gramercyjam Posted March 12, 2003 Share Posted March 12, 2003 What do you-all think of Circle wheels? Thinking of getting the 16X9.5 ones for autocross (http://www.circlekarting.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=CR&Product_Code=82695&Category_Code=16) and putting on 245/45-16 A3S03's. They list at $214.50 each. The 16X10 wheels jump the price up to $289.80 each. Yea, I'm cheap. --John B. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudge Posted March 12, 2003 Share Posted March 12, 2003 Yeah, for another 1/2" its pretty heft at about $300 for all four. I think the wheels look nicer and that is thier benefit, I forget the weight difference off hand. I heard about them on another board, I dont have alot of feedback honestly. I figure with the Z car being so doggon light I dont expect problems really. Side note, I heard on heavy cars the CCW wheels are flexing dramatically, this is rather dissapointing news, but were talking 3200-3600 pound cars with big race rubber, so again we are fortunate that this is mostly a non-issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ON3GO Posted March 12, 2003 Share Posted March 12, 2003 a friend of mine has those rims in black on his Z, works great, and not a bad price.. they stick out big time on his car. mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jumbo240ez Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 Those wheels (Aluminum Circle Racing Wheels) look like a good track wheel. I bought a steel version of those (diff manufacturer) because I was able to spec a backspacing for 8" wheels to fit under the fenders pretty painlessly. My only regret is the weight I gained. These at twice the price, but still 1/2 the cost of a modular, and 14.5 lbs for a 16x8" seems like a good buy. Does anyone know anything regarding the strength of these wheels? Thanks. Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudge Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 Jumbo, I only know that I got the info on the wheels from an Fbody driver, obviously a significantly heavier car. Our cars are light enough that I dont see much reason for concern, eventhough I want strong wheels likewise. On that note, I heard some measurements of flexion from CCW wheels and the news was not good, over 1/4" of deflection, but again this is from a heavy car standpoint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evildky Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 your not cheap if your looking at that kind of money ! you could have 16x7 panasports or revolutions for that kind of money and would look better IMHO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gramercyjam Posted March 15, 2003 Author Share Posted March 15, 2003 Oh yea. I'm mister cheap. I've been looking for some affordable alloy 16X10 wheels with a 5" backspace for more than a year now. They don't need to be the coolest looking wheels around, but they can't be butt ugly either. And the longer I wait, the more expensive they get too. However it looks like I'm done looking now because a nice set came up on the used market and I was able to snag them. Now I hope they get here before the price of race rubber starts going up! --John B. Uncompetitive BSP 240Z Soon to be uncompetitive in FP! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudge Posted March 15, 2003 Share Posted March 15, 2003 your not cheap if your looking at that kind of money ! you could have 16x7 panasports or revolutions for that kind of money and would look better IMHO I want to be fast, not look fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evildky Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 never thought of revolutions or pannasports as looking fast, now BBS, ICW, lenzo and other ricer boy wheels are for looking fast, revolution or panasport are wheels capable of taking whatever you want to throw at them long race history either way, the circle wheels apparently are capable of taking the abuse as well but at an even higher price and with a wheel that large in diameter your gonna have to have a very low profile tire, which means less rollover, one of the car mags (thinking sport compact car) did a comparo a while back with 14, 15, and 16 inch wheels all with the same brand and compound tire the 15 won out on the skid pad, personally I have a set of old school 14x7 webs I got used for $100 putting a fresh pair of victoracers on for the autocross season havn't got them yet but I am gonna guess my mounted wheel and tire will weigh less than you lightweight 16, dunno what the circumfrence of your tire or mine yet for that matter yet, but the larger diameter offer a higher speed at a particular rpm while a smaller circumfrence will be slower at the same rpm with more effective torque, also the wider the tire the more air it has to break through, pete brock had some interesting insights in the current sportz mag, my point is that that is big bux, nt cheap, it's your car and your money, I am just pointing out that if you are looking at $220 each for wheels you are not cheap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudge Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 16x7" versus 16x9.5", for a race setup there is no decision for me, I want big. There is nothing that big that costs less, unless I adapt them from a Vette or similar, in which case I'm going to end up sending more getting them to work (they wont), and they are heavier to boot. Its much less than a $1600+ set of custom wheels, what is not cheap about it? Yes it will still cost alot, whats why I'm stuck with my 15x7" for now, eventually though, I want big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evildky Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 my point with the initial post was that gramer should not feel cheap if he's willing to lay out that kind of money on wheels, as far as being fast vs looking fast I am quite sure that a 16x10 is not the fastest combo, I like the look of a 15x7 on a first gen z but a got my 14's cheap and the cost is more important than the looks to me, you and he obviously like the look of the 16x10's and to keep from gaining rotating weight you need light wheels which you have to pay more for, but I doubt it will help your times compared with your present 15's, not trying to piss in anyones wheeties but I see no logic that would suggest a larger tire is gonna give you faster lap times, you need a certain amount of sidewall flex and slip angle, too small a wheel with a lot of sidewall is gonna have a huge slip angle and be very sloppy, too large a wheel and too little sidewall will have tiny slip angle and will break loose too easily, bigger is not always better, havn't seen any race cars wear "dubbs" yet and for good reason! I have not been in any road races yet, it's 5 hours to the closest one for me, I have been autocrossing for 4 years, I have been competitive in my 85 300zx, will be driving my newly aquired 204z starting this year, I am no expert, just food for thought Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudge Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 I will be sure to compare my lap times when I get the chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thiggins Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 Depends on purpose and class. The only thing I can say in favor of 16X10 (or 16X9-1/2) is that Vic Sias won nat's in BSP on 16X10's with 265 Kumho's. I run BSP with 15" wheels right now and I'm limited to 225's & this is the same for 14" (which didn't used to exist but Kumho now have a 225 available.) I do not know what sizes Hoosier offers, but on the tarmac where my club does most of it's autcrossing, Hoosier's don't buy you much for much higher price so I've never sized their tires in making rim selection choices. In CS Z's must run on stock size wheels (if I remember right!) In BSP it's wide open. In FP the limit is 16X10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudge Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 I'm not really AutoXing, I imagine I will be out there eventually, but I road race. I hope to see 160 or perhaps more, I need rubber. With enough horsepower I believe I could hit 160 or more at Buttonwillow, heavier cars with 230 HP hit 147, although I dont plan to step past 300 HP for awhile, I'll be hitting Buttonwillow in October. