Can you feel different weight wheels

[yfz/700R]

Originally Posted by edevlin

So, I am a newbie to performance cars. I have wanted a Porsche since the late 1960's when I had a Karman Ghia and was thinking of putting a used Porsche engine in it. Over the years I have put up with family vehicles, including the emasculating mini-van.

But now I have my 2000 Boxster (for only six months now), oh happy man. The car came with 17" factory wheels that I put new Michellins on less than two months ago. I recently found some aftermarket Carrera 18" wheels with Falken tires, on ebay, and got them.

I just put the new wheels on today and they look great. I took it for a ride and I could tell a number of differences between the new and old wheels and tires, but what I seemed to notice was that the car did not seem as quick. As I understand it, my new tire/wheel combination should only add about 3 lbs/wheel of rotating mass to the car. Should you be able to feel a difference in the ability to accelerate quickly with 18" wheels compared to 17" wheels, thanks,

Ed

if your new wheels and tires are taller than your old ones it will slow you down