Ok, been struggling with my wheel search for a couple weeks now, so figured I might as well absorb some insight from y'all here at Ecomodder. If you care enough to read all this and reply, thanks!
In December I sold my old, heavy 17" summer wheel and tire set. I'll miss the bling and handling, but well, that's just a part of the evolution of my car.
I settled on a 16" size for my new summer wheel/tire set. 15" is just too small for aesthetic and handling reasons; the jump to 16" is huge in both. 17" is too big. My goals for the new wheel set are: Lightweight, aesthetically pleasing, and aerodynamic (if possible).
I thought I had my wheel search finalized on these bad boys; only 14lbs and probably ok on aero (Rota slipstreams)
Unfortunately, Rota hasnt made this wheel in a while and no one can tell me when they will.
So, now I am nowhere. Almost everything I can find used is more like 20-22 lbs, which I'm not really too crazy about. Since this wheel set will last the life of my car and be used every year from April through October, why sacrifice my goals...?
So now I am looking into other lighweight wheels, except that all of them appear pretty awful on aero. Or do I not know what I'm talking about? These are only 15 lbs.... :
How about something like this? :
And finally, I could always grab some steel wheels and throw on some moon disc hub caps. This would be heavy (probably 22-25 lbs with caps) but best on aero.
So the question is, how to balance goals of aero and light weight? I do mostly highway driving, which I know negates the wheel weight considerably (still got 49 mpg on the 17s), but I am also modifying my engine for increased power and thus would very much appreciate the benefits of reduced unsprung weight and rotational inertia for accelerating.
Right now I'm driving on snow tires! This sucks! Its above freezing! My LRR Michelin 16" tires sitting in my garage right now are begging for some wheels to get mounted on!