If anyone has ET's from running a set of heavy steel wheels back-to-back against some lighter wheels, I would love to hear your results. Also, what are some good quality light wheels that look good on a 69 Malibu? I need 15x7 at all four corners, this car sees a lot of street and highway use.

Hey Mike,
Commerce opens in a few weeks. Are you getting the old girl ready for some trophys?

Regards,

the best i can do for your question is that i replaced my 5 spoke z28 steel rims with a set of factory alum. z28 rims. saved 9 lbs per tire rims combo. saved 36 lbs......also at the same time replaced my cast iron drums in the rear with alum. drums i est. about 10 lbs since i didnt weight the difference on my scale like i did the rims and tire combo.....so thats about 46 lbs i changed out but i also changed my convertor from a 1600 stall. with a 2100 stall that was about and inch smaller in dia. less weight there too.

before the changes it ran with me in it a 14.71 and with the new changes it ran a 14.47........

so between the little extra stall and weight savings there was an improvement.

anything you can do to reduce weight is a good benefit. im sure most of my improvement came from the stall but i would be hard pressed to believe it was all in the stall.

Almost every time you take weight off you go faster/quicker. But when you can take off a pound that spins (like a tire or a flywheel) it's about the same as removing 4 :eek: pounds of static weight. Acceleration will be that much faster.

Originally posted by ddeennis:
..also at the same time replaced my cast iron drums in the rear with alum. drums i est. about 10 lbs since i didnt weight the difference on my scale like i did the rims and tire combo.. I weighed them when I changed and I got 2.5 LBS difference per drum.

I don't recall the amounts but there are numbers that equates to et loss for x amount of of un-sprung weight removed.

Braking and handling should see a small improvement as well.

Well, not sure if this counts,
but Car Craft, did a test on the "Cheap Street Chevelle" where they switched from steel rallys to Weld drag lights and only picked up a tenth.

Once again, the parts that look flashy don't add up to E.T. where else did I hear that. :rolleyes:

Originally posted by Thad:
and only picked up a tenth.

Once again, the parts that look flashy don't add up to E.T. where else did I hear that. :rolleyes: Only a tenth? What were you expecting? A half-second off from saving a few pounds on the wheels? If they were plain-jane ugly wheels would you feel differently about it?

Thanks guys. And yes Steve, I'm hoping to be at Commerce March 6!

Originally posted by Thad:
Well, not sure if this counts,
but Car Craft, did a test on the "Cheap Street Chevelle" where they switched from steel rallys to Weld drag lights and only picked up a tenth.

Once again, the parts that look flashy don't add up to E.T. where else did I hear that. :rolleyes: A tenth is very substantial amount. I'm hunting tenths and they are becoming much harder to find.

when you can take off a pound that spins (like a tire or a flywheel) it's about the same as removing 4 pounds of static weight. Actually the conversion is 1 pound of unsprung weight is equivalent to 1.7 pounds.

20 pounds in wheels = 34 pounds.

Hey Pat, a tenth is a lot if you're already fast, but for 600 dollars or more it doesn't seem like a bargin to me.

onovakind67
I'd say they are worth it for looks if you want them.

But I'll bet you guys could all think of other ways to get more E.T. out of 600 bucks.
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