It just trips me out when people ask about weight...as if that really means a lot. If you're not racing the car it's not a big deal.

 

I totally disagree. The AM V8V was designed with 18"-19" wheels. Going to 21" conceivably adds considerable rotating mass with less sidewall, etc. I bet it totally changes the handeling of the car.

I put 19" aftermarket wheels on another car of mine that came with 18" and I felt the difference on the street, easily. 21" tires are much, much heavier and I bet there are very few 21" tires available as well.

 

It can mean a lot on the street. Rotational weight is usually assumed to be equivalent to 10x greater than static weight in its affect on performance. 10 kg taken out of the wheels, drivetrain is like 100kg out of the chassis.

Also, when you increase the diameter, the polar moment of inertia is increased substantially so a 21" wheel of equivalent weight and distribution takes a lot more braking force to stop it than a 19" wheel.

 

FYI: The tires are not hard to come by in these particular 21". Several companies make them.

For us, this car is just a cruiser and a show vehicle, so the looks are most important. Therefore, we went with the maximum size possibly without increasing overall diameter, so in this case that is a 21". I wouldn't say that the weight aspect is not important at all, but we want size first and then weight......so a high-quality forged wheel enables us to get the maximum size we want, but keep the weight down as much as possible.

 

Absolutely gorgeous!

 

Inertia = mass x radius^2

Radius of the mass is exponentially more important than mass amount itself.
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PRILOSEC SETTLEMENT NEWS

 

Thanks for all the replies guys!

 

This, I agree with. Diameter of the wheel is more important to performance than a couple of lbs. The larger the diameter, more energy is needed to acelerate and decelerate the wheel. Even a larger wheel with low profile tires requires more energy. The distance from the center to the edge is what's significant.

Bottom line, we're spending big bucks on aftermarket wheels to get that look. Perferformance is an issue but less so....and that's a negative in many cases. If we really wanted improved performance we would buy the lightest, strongest 18 or 19 in wheel we could find. Once you start going bigger, talking about performance is kinda silly. The right look is not silly. I'm just saying I am tired of people referring to performance and light weight as justification for buying nice wheels. We want to look good. That's it.

 

Very nice Peter!

Edwin