bit of negative camber. Needless to say my abs no longer kicks in as often, with these new rims the car steers a lot faster, goes and stops quicker, the car bounces back to original height a lot quicker. Additional benefits include, better gas mileage, cool looking car. I think i shaved at least 8 pounds of weight off each wheel.

It's not only wheel weight. But the tire+wheel weight. I had 17x8 PF01 + 235/40R17 Ziis weight 43lb each corner, vs factory 17x7 and 205/45R17 potenza S04 weight 37lbs. Factory set up is noticeably lighter, engine have less load, rev up faster. Although I like the wide wheel look and ultimate lateral grip of my 17x8 set up, car feels faster with 17x7s. But I only had 160hp. If you have 500hp, I doubt you can feel the difference as much.

I went from 30lb wheel/tires to 35lb ones on a 2200lb 1991 Toyota AE92 and it was dramatically different. Acceleration was way slower and I started getting 24mpg down from 30mpg. Really surprised me. Granted the car only has around 100hp but the heavier setup really ruined the fun and zippy feel of the car around town and in the forest roads.

Thanks I enjoy your info

I changed wheels on my Golf R and saved 10 lbs a wheel (but the larger tires weighs more). I felt a difference!

Well like my truck you can drop about 7-10lbs wheel/tire with proper after market, and math for rotational mass for it works out to about 2.4to1 for every lb removed or equivalent non rot mass savings of 60-100lbs.

I imagine the strain heavier wheels can put on the drivetrain. The last think I want to have to worry about is snapping an axle.

You notice it when your car has a 800cc engine. xD

I like the points this video makes without getting too technical. Rotational mass or rather rotational inertia is important but at the point that most cars have more than enough torque to spin up four rims a majority of power goes to moving the mass of vehicle itself. On the unsprung weight argument i would agree that it will only be noticeable on a track as lower unsprung mass allows the suspension system to reacted faster to changes in the road surface and regain/retain traction especially at high speeds. A video on car suspension would be cool, especially focusing on the correct ways to lower your car as stock geometry cannot simply just paired with shorter springs or coilovers without sacrifice.

Keep up the great videos Fitment Industries !

Great info!

I run my car without oil and coolant to get the maximum poasiboe weight reduction

I would like to know more about the "fancy" stuff of the ratio of spring wieght

OEM: 225/60R18 @7" => 245/45R20 @8.5" that was a lighter wheel despite the size increase. It's not an exact 1:1 comparison because of different tire brand, size, width, etc. but the biggest thing I noticed was when the car was coasting on the highway (rolling w/o throttle), once up to speed, it took longer for the heavier wheels to slow down, and the lighter ones slowed down notably faster. 0-60 and 60-0 was not notably different. Initial testing of 60-0 was actually worse, but that may have had something to do with alignment and setups (more camber = worse braking). Cornering was also a big difference, but that had more to do with the width of tire than weight.

Could you please make a video about the weight mass for the turning of the wheel? I would like to know more about the weight distribution of different type of rims. Thats the part you were talking about it being better to be further away from the center of something. Thank you for the vids im just now getting into the car scene.

Great video. I'm not interested in more performance but cost savings vs Wheel weight. Could you do a video about this?

Dropped 10 pounds per corner on my G42 M240i xDrive and it's very noticeable in a good way.

Please do more "practical" videos like this over the normal show focussed stuff. I like both, but the functional topics are more useful.

I have these nice 18" 5 spoke polished centerline wheels from early 2000s. "Monsoon storm". Used to be on my first car a 96 z24 those things are LIGHT af. Like 16lbs each. I wish like hell theyd fit my 18 WRX I'd powdercoat them and slap em on 😅😅 You could totally tell with those things vs the stock 16s. That cavvy was a fun car. Hate fwd but was a great first car in many levels

the unsprung writeups i have seen are referring to rotational mass. i think it is the cute way of saying the things that spin and in that sense the reduction of rotational mass is greater then the static mass.

my oem wheels had 25kg per wheel and my aftermarket one are 13.5kg per wheel :D i think it did a difference

I had very light 15's and they spin WAY better then any wheels same size

Enkei states on their website that for each pound of unsprung weight saved its equivalent to 20 pounds of vehicle weight saved. There’s probably a limit to this but I’m guessing Enkei has done the research/testing. I just installed some 18x8 Advan Racing RS2’s on my 2013 Audi S4. I weighed the RS2’s without tyres and the stock wheels without tyres (same size 18x8) and they were 8.1kg and 12.7kg respectively. That’s 4.6kg per wheel or ~55% saved per wheel. I haven’t taken them for a decent drive yet because I just installed them today but even just driving home the car felt a tiny bit more responsive to throttle inputs. It could be all placebo but it felt good and they look way better than stock so I’m happy.

