What wheels do people use in racing when looks are second to fuction?

 

depends... what kind of racing? drag? auto-x?

Typically in a FWD or RWD drag setup people will use a small diameter, wide, forged (lightweight) wheel with slicks on the drive tires, and smaller thiner wheels/tires on the non-drive wheels. A setup on my car for example, might be a 15x9.5 Forged wheel with slicks on the front and teh factory gear out back.

In an auto-x setup (if I were to fathom a guess) I'd say a forged 17" or 18" wheel would be ideal.

BBS comes to mind... Rays... Work... etc, etc

 

I use Enkei RPF1. Other popular affordable options are 5Zigen FN01R-C and MB Motorsports has a few nice choices.

 

Oh.... so for the most part the same kind of stuff people use here but the higher end ones, forged, not cast. I was thinking that there were other wheels for real racing.

Tx

 

Generally speaking, you want the smallest diameter wheels that will fit over your brake calipers. This keeps overall weight down and keeps the weight closer to the hub, where it doesn't drag as much power from your engine. But bigger brakes are better for stopping, so you have to compromise. Wide tires provide more grip, which is good, but create more drag and require wider wheels, which are heavier... and you get the idea.

In my opinion, 17" wheels are probably the best compromise; you can still Stoptech 332mm (13") brakes inside of most 17" wheels, and those are sufficient for most drivers who aren't super-hard core about racing. Some people will argue and say 18"s are better, because you can put 14" brakes in them, but then your costs for everything go up quite a bit, and if you don't need it, I don't think it's worth it.

Look for forged alloy wheels, and the lighter the better.

 

check out buddy club rims...I just did tons of research for the same thing and they were the lightest I could find - but they were around $550/ea.

The general info I got from ppl here was:
autoX: 275's all around...so a 17 or 18 X9 rim
track: Front 255 & rear 275

I just searched around for the lightest rim I could find that would fit the tires I wanted (keep in mind that it's not the weight of the rim, but where the weight is...you want the weight as close to the rotating axis; but since I've never seen that kind of weight distribution info, I just went with the lightest wheel I could find)

Search around in the classifieds; I found a set of 17X9 enkei's w/ Toyo RA-1 for $1,000.

 

I've gone for the lightest, strongest wheels I can afford that are legal for my class. In this case, I've been incredibly pleased that there have been a couple of people who have traded up from the stock 18" track wheels and have been willing to sell them to me at a price that I can afford.

Another option that I investigated were the Enkei RPF1s.

 

I order a set of the new Volk CE28N time attack 18x9.5 +22 all around for my track day event.. planning on running 265 series tires...

 

One of the Sponsors over at srtforums is 6061Forged.com. They custom manufacture forged wheels to your specs and they're VERY VERY competitive pricing. I'm not sure about their offerings of wider wheels for you guys, but it would be worth emailing them.

They even did an 18x8" forged version of the factory SRT-4 wheel for us. Very cool guys. Check them out:

http://www.6061forged.com

They have 15lbs 19" forged wheels starting at $299 each.

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