18 inch wheels?

[Black03GTRR]

What do you think about getting 18' Saleen Rims on my mustang? Will they slow the car down when racing coming up from 17' wheels?

 

[White Stang]

Not really 17 to 18 not that big of a diffrence get 18" Saleen rims they look great on stangs. Save up and get some 15" Weld stars with drags on back for the track That will drop your 1/4 time.

 

[twogts4us]

Not really 17 to 18 not that big of a diffrence get 18" Saleen rims they look great on stangs. Save up and get some 15" Weld stars with drags on back for the track That will drop your 1/4 time.

Save up? Have you compared the price of Saleen rims and Welds? A 15" set of Weld's is about $1000 cheaper than an 18" set of Saleens!
The weight of rims DOES make a BIG difference to your performance-the rule of thumb is about .1 sec for each 10LBs of unsprung weight.
Black03GTRR, please take a few minutes and check out these threads, courtesy of Modular Depot ---> Official wheel weight thread
Five Components to a 12 second NA GT

 

[ADRENLN]

mine slowed me down, and mine are light weight.

to tell you the truth its the tires that really weigh things down.

its so worth it though, the wheels are not sucked into the wheel well anymore. it looks so much better.

 

[Avenger]

mine slowed me down, and mine are light weight.

to tell you the truth its the tires that really weigh things down.

its so worth it though, the wheels are not sucked into the wheel well anymore. it looks so much better.

I personally lost 1-2 mph going from 16" wheels to 18". I still think it's worth it though, it looks great !

 

[Gearbanger 101]

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn’t one of the main reasons that the Saleen wheel's are so desirable is that they’re so light. The problem with the weight as already mentioned is with the tire, not the wheel. That and most 15" Welds are no more than 7" in the front....if not 4.5” skinny's. As where the 18's are what.....9"....10"-wide? That's a lot of drag and rolling resistance to overcome compared to a narrower wheel.

 

[twogts4us]

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn’t one of the main reasons that the Saleen wheel's are so desirable is that they’re so light. The problem with the weight as already mentioned is with the tire, not the wheel. That and most 15" Welds are no more than 7" in the front....if not 4.5” skinny's. As where the 18's are what.....9"....10"-wide? That's a lot of drag and rolling resistance to overcome compared to a narrower wheel.

Well, it's both weight and rolling resistance - you're right, GearBanger. I'm not sure how much the Saleen rims weigh, but the Weld ProStar 15X3.5 rims only weigh 8 lbs each, the 15X8 ProStar, only 12 lbs. I'd almost guarantee that 18" Saleen rims weigh in at more than 20 lbs...at least!
Actually, most quick SN95's are running 3.5" fronts. This also helps in weight transfer, in conjunction with, typically, Fox springs and drag or adjustable street struts.
Interestingly, a lot of the N/A SN95's run only 8" wide Welds in the rear.
I'm really getting interested in the Welds / Fox spring / Adj shocks/struts setup. I love the look, love the performance possibilities, but I want it to look just right and not trash it's ability to be a daily driver. But, I'm much more interested in straight line performance, rather than handling the turns. I've got to start a thread of my own on this subject when the time is right ($$).