trpower7 wrote:I absolutely agree with that, my big point is that you can't blow $1000-$1500 on a set of rims and think you are the stuff. People dismiss cars around here all the time because they have hubs and they are more modified than their bling bling ever hopes to be. I am saying I am pissed off on the guys that drive around thinking their car is big stuff cause it might have rims, a CAI and exhuast. And I am sick of people laughing at MY car because I have chose to put my money into getting it back to pristine running order and upgrade parts that matter. And $800 is still almost halfway towards a CA18DET

I definetly agree on gettin your car up to par. This is why I haven't sweated rims yet. I need a few upgrades first. And I still kick @ss with stock!:fight I see where your coming from and you are 100% right. Some peopl don't know any better or just don't care about about maintenance or upgrades. Shame.

Hey guys, while we are one the subject, I am looking for a strong light weight 17" wheel. I need the larger wheel to fit my planned brake upgrade. I would like to keep my unsprung mass as close to stock as possible. Any idea's? What does the stock steel wheel weigh?

OLU40 wrote: Maine whatever LEARN TO READ BETWEEN THE LINES!!!! Any idiot knows you don't buy a jeep with the intention of hitting corners for 100+mph turns. C'mon THINK A LITTLE. We are talking about visuals. And please don't insult me by tring to educate me on SUV's, wheel travell, yada, yada, yada. We all know that manufacture's send these vehicles out with 15's-16's for a reason. HOWEVER THEY RESEARCH THE DEMOGRAPHICS. 85-90% of SUV buyers DO NOT GO OFF-ROAD. THEY USE THEM FOR STREET APPLICATIONS ONLY. In the street bigger wheels and tires handle better period. This is why manufactures are bumping up the size. Looks yes, but they are trying to engineer these cars to take bigger sizes to prevent peopl from spending money outside the dealership to do it themselves.

I wasn't trying to insult you or start a flame war. But you provided misinformation and I don't see anything wrong with correcting it. You said Jeeps (or sport-utility vehicles) are SUPPOSED to have 20+" wheels, and you are wrong. Only sport-utes that are fashioned to appeal to a specific market of trend enthusiasts come with such large diameter rims. And yes, I'm sure skid pad results are better with low-pro tires on large wheels. My question is this, with a higher center of gravity would you rather slide laterally, or have your tires grip and roll that pig over!? But anyway, equating the performance of a sports-car with that of a huge sport-ute that weighs twice as much, and sits far higher is just foolish. My point was that Jeeps are NOT designed to have large rims, they ARE designed to have significant "wheel gap" and that you shouldn't use them as an example of why "bling bling" wheels are better. Enough said.

Looks, Looks, Looks. If I want to go off road, obviously I wouldn't go that route. I intend my jeep to stay on pavement. Therefore it is irelevant the size because if I get tires that big it means I could care less. Who wants to take an Escalade off road? Jeeeez! This is my opinion when I say supposed to have.... Small rims on jeeps are stupid looking in my opinion. Idon't want something on my jeep I can find on a Sentra. Nuff said!

I want to take an Escalade off road!!!! And the first thing I'll do is install a 6" Trailmaster suspension lift, ditch the 19" rims and buy some 16s with 33" BFG mud terrain tires!!! Then I'll still get high-centered because the damn thing is too long to roll over anything bigger than a mole hill!! Not to mention the useless aproach and departure angles. Your point is (and has been) well taken. I said I agree, but I'll use Nismo-Freaks analogy.. your comparing apples to oranges that look like apples.. I know you mean looks, I was just making the point that a Nissan car doesn't equate to ANY on or off-road sport ute... regardless of wheel size. Sorry to rant and b**** about this pointless BS!

With all the talk about sport-utes this post is starting to smell like my girlfriend's pu$$y.

I hope that is a compliment!!!:boink

OLU40 wrote: But I rock a 94'. So going up 2 or 3 inches ain't gonna hurt. We have plent members here with 17's with no complaints (Palmer, etc). Guys any feedback? We visited this briefly on the old site.

