I'm looking for some preformance wheels, I could care less how they look, the car is going to be autocrossed, so light weight is good, and it will be street driven some times, so I figured I'd go with a steel wheel for durability

I'm having two problems though, one, is that I can't seem to find any decent preformance wheels, the drag guys have alot of offerings, but they're more for strait line smooth road stuff, and aren't made to be street driven, the rest seem to be for the bling bling or nostalgia crowd, and not made for preformance period, and I could care less about the bling factor

I'm also looking for some info from the autocross guys about what size of wheels these cars respond best too, I know that if I go with a taller wheel it means shorter side walls and a stiffer tire, but it also means more unsprung weight, has there been any consensus on the best weight/size trade off, and do they know anyone making a decent steel wheel, again looks aren't even on the list of concerns and I really need to ditch the brand x wheels it has (with the wrong backspace and wheel spacers to compensate)

thanks

 

Well if your budget allows a 2 or 3 peice rim is what you want. That way if you damage the outside of it that part of the rim can be replaced without scraping the whole thing. You do not want steel really because of the increased wieght and aluminum wheels are more then strong enough to take tons of abuse. A good all around wheel would be 17" or 18" with a width of 8" to 10". Cast vs 2 or 4 peice billet are up to your wallet

 

Might look around for circle track racing wheels. They can handle the abuse and might work for you.

 

most of the circle track wheels specifically say they aren't for street use because they can't handle the bumps, circle tracks are smooth, its pot holes that will kill your wheels

thanks for the offers but they aren't really helping, I'm looking for who makes good wheels and where I can find them, I want names and I'd prefer it from people who have used their products, I've got a pretty good idea of what I want, I don't need help with that, my problem is all the catalogs either offer bling or they have drag wheels but again those aren't what I'm looking for, there have to be some guys who autocross a little more seriously on here, what are they running

I can't believe how hard its actually been to find a decent preformance designed wheel, if I was driving a honda civic I'd have thousands of choices, this is wrong, and it isn't because I haven't looked either, damned imports have ruined the aftermarket auto industry

 

You can pretty much use any wheel you want then. What do you mean by porformance? My cast ROH 17x9 snypers are amazing and pretty lightweight. However, if I were an all out racer I would opt for a slightly better wheel. I would consider the process more than the compnay. I have never heard of a bad wheel before. You won't break one during normal autocross and drag events. Heck, some guys even just stay with the stock 3rd gen 16x8's or 4th gen 17x9's. There are also guys running slicks on stock 16" wheels that are in the 11's and 10's.

 

If your on a budget stick with 16x8s with tires in the range of 245/45-16 to 265/45-16. In stock wheels look for the lace center GTA wheels, they are the lightest, after that look of 91-92 Z28 wheels. Try to stay away from the 16" Formula wheels, they weigh a ton. In the aftermarket look at Center Line and maybe American Racing.

If you looking to spend more money for 17s, look for wheels in the 17x9 to 17x9.5 size. They'll run 275/40-17 tires and are the widest tires you can safely run in the front wheel well. ROH is a good wheel choice. If you want to drop for 3 piece wheels check out CompleteCustomWheel, they make a good strong light weight wheels (18lbs. for my 17x9.5s), but they'll cost a little under 2 grand. But that is cheaper than most custom wheel builders and many Vette autocrossers swear by them.

I wouldn't go to an 18" wheel for autocross. The wheel mass starts to get too big and you loose too much side wall.

A couple years ago a magazine did a comparison of similar 16, 17 and 18" wheels with the same make of tires on a road course. For fastest course time the 16" was just slightly faster that the 17" and the 18" was significantly slower. The driver felt the 17's were better in the corners but the 16" were faster on the straits, but in the end he would go with the 17s because they were more predictable.