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Originally Posted by SimpleS14
DJPimpFlex - Dunno man, I've noticed an increase in handling performance when I put the 17s on my car. Also...they do make lightweight wheels that compensate for the size of the rim.
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The increase is the less tire deflection because of the smaller side wall. This is irrelevent on a real race car, and IMO not worth the extra hassel over 16" rims on a S13. S14's are great with 17" rims because they dont have the same poor travel in the suspension as a S13 does, so they can get away with it and get slightly better performance out of street tires. If they were racing they would be unnessicary because of the extremely stiff sidewalls in r compound and racing slick tires.
Also if you can get a light weight 17" rim, you can get an even lighter 16" rim.
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Originally Posted by North240
Right but you ignored the fact that this is a street car and is driven daily not on r compounds so to get less tire deflection and actually get a better feel from your uber jdm coilovers ( or in his case way to stiff megans) you need a bigger wheel.
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OK to clarify I'm talking about S13's primarily(it also applys to S14's, but only with 18's). The lack of suspension travel (espically in the front) makes the larger wheel more problematic than helpful. You can get a lower roll center and have no clearence problems and correct linkage angles. If you put 17" (or god forbid 18" rims) on a S13 you are doing more harm than good performance wise. ALL YOU ARE GAINING IS LESS TIRE DEFLECTION. Now weigh that against everything bad that comes from bigger wheels.
More weight
decreased acceleration speed
increased brakeing distance
increase tendancy to have brake fade
rubbing (cutting throught the infumous harness in the driver side wheel well)
more expensive tires
I would rather PSI my tires a little bit more or strech my tires on a wider rims to help with the deflection with street tires. That is why I only run 16" rims.