Exactly! With a 93 J30 there's room for improvement. Todays cars come with larger 17-18" wheels and those wheels have a lot of engineering in them. They're guaranteed strong, they're lighter and they're made just for that car. If i owned a new car i would definately leave the stock wheels. (unless i auto-x it. then i'll need seperate wheels with some soft rubber on 'em) The 17's i place on my J obviously affected ride quality, but I expected that and everyone should expect that when increasing wheel size. it's unavoidable. in the end i got a lower profile tire which created quicker turn in response and allowed me to put on some nice rubber helping grip considerably. did i mention i like the way it looks a lot.

trpower7 wrote:I fully understand the handling improvements of better wheels, but you think if that was why people wanted them they would just mass produce large, wide thin sidewall tire oriented wheels. I think it is almost a totally prestige thing, I highly doubt someone with 18' super nice Advans would have a $2500 edge over me.

well on a 240, a nice set of wheels and a good set of tires in a stock car will not be in much of a disadvantage cmopared to another stock 240 with steel wheels, intake, headers and exhaust. the differences are minors tenths of a second. with a good driver, on a road coarse, you WILL see the $1000+ advantage over your car. on the other note, there are people who need to go with 17s or 18s for their cars. my car is putting 420hp to the wheels so i went with 18x10s in the rear. with my old setup of 17x8 and 16x7, all i did was spin them all day long. think of wheels and tires like going to play basketball goofy looking rubber boots, compared to a low profile, lightweight hightop.

:bandit That's all I was trying to say. My car is not engineered for 17's or 18's but I have to sacrifice to get the desired results (handling/looks). What size tires do you have Mayhem?

This is a great thread! Two points:

1) Most of the vehicles you see in SCCA racing events run 13-15" rims, with 50+ series tires. 18"and up with 45-series and lower are simply for looks - Any increase in handling due to wider contact patch is offset by the added weight.

2) ANY SET OF ALLOYS under $1800 is of questionable quality. (I can hear everyone freaking out because "that's not what the ad in SportCompactCar said!" Bottom line is there is no oversight or national standard that's worth a crap for wheel strength or fitment (or even ROUNDNESS, for God's sake) in the US. If a manufacturer can make a real shiny aluminum wheel with a cool design that he can sell for $200 each, you can bet it cost $20 to make. SCARY.

I laugh when I see those ads for wheel and tire packages for $899... Beware!!!

p.s. I don't like the looks of hubcaps either, but I respect the viewpoint that the $$$ is better spent on REAL performance upgrades. $2000 in engine mods in ANY Nissan makes for a more formidable opponent.

BTW, I run 1999 Q45 alloys with 245/50/16 Z-rated Yokohama's on myt 95 Q45t, mostly for looks and the rear-wheel traction benefits of increased tread width.

AZhitman wrote:This is a great thread! Two points:

ANY SET OF ALLOYS under $1800 is of questionable quality. (I can hear everyone freaking out because "that's not what the ad in SportCompactCar said!" Bottom line is there is no oversight or national standard that's worth a crap for wheel strength or fitment (or even ROUNDNESS, for God's sake) in the US. If a manufacturer can make a real shiny aluminum wheel with a cool design that he can sell for $200 each, you can bet it cost $20 to make. SCARY.

i totally agree. i paid good money for my wheels, and you can seee the quality difference. we get some faxes here from distributors whoring out wheels at $599 and sometimes less for wheels and tires. one thing though, if you are going to get a set of $1200 wheels, and a set of $800 wheels, there is not much difference in quality. doing research lat year, i found out where alot of the wheel companies are getting their stuff made. i was shocked, even some reputable names out there. the markup margin is insane. just becareful out there people.

Hitman, that is not true. Rims in NYC are cheap if you know where to look and their quality is not diminished. This is the land of schemes. Only special designs are expensive. But you can find gret deals here. NY is like no other. Everybody elses play by the book. Not here.

OOPS - I forgot - NYC's the center of the universe... (JK).

