Well, we all know about unsprung weight and rotational mass. My my question is, does the FRONT wheel weight matter as much? I mean sure, weight is weight, but i was thinking since the rear is what that moves the car, how much does the front really affect it.

 

I went from the from the oem "anniversary" wheels to a set of LMGT4's and the differences were immediately noticeable. Same experience on my '92 Alfa Spider when I went from the oem wheels weighing 26 pounds to 15 pounds.

 

Handling wise, im sure it makes a huge difference. Just not sure if it affects the acceleration. I mean in theory it should, because rotational mass is rotatiional mass. But i was wonder if it makes as much difference as the rear.

 

If you're restricting your question to only acceleration, then front weight is somewhat negligible. It still adds a small amount of drag to the equation, but the Z has so many more dimensions to it. Even after you accelerate, you must brake at some point and a heavier front wheel will affect stopping distances and overall brake effectiveness. Depending on the smoothness of the road or track, acceleration times may also be affected due to increased shock and less effective dampening due to heavier front wheels.

 

Thats the answer i was looking for. Obviously the handling would be affect, pretty sure i covered that, but i was more interested in acceleration. My thinking is that, while the rear are affected more, heavier front will still have an inverse affect. Because its adding to drag/resistance from a stop. So obviously a lighter wheel will be easier to be pushed off the line then a heavier wheel right? Or am i wrong there?

 

Unless they're not touching the road, the front wheel weight will have the same effect on acceleration as the rears. Why would they not? It's still rotational mass, and of course, the same goes for braking.

 

In addition it affects the suspension and brakes. The heavier the wheel the harder your brakes need to work to stop the car. It affects how the car handles in daily driving especially when you go over bumps and dips. I switch around wheels every month and can totally feel a difference between 18 lb wheels and 24 lb wheels. I'd imagine this effect being slightly magnified on the track, I haven't gone to the track in over 5 years so wouldn't be able to tell you. At any rate you just got te37s, not much weight to worry about.

 

Look at the wheels/tires on those dedicated drag strip cars. Are they big, wide, meaty setups or do they look like bike tires?

 

As its been said, yes, front wheel weight does affect acceleration to some degree. But I agree with David that it's negligible in real world application. I only say negligible because overall performance, as described by others here - accelerative, decelerative, lateral loading, balance, response - is the more important aspect to keep in mind.

I'd rather run a balanced (wide) front wheel set to match the rears than putting a drag style narrow puppy up front and go sliding into a canyon somewhere.

Good question nonetheless.

 

Well of course, the benefit of increase in grip from a properly sized tire to match the rear is more important than the benefit of increase in acceleration from an undersized tire. OP was simply asking if it has much of an effect, which it certainly does. The front wheels are essentially two 50 pound idler pulleys and the road is effectively a belt between the front and rear. Imagine adding a big heavy idler pulley to your motor (and you can even pretend there was no friction as it rotated). It would definitely impact things.

 

Hear ya. Note I said "...real world application".

Remember, I'm also the guy who quibbled about "....lowered my unsprung weights by 7# PER CORNER". Heh heh.