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Old 10-03-2016, 10:28 PM   #3 (permalink)
MPGee
'07 Toyota Matrix - 36MPG
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Southern California
Posts: 28

Small Red - '07 Toyota Matrix
90 day: 37.49 mpg (US)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ecky View Post
Food for thought, I went to a local junkyard and picked up 2 nice sets of alloy rims. One set was ~$60, and the other was ~$100. There were tons of 15" and 16" alloys available, and the weight savings would be something like 5-7lbs per wheel in the same size. Considering how little more a set of junkyard alloys would cost, why not do that instead?

I couldn't guess how much savings moving to a narrower profile would give you, but all else being equal, there would be gains from going thinner.
Thank you for not flogging me, Ecky. I was reading the chastising of another guy was getting for not searching first on another thread on this same subject at http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...omy-25121.html... lol.

Seems like the lower weight should help, judging by that thread. And as you question, in theory the narrower-ness (if I may coin a term) should help, but 10mm really is nothing...

The concerns I have w/ alloys is that I lose aero benefits from having a (mostly) solid & flat wheelcover. Those things are all spokes, as you get to the lightweight racing wheels, as best as I could tell. I guess I could bring my bathroom scale along w/ me to the junk yard to weigh them. lol. From what I could tell by searching Tirerack.com, just because it's alloy doesn't mean that it's necessarily gonna be any lighter...

I appreciate your suggestion though. I will keep that in mind and not rule out non-steel automatically.
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