just wondering... the GTS comes w/ 18in Aluminum alloy rims where as the ES comes w/ 16in Aluminum alloy rims (the DE comes w/ steel rims so nvm them) basically my question is... seeing as the GTS has tires that are 2" bigger... doesn't that just add extra weight... and unless i'm mistaken weight in the wheels is exponentially bigger then weight on the frame of a car... hence wouldn't the 16" rims be better as far as performance goes? i have a feeling i'm probably wrong somewhere and that 18" is better for some reason i can't think of... anyone wanna help me out here? =)
the ES and DE come with 16" rims...not 15...larger rims sometimes adds weight unless you get lighter rims. I would imagine this isn't a big deal cause the GTS sells more than the rest of the line does
oops, i mean 16" don't know y i kept saying 15"... edit time =) but ya... i'm just wondering (completely trivial) if the 16" are better then the 18"... i'm guessing the difference is completely negligible but there is a difference... of course correct me if i'm wrong if the 18" are in the end better for some reason i don't know... or if the difference is noticeable because like i said... weight in the rims are exponentially greater then weight in the frame... i remember reading somewhere that even something minuet like 1 lb difference in a tire is a lot because it's 1lb per tire so 4lb together... then 4lb in the tire is like having an extra 10lb (completely made up that number) on the chassis
alright i figured it out... damn i'm slow lol... basically what it is... the GTS has 18" rims w/ lower profile tires (45%) and 215mm section width... where as the ES has 16" rims w/ 60% ratio and 205mm section... meaning that... both rims w/ the tire come out to 25.68" but the difference is that the ES has tires that are well... 1" thicker then the GTS... so i'm just gonna assume that since the tires are bigger on the ES then the GTS it is obviously also heavier... and well.. having a more weight on the outside of a wheel... more specifically the tire means a lot more then having more weight on the inside... anywayyy i'm getting lost on what i was saying... but basically the 18" rims on the GTS in fact is better then the 16" rims on the ES... or at least thats the conclusion i came up with if someone wants to finish off what i was saying in a more understandable manner, feel free to do so lol
rofl @ bras :lol: have you ever actually carried them 2 to make a comparison? i actually compared the DE (steelies) with the gts rims (my car is a DE and i bought gts wheels for it) and the DE wheels we significantly heavier than the gts wheels... my common sense says is the tires... you have a LOT more rubber going on in the DE than the gts wheels... and even if there IS a bug different i dont think it would matter with our cars
Wheel size matters most in terms of what you plan to do. I highly doubt you will be doing anything other than daily driving so all you need to worry about is that if you upgrade your wheels try to find something in a similar or lighter weight. If you get something heavier you will be changing the dynamics of the car for the worse (handling, weight, braking etc etc) Really want to know more? http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=51865 Read everything linked there. Itll give you info for whatever you really plan to do.
thats because ur DE wheels are steel where as GTS are aluminum alloy Density of Steel = 7.8 g/cm^3 Density of Aluminum = 2.7 g/cm^3 of course it's an Aluminum Alloy so it's only an approx... but ur talking about 1/3 the weight of steel... THATS why ur DE weight so much more then ur GTS... now what i was refering to in my original post were ES, not DE... because ES comes w/ the same aluminum alloy that the GTS does but w/ a smaller rim size... however the ES has a bigger tire... basically what i was saying before is this... if you know anything about physics, the worse place to have weight is far from the center... in this case the tires are the furthest most part of the wheel... and because of this... having a bigger tire and smaller rims is almost always worse then having big rims w/ small tires... since there'll be less weight on the outside of the wheels (smaller tires) which is what the GTS has... that is why the GTS tires are a lot better =) hopefully thats a little bit more understandable... lol it was like 5am last night when i posted this thread and i hadn't gone to sleep so i couldn't think lol
