I am gathering parts to widen my Rabbit, and it occurred to me that a properly made et0 wheel will be lighter, potentially more durable, and certainly cheaper than an et40 wheel and a 40mm worth of spacers. I have plenty of et40 wheels, but I would, so there is only the cost of spacers, but experimenting with a different wheel still seems like the easy button for the back since scrub radius won't be an issue.
It looks like Rota and JNC make a good assortment of et0 wheels, but weights are not manufacturer listed and when I can find them, they are pretty high (15.4 lbs. at the lowest, most seem more than 16 lbs.).
Are there $150-ish 15x7.5, or 15x8, or 15x7 4x100 et0 wheels under 13 lbs. or so? If I can pull 4 lbs out of a wheel, that is 1% of corner weight being pulled off from unsprung.
I'm pretty sure you can get panasports at 0 ET.
Your ET requirement will limit your options. Tirerack sells TRMotorsport wheels in various styles and widths 7-9", but the lowest offset I saw was 20 mm. Less than $150 generally won't get you much under 15 lb either. Again the TRMotorsport wheels are 13ish and in your price range. They have Kosei K1s that meet your price and weight target but not offset. A 15x8, 20 mm wheel would give your Rabbit a nice amount of poke if you're intent on overall width without spacers maybe.
Edit: Konig makes several 15x8 wheels in the 15 lb range and $150-165, but the best offset I saw was 25 mm. At least JNC has 15x8 in a 0 mm offset, just need to figure out the weight.
A site I use for good pricing and lots of selection is unleashedwheels.com JNC wheels are $30-40 per wheel less there than on the regular JNC site, for example.
tr8todd
SuperDork
8/17/20 5:04 a.m.
Cheap, light, proper offset, choose two. Rota makes some cheap 15X8 in zero offsets that are sort of light. You won't find cheap and light panasports. You want real light and correct offset, then you are looking at 3 piece wheels. I have several sets of 15s made by Keizer. Insanely light, any offset you want, expensive. Keep checking ebay and you may find partial sets for relatively cheap, and then you can buy whats missing to complete a set.
Reach out to team dynamics in the UK. If you're not in a hurry they're churn out a 0ET and ship it with a stock order to a US distributor so you'll only have to pay the shipping domestically.
You might look for Exocet wheels. That's a kit car based off a Miata "roller skate", so it uses 4x100 wheels, but because of the body design it needs to move the wheels outboard so they use much lower offset than normal Miata wheels. 949 Racing made a 13 pound 15x9 ET12 for example.
http://exomotive.com/product-category/wheels/
Dunno how the center bore compares.
Konig Rewind
click on the "Specs / Sizing" button
edit: dammit, sorry man, the 0 offset is only 4x114.3. they are +20 on the 4x100. i wonder if they'd drill a 0 offset with the 4x100 pattern? i have no idea how large and / or impersonal the company is.
tr8todd said:
Cheap, light, proper offset, choose two.
This is what I was starting to guess. I do watch eBay for 3 piece centers, but I have not found anything in 15" 4x100 yest.
captdownshift
I will check Team Dynamics, though they seem to only have regular offset wheel styles. It they just leave the center boss taller, then that is very similar to running a spacer.
It looks like 20mm axle spacers and et20 wheels may be the best I can do without getting too complicated. I am not worries about getting too complicated, but I will eventually build new suspension and that lets me design around "normal" wheels. I am just hoping I can "try out" the width without needing much trouble.
DeadSkunk
I had been on that website, but I had not seen weights. Looking at it again, they do seem to be good prices so I will remember that as a place to check.
This is basically stance fitment, so weight is rarely a concern.
Keith Tanner said:
This is basically stance fitment, so weight is rarely a concern.
Yeah, I know, but it never hurts to check with the hive.
I did find a mention of a 14.4 lb wheel in a 2014 GRM thread (Trakside in the exocet thread, I think). Not that good, but perhaps the best that I can do. I may hunt for a couple of those.
IIRC that's the same as the JNC. Talk to the guys at Exomotive.
If I were widening a Mk1, I would find some BBS RM and toss on wider lips. They'd fit like OEM, because they were, match the look of the car, and adding more lip on those makes them wider from the center, which is what you need anyways.
ebelements said:
If I were widening a Mk1, I would find some BBS RM and toss on wider lips. They'd fit like OEM, because they were, match the look of the car, and adding more lip on those makes them wider from the center, which is what you need anyways.
Multi-piece BBS wheels aren't light. And new lips alone are going to be $700+ depending on how wide the lips need to be. Which is more than he's wanting to spend on the wheels in the first place.
