Quote:
Originally Posted by eVitO
I can answer some of your questions. Your first one with weight of the wheel: wheels weight is UNsprung weight, which makes a huge difference in total performance of the car with a couple pounds of difference in either direction.
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Thank you. I see the point about unsprung mass. I guess lighter wheels means less work for the suspension when there are imperfections on the road surface = smoother ride?
We have 17" steel hubs with 225/50 R17 tires on our BMW. 225/50 means rim is 50% of 225 = 113mm. So handling would improve by dropping the hub size to 16" alloy and putting 225/60 R16 tires on..?? (60% of 225 =135 so diameter would be a little big smaller but almost the same - 99.5% of present)
Quote:
Originally Posted by eVitO
Moving from 17" to 19" would mean that you're getting a tire w/ a smaller sidewall, which is what absorbs a lot of energy from the bumps on the road. Which takes me to your next question: all of those tire sizes decrease in sidewall size, which is what affects ride stiffness or harshness. I don't think tire width has anything to do with it, just the sidewall width. Maybe some tire guru can expand on that and I may be wrong with that too, but I don't think tire width makes a difference.
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I think the tires I quoted for the last part are constant RIM. I wanted to assess the effect of the hub only (increasing or decreasing means you have to change the rim size to keep the wheel diameter similar)