Tire and Wheel perf. Question

[Spartanic]

I know that if you upgrade your 13inch wheels and tires to 16 inches you could lose HP and Torque throughout the rpm band because of the increase in mass and rotation. But what if you were to upgrade to the lightweight 16 inch Volk TE-37's which weighs less than the steel OEM wheels? I know the engine would still have to deal with the increase in rotation but now that there's less weight what would be the tradeoff?

[89 IROC Z]

if you are that worried about performance then you should be upgrading to fit over a big set of brakes or to gain grip in the corners, not street use.

13's are freeking small lets face it, a jump to a 15 or even 16 can do some real good in the handling department. if the wheels are light of course it will help the overall performance of the car. if you are running a 165 or 185 width tire a jump to 205 will provide allot of grip with a good tire.

[klungemonger]

There is not necessarily an increase in overall diameter when you move to a larger wheel size. You just lower the aspect ratio of the tire to compensate. IF you've got 185/70R13, you can go to a 205/40R16 and have the same diameter and less weight too. The grip will increase, and equally important the steering responsiveness will improve dramatically.

One thing though that must be admitted is that even if the 16" wheel is the same weight as the 13" steel stock wheel, most of the wheel weight is in the outer ring so the weight is located farther from the hub center which is bad. But ultimately the performance gains in every other area far outweigh the very minor detriment it may cause. You'll never notice the drawback at all.