Anyone got a straight answer on wheel/tire size weights?

So here's the deal.

The lovely black rims I'm sporting now were a bit of an accident. Last summer I bent two rims on a particularly nasty bit of toronto road work, and it was cheaper to buy all 4 new than to replace 2 oem.

So long story short, I ended up with 7" rims instead of the stock 6.5"s.

The stock 195/45r16 Toyos are right at the edge of their mounting range on these tires... I've been looking at 205's.. but there's no aspect ratio that will keep the diameter the same.

The perfect upsize is 215/40r16. I'm looking at Falken 452 (i've got these on my RX8), Yoko S.Drive or BF Goodrich T/A KDW NT.. All these tires are around 20lbs per tire.

My 195/45r16's are about 17lbs per tire. My wheels are 18lbs each. I've looked online, searched forums, done math, and I still can't get a straight answer.


So the question: Should I stay with 195/45r16's, or can i upsize to 215/40r16 without completely wrecking my handling/acceleration?

So let's think about it.. stock wheels (or whatever wheels you're using now) weigh 35 lbs collectively, with the 215/45/16 it will be 38 lbs collectively. 3 lbs on paper doesnt seem like much, maybe even 12 lbs adding all 4 corners.. but unsprung weight is big, especially in a car that only has 100, or in your case a bit more than 100 hp. Now, you already have a good amount of handling mods, and I'm sure the car handles well already. Personally, I'd save the weight and stick with the 195/45/16's. Btw, that size on a x7 is more than fine. If you were mounting those on an 8, NOW you're on the edge of their mounting range.

That's my 2 cents, hopefully it helps you.

Ok... This was sort of my line of thinking also. I am hesitant to add any more unsprung weight than I have to, and what I'm hearing from you is that the extra bit of grip and cosmetic advantage wouldn't make up for the potential handling I'd lose by adding 12lbs of unsprung weight.

This seems to jive with my conclusions.