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Overall weight is one factor to look at, and is probably the one most often
used because it is easy to measure the weight of an object. The real
factor is the wheel's moment of inertia. This can be described as the
wheel's resistance to motion. Many times what happens is people "+ size"
there wheels. Example: I went from the 15" inch factory wheels to 17"
Enkei's. While my 17" Enkei's may be lighter in overall weight, more of
that weight is now positioned on the outermost part of the wheel, thus
increasing the wheel's resistance to motion. A good example of the effects
of inertia can be found viewing figure skaters. They will begin a spin with
their arms spread wide, but as they become balanced, they will begine to
tuck their arms in towards their body, thus reducing their moment of
inertia. And as I am sure you have seen their rotational speed increases
substantially as they tuck their arms in more. Similarly with your wheels,
if the wheels have a high moment of inertia, it requires more work for them
to accelerate or deccelerate. Lighter wheels do improve suspension
responsiveness though, because there is less weight to move up and down,
thus your suspension should respond more quickly. So to recap, the overall
weight affects the suspension's responsiveness and the wheel's moment of
inertia effects the cars acceleration or decceleration.
Hope that helps some,
Bryan Pendleton
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Wieght ''o'' wheels
Oct 16 1999, 05:35 AM
