Weighed my rear formula rims today and they weigh 18 lbs. each. Is this heavy for a rim? If so than what manufacturer makes lightweight wheels for the fiero and how much lighter are they? Where can I find a web-site that lists rim weights?

I found a manufacturer that sells remanufactured rims for the fiero if anyone is interested. http://www.aaarims.com/

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I'm a little interested in that info too. Unsprung weight and all.

Thats prob about normal. Ive seen racing wheels as low as 5 pounds each, but that kind of stuff comes at a huge price.

18 lbs is a bit heavy for a 15 x 7 rim, but not unsusual for OEM. A good weight is 16 lbs for a 16 x 8 rim. Getting below that starts getting expensive. The lightest street rims I know of are Volk TE37 - I think they area about 10 lbs for 15 x 7.

I've got light weight racing wheels on my
Fiero. they're Kosi K1 racing rims, they weigh 13.5 ib's and only cost me $609.58
with shipping. The SSR comp. rim is even lighter at 9-10 ib's for a 15x7. These are
both available from the Tire Rack.

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Dave Gunsul
N.I.F.E. member
86 GT modified
85 SE daily driver

Hey Dave did those lightweight wheels make any noticeable difference in acceleration and handling? What size did you get?

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Yes they did. When I was putting them on they
didn't really feel any lighter but when I drove it there was a noticable difference in
handling and acceleration. I got them in the
stock 15x7 size but be careful the rear offset was wrong and I had to get wheel spacers. I was going to go with 16's but i'm
trying to go faster and wanted the max weight gone.
I would have gone with the SSR's since they were lighter but they didn't have them at the time.
BTW 88 the Kosi's come in white and would match your car perfectly. I got the silver ones.

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Dave Gunsul
N.I.F.E. member
86 GT modified
85 SE daily driver

I can't remember the exact amount of each rim, but when I changed from my stock rims to 17 inch rims on my '88GT, it added a total of 30lbs to the weight of my car (That includes the tires and rims) I can't really tell any sort of difference though. And it handles much better, but that's because I did alot of other suspension work, and I would say my acceleration is about the same.

I saw the white ones you mentioned on the Tire Rack website. The only problem is they don't list the weight of the wheels.

I weighed my rear tire today and it weighed 24.3 lbs. That’s 24.3 lbs. + 18 lbs., which = 42.3 lbs. of unsprung weight for each tire and wheel. I then weighed my rotor which weighed 10.2 lbs. * 4 = 40.8 lbs.
42.3 lbs. + 40.8 lbs. = 83.1 lbs. * 4 = 332.4 lbs. in rotational mass that the engine has to overcome before the car begins to move. I have stock sized tires too.

Just for the hell of it I also weighed my rear caliper fully assembled with the pads. It weighed 7.8 lbs. 7.8 lbs. * 4 = 31.2 lbs. in brake calipers.

So I have 332.4 lbs. in rotational weight + 31.2 lbs. in brake calipers = 363.6 lbs. in unsprung weight. Now add the struts/ shock, control arms, bearings, and rubber and things really start to get heavy under there.

If I could get wheels that weighed 10 lbs. than I could cut that rotational weight down to 298 lbs. or 34.4 lb. savings over the stock 332.4 lbs. I wish I weighed the rear knuckles before I assembled the rear suspension. Those suckers were extremely heavy.

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Hmmm, that's odd that they didn't list the weight, they sent me a catalog recently that
has pics. of the SSR wheels on a scale with the weights of all of there light wheels
on the side. The Kosei's do weigh 13-13.5 ib's for 15x7's. I also have an article from
Sport Compact Car with the Kosi's being weighed that also lists the wheels as being 13 ib's. I actually used bigger tires and still noticed a weight difference. (225/15/ZR60 Comp T/A's front and back)
BTW if it weren't for the import guys we wouldn't have these light weight wheels at all.

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Dave Gunsul
N.I.F.E. member
86 GT modified
85 SE daily driver