Cheap is a relative term. The point I was trying to make is this: It costs approximately $100 per wheel to develop a QUALITY rim, JUST FOR the raw materials and the machining (more or less depending on volume produced). The markup on rims must be AT LEAST 250-300% for the mfr to make $, so you're looking at approx $1500 for a GOOD set of rims.

As far as NYC being the exception, you must remember that we are very near the border to Mexico, and crap (key word) can be had very cheaply here as well, especially with the declining economy both here and in Mex.

A good example of the absolute minimum quality alloy wheels out there (which have the added benefit also of being pretty light) are the new forged alloys from CenterLine.

You must remember that all wheels have a load rating which may OR MAY NOT be sufficient for your purposes. Straight line driving is one thing, but even a lightweight car is capable of bending many aftermarket alloys in spirited driving.

All I'm saying is BEWARE of the el cheapo's you see, especially the "wheel and tire package" specials, and those made by 'no-name' manufacturers. If they're not good enough for racers (OZ, CenterLine, Fittipaldi, BBS, etc), they're not good enough for us.

If they fell off Guido's truck between the Hudson Bridge and the warehouse, then you're getting a smoking deal...

ps - OLU, your car looks SWEET!

i just realized im jumping in on a heated debate on rims but i had a point on suspension... even though it does a lot cosmetically for a car, i think the performance benifits of an adjustable suspendion are far greater... if youre into drag racing, a tighter spring rate on the back wheels. if youre into autocross, stiffer all the way around. and even the ability to turn it down for a hot a** date or something, so she doesnt get shaken out of the damn chair when you hit a bump. its one of the first things ive got lined up for my s14. hell, even off road suspension will give you more performance than looks... chrome blades and all that could look alright on your hooptie of choice, but it sure as hell wont get you into/out of a turn faster or make you handle any better.

p.s. and im not even starting to debate the benefits of a race-inspired wheel.. you all seem to have that covered. later.

Here's the real deal. Dude's get the rims to get the chicks. I went up to a popular ricer hangout to check out the cars. This girl comes up to me and asks if I'm not too old to be hangin' out. I wanted to backhand her 16yr old a$$ but thought better of it. She asked me where my car was and I pointed to it she asked me if I was going to get rims. Rims? No, I'd rather spend my money on the engine so that I can scream down the quarter mile. I also have a Camaro w/ 3:73's small block 400 posi lift bars quad projection unit that's programmable and shift kit w/ hurst his/hers shifter and I'm still working on it. Her response? "Does it have rims?" So there you have it. Rims gets chicks faster than a sleeper w/ mega power.

YRUSOSLO... dude check out my post entitled.... "Why people do what they do".... and read my post... you have just proved one part of my theory

Thanks for the compliment Hitman. You are crazy!!! Of the truck from Guido??!! Ha! That is what I really meant. Nah but you are right about quality. I am definetly gonna be careful. I am leaning mor towards 17's based on ypu guys experience. You car looks hot with those 97+ rims. You look about 7 foot on there!!!

Freak, thanks for making me learn how to use the search engine:rolleyes YOu hit the nail on the head man. I'm more go than show and one thing about the 240 is that I can park it anywhere and not really care if it gets a little ding. My Go and Show Camaro gets parked all the way on the other end of the parking lot. So bling bling w/ the rims if you want but dont drive up a curb:pface

Yea man anytime...

Thanks for the props OLU. Great looking Q again. I love that color (too hot for AZ).

Can't wait to see her with some clean 17's.

Dude, you sound like a 85 Mustang owner talking about imports:

you:"I LOVE my steel wheels and hubcaps, they look fine, and do their job. I would also like a set of STOCK alloys, but I'm sure not going to go out and spend $1500-$2000 so I can be "rollin on some 18's"

Mustang owner:"I don't understand all the hootin and hollerin about a supra so they can be "2 fast 2 furious", my 85 mustang with bondo and primer and a 5.0 cost only 500 dollars and it can beat anything on the strip, and it only cost me 750 dollars! "

But I don't like sports cars with heavy 20 inch "party platters" with bells and whistles on sports cars..

wow. this thread got dug up after over a year. :alcoholic

AZhitman wrote:

:Werd