Lighter wheels = faster car.

[Lapister]

So true about shedding rotational mass weight. I came from the 350z world where I went from 25 lb-18s down to 18lb -18s from Rays Volks and the car was totally transformed. Lighter on its feet, it danced around like a Gazelle compared to the old pig with Oem wheels. Another point to keep in mind - all tires are not equal in weight. When I made the change I found that Potenza 040 were 2 lbs heavier than the Hankook Evo-12 in same size. Naturally I went with Evos, little sacrifice in performance but overall it freed up some few ponies that were very noticeable according to my Butt Dyno!

I love my Boxster and would love to enhance the asthetics with 18s but I just can't get myself to do it cause of this. I'm running OEM 17s. Once you get used to the HP you have, it's hard to give it up for looks.

[Fintro11]

Originally Posted by Lapister

So true about shedding rotational mass weight. I came from the 350z world where I went from 25 lb-18s down to 18lb -18s from Rays Volks and the car was totally transformed. Lighter on its feet, it danced around like a Gazelle compared to the old pig with Oem wheels. Another point to keep in mind - all tires are not equal in weight. When I made the change I found that Potenza 040 were 2 lbs heavier than the Hankook Evo-12 in same size. Naturally I went with Evos, little sacrifice in performance but overall it freed up some few ponies that were very noticeable according to my Butt Dyno!

I love my Boxster and would love to enhance the asthetics with 18s but I just can't get myself to do it cause of this. I'm running OEM 17s. Once you get used to the HP you have, it's hard to give it up for looks.

would be interesting to find the weight difference between the 17" oem and the 18" Carrera classic's haven't been able to find anything

[tommy583]

Originally Posted by Fintro11

would be interesting to find the weight difference between the 17" oem and the 18" Carrera classic's haven't been able to find anything

According to what I can find. Going from the 17 inch turbo twists I have on my car now to 18 inch Carrera lite wheels, will save me 15 lbs. I don't know how accurate these weights are so YMMV.

[PaulE]

Originally Posted by tommy583

According to what I can find. Going from the 17 inch turbo twists I have on my car now to 18 inch Carrera lite wheels, will save me 15 lbs. I don't know how accurate these weights are so YMMV.

My '03 S came with the 18 inch 5 spoke Carrera Lightweight wheels. I also have set of 5 double spoke 17 inch wheels that were standard on the 2003 Boxsters. My 18 inch wheels have Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 N-3 tires, and the 17 inch wheels have Toyo Proxes T1 Sport tires. Interestingly, to me anyway, was that there was no real weight savings with the 17 inch wheels and tires compared to the 18s. 1 front 17 was 41.4 lbs vs 1 front 18 at 41.6 lbs. At the rear, 1 17 was 46.8 lbs and 1 18 was 48 lbs. The 17 inch tires were brand new, the 18s were not - 18,500 miles on the front tires and 5,700 miles on the rears, but still have lots of tread left on all of them. All of the tire sizes for the 17's and 18's were OEM stock. Not exactly apples to apples with different tire brands and one set being brand new and the other set not, but I think the bigger rubber on the 18's cancels out the weight savings on the lightweight Carrera wheels.

[tommy583]

Originally Posted by PaulE

My '03 S came with the 18 inch 5 spoke Carrera Lightweight wheels. I also have set of 5 double spoke 17 inch wheels that were standard on the 2003 Boxsters. My 18 inch wheels have Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 N-3 tires, and the 17 inch wheels have Toyo Proxes T1 Sport tires. Interestingly, to me anyway, was that there was no real weight savings with the 17 inch wheels and tires compared to the 18s. 1 front 17 was 41.4 lbs vs 1 front 18 at 41.6 lbs. At the rear, 1 17 was 46.8 lbs and 1 18 was 48 lbs. The 17 inch tires were brand new, the 18s were not - 18,500 miles on the front tires and 5,700 miles on the rears, but still have lots of tread left on all of them. All of the tire sizes for the 17's and 18's were OEM stock. Not exactly apples to apples with different tire brands and one set being brand new and the other set not, but I think the bigger rubber on the 18's cancels out the weight savings on the lightweight Carrera wheels.

My calculations are with using the same brand tire. Hankook v12. The 18 inch tires are only a pound or so heavier than the 17 inch ones according to Tire rack. Most of the weight savings in the wheels is on the rear ones.