Great vids, as usual 😌

Thanks this is helpful, I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it to ditch my 24lb wheels or not. Wheels I’m looking at are 17lb so 28lb difference.

Rotational mass is key. Great to save weight with wheels, but look at the tires first. These factors seem to make a bigger difference with an AWD car. We've dyno'd lightweight Baer rotors, along with light wheels/tires in the Evolution community and saw consistent gains. On my own Evo IX, we dropped close to 35lbs of rotational mass. It's a difference you can feel. Not necessarily as speed, rather as a more nimble, more tossablle machine.

My daily is a painfully stock (so far) 03 Corolla. The stock 15 inch steel wheels are 20ish pounds each. Found a set of 15 inch Prius alloys that weigh around 14 pounds each. Removed the tires from the steel wheels and mounted them on the alloys, so only weight change was the wheels. Around ~6 pounds per wheel, 24ish pounds total reduction. There is a noticeable difference in ride comfort, braking, steering and acceleration, as well as a SMALL up tick in fuel economy. Obviously not a performance application or car, but the difference surprised me as my only goal was replacing the steel wheels for aesthetic reasons lol. For the ~$150 spent on the wheels, lugnuts and switching tires over, it was absolutely worth it for my purposes. I imagine for a purpose built car, fine adjustments with smaller amounts of weight could be beneficial, but at such a cost that it may be not worth it.

I bought new wheels and tires on my car😎. Tires were garbage on OEM wheels, I bought Continental DWS06 Tires, daily driver G35 coupe. great Summer rain winter combo. Sitting on Rohana RC10's.

Yes it matters!

Very important went from stock wheels which were aluminum to a heavier aftermarket wheel car changed completely on how it drove

I just put some new wheels on my WRX. They’re about 5 lbs lighter each. I noticed the car is a little more responsive. Would I do it again? Yes, the Motegi wheels I bought are only about $700 for the set and I don’t care about blingy bling or hella flush. @Fitment Industries if you guys haven’t done a video about the effects of wider wheels and aggressive offsets (tramlining and turning circle) please do!

Thank you! Most stock rims are cast rims and weigh in at 30 - 35lb. Going with a Rohana is 25lb. Thats 40lbs off rotational mass of the vehicle transmission fly wheel, and other related components. I wish you would of talked about that difference in the example? 35lb rims to a 25 lb. Correct to say it would add in speed take off and reduce engine/trans energy . That is pretty huge per wheel factor. I called FITMENT and talked to one of your guys about going with a 20 Rohana, and a 245 40 20 instead of a 245 35 20, to have more side wall for better driving and avoiding pot hole damage. It only adds a 1lb extra in tire weight, adds more revolutions in the tire revolution per mile, but saves 10 lbs per wheel= 40lbs total off the start...wouldn't that work just the same as going with a 245 35 20 and a heavy 20 inch rim? And wouldn't it be better to just stick with a lighter 19 inch rim, and 245 40 19 saving in rotation mass? Thank you!!

nice explanation

Did you test accelerating or maintaining speed going uphill or frequent stop and go?

On i30N the difference between stock and performance wheels of same size is 10-12 lb per wheel. I didn't weight the wheels, but even they say that wheels on project c version o.z. wheels are 22 kg(48.4 lb) lighter in total and the difference between last few pounds is doubled in price

I have oem style 44 Bmw alu wheels on my e46 coupe with 225/45 r17 tires.The mass of that wheel with tire is 21.1 kg.When I put winter tires (steel wheel/205/55 r16 mass is 17.1 kg)So....on that winter setup car is much easier to drive....better brakeing,better acceleration,better fuel economy.Only in corners is little bad for precision(winter tires are not good for sporty driving).So.....If you reduce rotacional mass.....you will be more happy with your car.

