you guys all say that the 17's arent good and 15's are better my question is why? what if the 17 ony wieghts 15 pounds? wouldnt the lower profile tire make it handle better?

 

It depends on so many things really. Even if the 17" is as light as the 15" wheel, the 15" will be easier to turn because its weight is closer to the center of gravity. (center line of the wheel)
Also the 15" tire will allow for enough sidewall flex, which is desireable because it allows you to have more progressive traction break-away characteristics. The 17" tire will be a 205/40 series. The sidewall is much shorter so the tire will have a sharper drop off at the traction limit. Question, how many winning auto-x SCCA racers do you know who run 17" or larger wheels?

 

to decide between 15 and 17, you must do the following:

decide what size YOU like.. and which YOU feel would be better to get for your own purpose in those rims.

 

I saw an article where they dynoed a car with 15's and then dynoed it with 17's and the number dropped quite a bit because of the bigger wheels. I run Integra GSR 15's with 205/50 Toyo Proxes FZ4's on my Acura 1.6EL and find that combo works well. Sure 17's fill the wheel well and look great but its at a cost to performance and those big tires are expensive. Have you noticed even the Integra Type R runs 15's? If you want a bigger wheel, I would suggest 16's.

 

dont forget you can get much better tires in a 205/50r15 size.....

I prefer my 15" Yokohama AO32R much more than the Nitto NT450 I had to run on my old 18's.

 

there are three ways that big/heavy wheels hurt you:

#1 - sheer weight. 6 lbs off a wheel doesn't sound like much until its 24 lbs off your car.

#2 - rotational resistance - what you normally think of - its harder to spin something thats heavy.

#3 - inertia - Or a 'gyro effect'. Take a gyro, and wave it around. Spin that gyro up, grab it again, and wave it around. It will 'feel' heavier, or resist your inputs more.

 

High sidewalls on STREET tires equals sloppy handling. Race tires don't have this problem, but your run-of-the-mill Kumho 712 will.

Larger rims create more rotational mass and decrease acceleration. Generally, a 15lb 17" rim will be slower than a 15lb 16" rim with identical diameter tires. On the larger wheel, more rotational mass is located near the outside of the wheel/tire combo.

There's generally a compromise somewhere in the middle.

 

Compromise would be 15's.

Big enough to fit Teg brakes, and small enough to have a better center of gravity with rotational mass.

 

How is the smallest thing that will work a compromise?

 

15's are big enough to provide fast acceleration and decent handling while allowing bigger brakes.
16's start slowing you down.