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modern Motorsports Ltd Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 your not cheap if your looking at that kind of money ! you could have 16x7 panasports or revolutions for that kind of money and would look better IMHO Well I've always liked panasports but that was mostly when they were the only decent looking option, they are a rather common bolt on and I prefer being a bit different.....the revolutions I've never been a fan of but perhaps they have new styles I'm not familiar with. Bolt on setups are so rare I flipped my two fine sets of 16x7 zero offset a few years back, they paid for my 5lug conversion, 2 new (used) wheel sets and I had change left over. Haven't looked back since:) (Both Riken sets were heavy! one set was 25 lbs or so each at 16x7, my present 16x8's are 16lbs). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudge Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 Shoot, my 15x7" are Riken, are they all heavy knockoffs of Enkei? Ross, have you ever considered/thought possible using another wheel and drilling new lug holes? If not I am at least going to take a look at the Stang/5 lug conversion setup. If I can run 17x9" without a spacer I may well do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modern Motorsports Ltd Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 Shoot' date=' my 15x7" are Riken, are they all heavy knockoffs of Enkei? Ross, have you ever considered/thought possible using another wheel and drilling new lug holes? If not I am at least going to take a look at the Stang/5 lug conversion setup. If I can run 17x9" without a spacer I may well do that.[/quote'] The professional engineering liability aspects steer me away from that. Besides, what other zero offset wheels in other 4bolt patterns are their to choose from? Not many IMHO. I've got at least one if not two customers underway doing the Cobra R wheels. The rear at a minimum will require spacers. I'd never avoid a desired wheel style/pattern just because it may involve spacers, when done right it's safe and can allow easy swaps to spare track sets of TOTALLY different wheels of same bolt pattern but even different offset. Local racer I just did some Z31 CV adaptors for runs an Xtreme all aluminum V8 with 17" spaced Cobra's streetwise and then 3 pc lightweight (nothing light about Cobra wheels! especially aftermarket) 16" with 10" slicks on the track with other spacers.....long studs and slipons make safe and quick changes a snap! He has a very notable difference in acceleration/responsiveness/braking between his lighter 16's and heavier 17's which is expected but very rarely commented upon or considered by many. Personally I like lots of hp and brakes and just go with whatever wheel combo you like But I'd like more $ to satisfy that as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudge Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 The thing with spacers, besides rules if I ever did an SCCA event, is that it is going to run me more $ and the Cobra R wheels as you said aren't exactly light racing wheels to boot. So there would have to be a reason to steer me in that direction, like ease of setup. So I would do the 5 lug if there were some reason to do so, if it allows me brake flexibilty (vented rotors etc) then I may do it anyway, and just find a 5 lugger wheel that is light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modern Motorsports Ltd Posted March 17, 2003 Share Posted March 17, 2003 "So I would do the 5 lug if there were some reason to do so, if it allows me brake flexibilty (vented rotors etc) then I may do it anyway, and just find a 5 lugger wheel that is light" Both RX7TT and Z32 wheels are nice large ID and lightweight strong 16" wheels available quite cheaply IMO for those with some patience. Z32 come in 7.5-8.5" widths and Rx7TT are 16x8's and forged alloy's to boot. I'm sure their are other OEM wheels of desirably specs but that's just two I came across. Their are others, later model supra wheels (not my favourite) are 17's and might not be too heavy). A local customer I just made some custom hubcentric and wheel centric slipon 5lug spacers for (email me if you'd like pics) brought by his FRONT 17" OZ 8.5" wheels with tires (Ecsta 712's) and they weighed in at mid 50 lb range! We were sure to include a leading edge chamfer on his slipons to aid wheel mounting! His rear 11's would exceed that notably. With more power the weight won't be as noticeable but it can certainly be equated with free or lost hp/tq, yet to see a fine analysis defining that but I would enjoy it:) I would have stayed with 4lug's but just didn't see the easily available wheels in same lug pattern to use slipon's at the time I did my swap a few years back. I'm actually using bolt on's out back (1.5") and 1.25" thick slipon's up front at present. I'll likely step to some thicker (2.25" or 2.5") bolt ons out back at some point to widen my stance and use up that vacant wheel well space I have.....(Rx7TT's are +50mm.......so at 1.5" rear I'm still inside OEM centreline). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gramercyjam Posted March 17, 2003 Author Share Posted March 17, 2003 There are a couple of reasons why people run 16X10 on their cars in FP. First, they are the biggest rims allowed in the class for Z cars. Go with the max width allowed for more grip and the max diameter allowed for bigger brakes. Can you be quicker on your 15X7 vs my 16X10"? Sure, I'm not known as a very technical driver. And depending on the course layout, temperature and driving ability, car setup, etc, the skinny tire could be the faster one. But when you go up against experienced nationally ranked cars and drivers, I don't think that would happen very often, or else these guys wouldn't be running 16X10's. So what am I, Mr Cheap, doing throwing in with a bunch of racers whose motto is ""how fast can you afford to go?". I don't know. Maybe the same reason I went and got an engineering degree. Because it's hard and there is a high probability that I will fail. It makes things interesting! --John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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