Rotational mass is EXTREMELY important. Rotational mass translates to rotational and gyroscopic inertia, my mortal enemies.

I always think about how wonderful would be to have 1 pound wheels!

Do a video on the Forgeline wheels. Most specifically the new carbon fiber series.

Yes, next!

Wheel weight would matter for both racers and eco junkies. I'd imagine a great long term fuel cost saving with lighter wheels. Those eco boxes also have tyres that aren't as wide which would reduce friction of the tyre against the road. At the expense of traction ofc

Nice cameo in the new dyoster media video Alex!

tires should go hand in hand with wheel weight do to side wall stiffness some cars suck with certain tires that are suppose to be amazing

there actually is a dyno proven ratio between shaving off static weight vs rotational mass and the ratio happened to be 1:8.4.

I got 50 ish lbs steel wheels, i think if i where to get some light weight monoblock forged wheels id feel like i have a brand new car

My rims are 25lbs per and I would like to go to 18lbs per not only for performance but because I don't like lugging fat ass rims around. I will be using my factory rims for winter tires and my new rims for summers. 6 to 7 pounds per wheel is pretty huge in the end that's a decent bit of weight. Edit: Apparently almost all the GTI stock rims are heavy.

I'm taking my wheel weights off. Too much unsprung weight. Jk....

I can also confirm using my dragy that every 25lb wheel weight is .1 / 1mph in the 1/4 mile

My car, if I don't move it like for 3 weeks or longer, all fluids are like gone. And when I start my car, I need 5 min to wait for them to like move in where they need. How do I know ? I once needed quickly go to city. And I didn't wait. Oooo that was a fun ride when you get a workout jus to drive into street.

Thank you sir.

Big one people don't realize, as you said. The furthest from the hub to greater the effect. What's furthers from the hub, the tire. Do tires vary in weight? Hell yes. You can shave 2-4lbs from the most crucial area of rotating mass.

Yes, wheel weight matters. It might shave .004 seconds off your 1/4 mile. Sometimes, that matters. But in the aspect of normal driving and just having fun, no, it doesn't help you in anyway. In fact having heavier wheels can be beneficial too.

There‘s a lad who did some tests with standard alloys vs OZ ultraleggera and he shaved 0.3 seconds off of a 3rd gear pull from 30-70mph. This is a very big difference; especially considering he did that with a fiat 124. check him out.

on my q50 i went from stock 32lbs to 24lbs and it was night and day difference!

What brands would you recommend as far as lightweight performance wheels? And actually make 20 inch wheels

Can you guys please make a video on which air bag suspension systems are the best

Went from 32lbs 18x10.5 235/40 to 17lbs 17x9 205/40 in the rear for drifting. I know it helped me spin the wheels easier, but by how much?

I=cMRR. I- the energy required to change the angular momentum of a rotating object, is equal to it's Mass, multiplied by it's Radius from the center if rotation Squared, multiplied by a constant that's determined by the shape of the object. In other words, diameter affects the amount of energy to accelerate and decelerate the wheel as well as mass. Since the general shape of the wheel/tire combination will not change much, the constant won't change. However radius and mass can be changed to some extent... Lighter weight wheels/tires that are of a diameter closer to the brake caliper will require less energy to accelerate and decelerate. So... those big, heavy wheels suck if you want to go fast or be efficient. Look at big rig tractor trailers.... They run alloy wheels because it saves fuel over millions of miles accelerating & decelerating that huge mass every time it moves. They don't just do it to look nice, it saves $$$ long term.

Had heavy af stock wheels, changed to lightweight forged wheels. No difference whatsoever, not even a measurable difference in acceleration 🙈 Might have been better in corners, but I didn't really notice any positive effect at all from them. Installed a lightweight flywheel on another car however, that made a huge difference

Would the weight savings be worth it for a forged 18" wheel vs a cast 16" if they were the same pattern/design. The billet being much lighter but further out. The biggest benefit would be more/bigger brake options for an otherwise unsupported 80s sports car.