Light, stiff, and cheap wheels
 

Hey, guys. You know, looks aside, one of the best reasons for swapping out the stock rims and tires on your Protege is to go with something lighter and stiffer. On the track, this helps to reduce unsprung weight.

1) Anyone know how much a stock Protege5 alloy wheel wieghs?
2) Any light, stiff, inexpensive wheel you know of - 16x7 - for auto X would be greatly appreciated (along with any weight information you can provide).

My plan is to take the car racing next summer, and I want it to have decent brakes, wheels, and tires before then. So, any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated! I don't care what it looks like on Main Street, so forget style all together on this one. Lightest, stiffest, and cheapest wins.

Our stock (non-chrome) wheels weigh 16lbs, and the stock Dunlops weigh 20.
Not too bad, really, and if you look at the back of your wheel, you can see where it says "Enkei".
Rota is always a good choice or wheels that're light, strong and reletively cheap. I had SubZeros on my P5 for awhile and I liked them a lot. A 17X7.5 SubZero weighs about 16 lbs. If you can find some Slipstreams, they are pretty much the wheel of choice for autoxr's. Even lighter than the Subs and damn good looking, IMO. :)

Contact Rishie(ARD MP5) at www.autornd.com for good deals on Rotas and other wheels. He can steer you in the right direction as to which wheel would be best for you. He's the Protege Wheel Guru!

Here's a pic of my P5 on 17" Subzeros:

Thanks for the info, Eggynatey. I am half tempted to put sticky tires on the stock wheels (since 16lbs isn't all that bad), but there's part of me that wants to have a set of good race tires balanced and ready to go on aftermarket rims, and use them just for race weekends.

For my reference, do you know how much a comparable stamped steel wheel weighs?

Hmm...
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81388

The main disadvantage of the stock P5 wheel is that it's only 6" wide. That's pretty narrow really. There are plenty of aftermarket 16x7's that are also in the 15-16 lb range. Some cheaper ones are the Kosei Racer, Kosei K1 TS, and if you can find them and afford them ($$$$), the Enkei RSF-1, or the SSR Competition, both of which are Stupid Expensive.