Hey folks, I hope you don't mind my asking a classic mini question here in the wheel/tires forum for the new MINI... but here goes:

I think most of us agree that there are real-world, seat of the pants ride differences when you compare OEM 17" 21-lbs S-Lites with a set of 15-lbs 17" wheels. I felt a huge difference between 17" S-lites when I stepped down to 15lbs. 16" mounted with non-runflats. (Granted, there's additional factors in my experience such as dropping rim size plus losing the heavy, stiff RF tires as well.)

Ok, that said, what happens when you scale this equation down to 10x6" wheels on classic minis? I don't know the actual weights of typical tiny performance wheels (yet), such as Minilite 10x6", Revolution 10x6" or Zodiak 10x6, but presuming there's only 1 or 2 lbs variation among these 10" wheels, would there be an obvious "real-world" benefit or noticeable change in performance if they only vary a couple pounds from brand to brand?

In other words, would a 1 or 2 lbs. variation within the available 10" wheels on a 1400-lbs classic mini be more or less noticeable than a several pound variation on a 2500-lbs. new MINI w/17"s?

 

Having no experience with such a lite car, all I can go on is physics. Using your weights of wheels/cars, there will be a greater effect noticed on the MCS. That's assuming both cars have the same relative suspension rates(hard to do in the real world for 2 such different cars separated by almost 40 yrs). Just my best guess.

 

Look at power to weight ratio overall.

Look at the differences in wheel weight as percentage of the total wheel weight.

As the wheel and tire get lighter and lighter then less can be lost so only a few pounds difference is expected.

If you have a classic mini with minimal HP then any help from lighter wheels will be beneficial. If you have a powerful mini then a few pounds is not a big deal.

As the wheel diameter increases the potential for adding quite a few pounds is very high unless you pay a lot more to get forged light weight wheels.

So for the MC lighter wheels can make a big difference and heavy wheels are easily felt in a negative way. Less so for the MCS but getting lighter wheels is still a plus.

 

On my 115hp 2200lb CRX Si, the difference between the 37lb stock 14" combo and 29lb 15" Rota combo I swapped on made the car come alive. Minihune is right on the money....it depends on the power the car has. On my 340hp Subaru and 200+hp MINI, I couldn't tell a difference with even a 10+lb drop. Sure, if you evaluated them on the track maybe, but most of us are street only.

 

My answer was limited to suspension effects. As minihune stated above, weight to hp answers many questions. As you know, losing weight is usually the cheapest way to effectively gain HP. Realistically, I'm thinking 4 lbs won't matter on a track. Maybe, just don't think so. 0.3% (using your classic mini numbers) might be noticed by a national class championship driver, but for the rest of us, even the fast ones, I don't know. YMMV.

I guess the question would be for PGT, did your crx come alive cause of suspension or acceleration? Not sure from your post. My old, low hp porsche was much more alive/fun to drive when I could use lighter wheels and tires(class dependent), but acceleration wasn't appreciably faster.

Thoughts?

 

back to main question a 1 - 2 lb difference on such a small wheel and were only talking rim wise. Real world seat of the pants feel .. no you wont see it. with the other reference item you were talking about Rotating mass and size. Some of this was explain on Two Guys Garage on Speed vision when doing the Mugen Acura Build.. They Put on larger but Lighter Brake rotors.. even though they were Lighter than the stockers Due to the extra Mass from the Larger Diameter they Lost 3 HP on the Dyno. Since in your Question all three of the small wheels are the same size a 1 -2 lbs difference in weight will show some difference but it wont be Night and day. Maybe a total of .01 in a Quarter mile

 

Thanks, all, for the responses.

My thought was that there's probably only an insignificant difference that I wouldn't notice either way. Makes my choice of wheels easier.