Smaller rims = better ride?

[alphatarget1]

No, not trying to rice up my subie, but I hit a piece of concrete in the middle of the road on one of the rims and it looks kind of messed up. I tried to avoid it but still managed to got a little piece of it. Maybe the rim is still good, but it just looks butt ugly.

Right now I have 17" rims. I was thinking if I get 16" rims instead the ride quality would improve? Any ideas/experiences?

 

[CRXican]

I wouldn't do it. Better tire choices in 17"

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Other things being equal it will generally yield a softer ride and slightly better acceleration (since smaller wheels will be somewhat lighter than larger ones), but it's up to you whether or not that is an improvement. If your car was designed around 17" wheels it may feel a little soft with 16" ones. I personally wouldn't make such a costly change based on a lone incident of hitting some road debris, but it's your car . . .

 

[MiataNC]

Engineers know what they are doing when they size a wheel to a given car.

While compromises are made across a model line (1-2 inch differences available as options), overall you want to stay within what the car was designed for.

In general a smaller wheel will be lighter (less metal, thus less mass), but you also add tire (taller sidewall) to make up the difference getting the correct final diameter.

My ex-roommate swapped his 17s for 15s on his MazdaSpeed Miata, because the 15 tire/wheel combo offered the best handling/feedback/stick on the track. We were both surprised and amused to discover the wheels weighed exactly the same with tires mounted.

 

[Arkaign]

Well, you could go 15's, and like he said ^^, the tires will have taller sidewalls to make up for the difference in wheel size, meaning the distance from the center of the hub to the tire touching the ground should be virtually identical measurements to the stock 17's.

15's are dirt cheap to buy, and the taller sidewall will mean the ride will indeed be softer, quieter, and more comfortable. At the same time, the added 'give' in the taller sidewall will mean reduced performance and handling. If you don't push your car to 100% at one time or another, and don't race it, this probably doesn't matter, and getting decent tires for ~$50-$70/ea will be a big savings over quality 17" tires.

16" is kind of a rare size, and tire prices can be worse than the far more common 17" size. Really common passenger car tire sizes are 14", 15", 17", and 18". 16", 19", and 20" are a bit less common.

 

[brblx]

what kind of car is this, and what size tire?

 

[kalrith]

Originally posted by: MiataNC
My ex-roommate swapped his 17s for 15s on his MazdaSpeed Miata, because the 15 tire/wheel combo offered the best handling/feedback/stick on the track. We were both surprised and amused to discover the wheels weighed exactly the same with tires mounted.

I'm calling shens on this, unless your ex-roommate picked some really porky wheels and tires when compared to the stock ones. If you take comparable (or better yet, the exact same) wheels and tires in 15" and 17" sizes, then the 15" ones will always be lighter than the 17" ones. Take the Miata, for example. 205/55R15 tires are only 1.61% smaller than 205/45R17 (stock size for new Miata Grand Touring), so they're plenty close enough for swapping between the two on the same vehicle. The Yokohama S.Drive is a tire that comes in both sizes. The 205/55R15 weighs 22.55 lbs., and the 205/45R17 weighs 22.05 lbs. On tirerack I found some nice light wheels (Enkei Racing RPF1) that come in both 15x7 and 17x7 (to keep it comparable). The 15" weighs 9.9 lbs., and the 17" weighs 14.6 lbs. Swapping between these exact same wheel-and-tire sets with the same width and overall diameter would change the unsprung weight by 16.8 lbs. with the 15" being lighter. The difference increases to 22 lbs. if you choose a heavy wheel like the O.Z. Canova.