16" vs 17"?

[cgrahams]

Just looking for opinions...sold my stock wheels and am looking for some either 16"s or 17"s for spring. I noticed after putting on my snows that my car felt a little zippier(I guess the steelies are lighter than the stocks?) Anyway, I'm going to go lightweight either way but I' kinda torn between 16 or 17. Can anyone from experience tell me if they noticed a big difference after going to 17's as far as loss of acceleration? I don't want to go backwards as far as acceleration-I know that I'll be improving my handling with better rubber than stock..........anyway opinions would be GREATLY appreciated guys!

Thanks!

[TheBigGuyRy]

Just put new 17s on a few days ago...

To be honest man, if there was any loss in acceleration, I haven't felt it, and I'm picky about that stuff.

But then again, I don't feel like my handling has improved much either... oh well at least it looks pretty :D

[william]

I bought 16"s becasue I like to autox and go to the track for lapping days. But to be honest, If i could go back, I would have gone with 17"s

[raiyo]

I would go with 16s. Reason is because you don't lose acceleration over 17. Some people might say they don't feel a difference. If you go a 1/4 mile and time it, u will see a difference. The good part about 17s tend to hang better than 16s. So it's up to u if you want to lose speed vs handling. Another plus on 16s is that u can get bigger sidewalls (which wont throw the speedometer off) so u won't scratch your rims as easy as some 40-45 series. Lets not forget 16s will be lighter than 17s if its the same model.

[Dunrick]

i went from 17 to 16, and there is a much better performance difference, specially going into tight turns and flooring it. the weight difference is noticed too on top end

[BSEVEER]

What's interesting though is that some 16 inch tires weigh more than 17 inch tires of the same width. This must be because of they use more material to make the sidewall larger. This whole 16 vs 17 weight issue is still not clear to me.

[tom3]

How about ride comfort? Is there much of a difference between 16" and 17"? Would you feel the road (potholes and all) a lot more if you went with 17" wheels?

[raiyo]

Originally posted by tom3
How about ride comfort? Is there much of a difference between 16" and 17"? Would you feel the road (potholes and all) a lot more if you went with 17" wheels?

If I remember correctly, the bigger the rims the more harsh/road noise you're gonna feel, but it hangs better over smaller size rims.

[JoshSI]

Originally posted by tom3
How about ride comfort? Is there much of a difference between 16" and 17"? Would you feel the road (potholes and all) a lot more if you went with 17" wheels?

The more tire the more give. So 16s should have a better ride then 17s.

I went with 16s for multiple reasons! They are very lightweight and I wanted to actually have some tire on there. I dont like huge wheels and little rubber band tires. Rims and tires are very important especially from a performance stand point. If you are into show and not much go then i would recommend the 17s. But if you wanna make your car performe like the Si models should. Then you should get some lightweight 16s with some grippy tires. I dont regret my choice one bit!!!!