Custom Wheels Weight

After you know what wheels and tires fit well with your car, how do you actually go about picking the right ones?
Almost any time you increase the size of your wheels, you will also increase weight of your wheels. That’s simple. However, what isn’t so simple is what more weight can do to your car’s handling and acceleration. The first term you have to know to understand wheel weight is “unsprung weight.” This is defined as weight that is not suspended/sprung by the car’s suspension (the wheels, tires, brakes, hub, calipers, etc). It is always best to buy the lightest weight wheels available, because the lighter the wheel, the less work the suspension has to do in order to turn and go through its normal motions. This can improve handling, and lighter weight wheels can also help your acceleration. This is where the second term you need to know comes in: “rotational inertia.” Lets say that your car has 14in wheels and you want to upgrade to a set of 17s. These wheels will almost always weigh more then the original 14s, and will not allow as much of the car’s power to reach the ground. This is because the engine has to do more work accelerating the heavier wheels then accelerating the car itself. But how much weight is too much? A good rule of thumb is that any wheel that weighs over 30 lbs. is too heavy, and will result in decreased performance. Larger wheels can also improve the looks of your car as well, but that is not a matter of science like unsprung weight or rotational inertia, but rather matter of personal taste.