GR Yaris Wheel Weight and it's Impacts

It gets worse. There is this thing going around claiming light wheels save as much as 10% fuel/electricity. When I point out the physics I get called for ignorant....

Lighter is nice, can improve steering feel. But can also mess upp suspension especially if it was already overdampened. Once shed 6kg from each wheel on my GT86 or 1/3rd, and the car became undriveable. Way overdamped and no directional stability at high speeds...

On the other end, once had 26kg winter 18" with studs, and it made wonders for comfort and high speed drift stabilty on the GRY....

Nowadays, I aim for a little lighter with aftermarket wheels, but generally staying around the OEM weight (despite going wider....). This is including tyre weight btw...
 
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Stubbornly, I’m still sticking with my original statement 😊. It was an interesting video which is worth watching for sure.

Going from >20kg 20” OEM Audi wheels on my B8.5 S4 to <10kg 18” Enkei RPF1’s, the difference is night & day. The directional feedback/control, weight of steering, longevity of the tyres & control arm bushes…

Seems best suited to handle the roads in my area.

Launching from a standstill with strong, light smaller diameter wheels with a tuned AWD makes for a lot of fun. If he was to repeat the tests in the video from standstill & using an AWD vehicle, it’d be interesting. From experience, heavier wheels seemed to destroy tyre life & are detrimental to performance. 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
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GRavy_Baby said:
Stubbornly, I’m still sticking with my original statement 😊. It was an interesting video which is worth watching for sure.

Going from >20kg 20” OEM Audi wheels on my B8.5 S4 to <10kg 18” Enkei RPF1’s, the difference is night & day. The directional feedback/control, weight of steering, longevity of the tyres & control arm bushes…

Seems best suited to handle the roads in my area.

Launching from a standstill with strong, light smaller diameter wheels with a tuned AWD makes for a lot of fun. If he was to repeat the tests in the video from standstill & using an AWD vehicle, it’d be interesting. From experience, heavier wheels seemed to destroy tyre life & are detrimental to performance. 🤷🏻‍♂️
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>20kg is quite extreme. And on a flawed chassi with underdamped dampers and weak bushings, it can indeed do wonders with light rims.

Also note just going down to 18" from 20", same weight, reduces rotational inertia with ~20%, on a 20kg wheel equivalent of dropping 4kg/corner.

What 18' tires were that, probably better ones too?

Wheels and tires matter. At one point I had 6 sets for GRY... Just make a reasoned assement, and realised that dropping 1kg maybe isn't worth 4000£ whatever... But dropping 10kg and downsizing for 2000£ and saving on tires could be a smart move for sure....
 
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I changed cast wheels to lighter forged and run flats to UHP tyres on a 5 series. The suspension response was night and day improved. On a car with comfort oriented dampers the lighter wheels and tyres fixed the dynamics.
 
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I did the opposite. I ruined one of my Lancers by fitting wheels I bought purely on how they looked. The steering got heavier, the ride worse, and the combined effect was to suck a lot of the joy out of the driving experience.

With the Yaris I went slightly lighter than OEM and I'm glad I did. I get the point of going too light though as the dampers and springs are specced to go with the standard setup and changing that a lot in either direction will likely ruin things.

I watched the vid and I get that it doesn't make much/any difference to lap times, but I still maintain the subjective feel on the road is going to be much more noticeable than on a smooth track.
 
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LittleMav said:
Ok then, with my actual 3 sets and thinking about the 4th, I am still in a reasonable range. 👌🏻
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Haha, borderline.
But really, tires are like shoes, they are important and you only wear one at a time. And if you pick up used wheels and have the space to keep them, it doesn't even have to cost much.
 
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From my research it seems manufacturers are actually adding some weight back into aftermarket rims in order to add rigidity rather than chasing the lightest wheel possible. Most modern rim designs seem to be slightly heavier than previous models.
 
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