the hunt for the perfect JDM wheel

meanmx · Postby **meanmx** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:26 pm

Alot of people on here are quite negative about 17's but in my experience they are an awesome mod. I had the stock 14's with good Bridgestone tyres before and they gave up the ghost pretty easily in corners. Most corners taken hardish had my arse end hanging out. Now with 205's on 17's I can push my car through a corner much harder. One thing though. The car does need to be lower otherwise the centre of gravity is too high but once I got new springs it was better than ever. As for being heavier, I don't think it will make a huge diiference in day to day driving. Maybe on a track where 1 or 2 seconds a lap counts. I feel I can make that up in cornering speeds though.

Ben

RaYmO · Postby **RaYmO** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:36 pm

I think 17\" fill up the guards perfectly

Boags · Postby **Boags** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:39 pm

Wider is different to bigger. I went from crappy heavy rims with 195/50/15 semislicks to super light rims with 195/50/15 chinese sports tyres. Grip is down (Obviously) but everything else is much nicer. In day to day driving is where I really notice it, because it is lighter to steer, doesn't track as much and is just generally more nimble.
Heavier rims will decrease your acceleration because the engine has to get more mass to spin. At the same time your brakes are going to heat up quicker trying to slow down all that extra inertia.

Lighter (not necessarily smaller) is better.

Boags

qikshift · Postby **qikshift** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:09 pm

totally... hence why i want to offload the heavy 17's currently that came with my car.. i think im just going to go for the lightest 17 i can afford .. and obviously the most jdm looking ;)

most likely work, enkie or something similar .. hunt continues. im really liking the enkie rpf1 at teh moment... in gold against the white duco ;)

veryyyyy niceeeeeee (borat voice)

lil_mike · Postby **lil_mike** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:41 pm

expect to pay a lot for 17\" light weight. i'm looking at around 3k for a set (without tyres) you really need to do some research on lightweight rims though, otherwise you could be stuck with a large number of problems.

Moggy · Postby **Moggy** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:33 pm

qikshift wrote:totally... hence why i want to offload the heavy 17's currently that came with my car.. i think im just going to go for the lightest 17 i can afford .. and obviously the most jdm looking ;)

most likely work, enkie or something similar .. hunt continues. im really liking the enkie rpf1 at teh moment... in gold against the white duco ;)

veryyyyy niceeeeeee (borat voice)

I think you're on the right track qikshift. If you get a light set of 17's they'll only weigh a kilo or two more than a set of 14's and will look waaay better IMO.

A lot of people on this site are anti-17, and I agree if you get a set of heavy ones (your average cheap 17 would weigh about 10kgs), but a light weight set that weigh around 7-7.5kgs aren't going to disturb your handling much.

I have a set of 17" Rays G-Games (6.9kgs each - see sig below

) on my car, and compared to the 14" Watanabes I had on it, the ride is slightly harsher (it's barely noticeable), but the grip is much better (with similar quality tyres).

And finally - small wheels just don't look right!

qikshift · Postby **qikshift** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:46 pm

i dont mind paying upto 3k for wheels thats my max budget for rims alone... as you can always sell them second hand later if you get sick of them etc..

money was made to be spent.. cant' take it to the grave ;)

if you don't mind be asking how much did you pay for your g-games.. i had looked at them but didn't realise they made 4x100 fitment .. pm me the price if you don't want to post it here .

cheers

Moggy · Postby **Moggy** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:22 pm

I paid $1300 second hand which I thought was reasonable.

If I was to fit a new set of wheels I would probably go with...

Rays 57S-Pro...

or Rays T57-RC

Fatty · Postby **Fatty** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:33 pm

wow. every time i see a hott fd rx7 i cum a little bit in my pants :oops:

Adam_NAclubman · Postby **Adam_NAclubman** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:44 pm

JDM look ISN'T big rims. Its normalish diameter rims with a fat offset to give a wicked stance. ie Babalouie's car

Buy my Buddyclub's :p Full-on JDM spec Yo!

qikshift · Postby **qikshift** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:00 pm

ahah well in my eyes as JDM stands for 'japanese domestic market', as far as im concerned any quality parts from japan which suit a japanese vechiles in my mind are considered JDM..

personally i think 17's with a nice width.. bit of a dish.. and a nice offest with lipped guards is very JDM

mmm yup moggy very nice, looking at the rays 57PRO (5 spokes) .. drool

rhysk · Postby **rhysk** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:44 pm

Moggy wrote:I think you're on the right track qikshift. If you get a light set of 17's they'll only weigh a kilo or two more than a set of 14's and will look waaay better IMO.

A lot of people on this site are anti-17, and I agree if you get a set of heavy ones (your average cheap 17 would weigh about 10kgs), but a light weight set that weigh around 7-7.5kgs aren't going to disturb your handling much.

The original NA wheels are 4.8 kg. Going from 4 to 8 kg is a big difference, in ride and handling. My NA had 14" track wheels with R-spec tyres, vs my street rubber on 16's, and the handling difference over mid corner bumps was amazing. My current car has 17's, which weigh 7.2 kg, but I'd love to get a set of 15" track rims.