Light wheels

I just got a 96 talon awd and I'm looking for some light rims. I want either 16's or 17's. I dont want to spend more than $850-950 w/tires. The car is white.

Uhh. Go buy some?

http://www.tirerack.com/servlet/CallJsp?target=wheelSearchCloseUp&wheelIndex=45&sizeIndex=0&showRear=no&setIndex=9&filterSize=17&filterFinish=&filterSpecial=Pricing

Yum Yum. Clean and tasteful.

Do you have a point? From what I have seen about rims, especially the light weight ones, you wont do them for under $900 with tires. The really light ones seem to be running for more than that for just the tires. Some more "normal" weight ones you could get for really cheap. I got my 17" ADR Flite 5's for $350 off eBay and Toyo proxes 4 tires for less than $300 shipped.

Unless you put twentys and gobs of chrome on it's not going to make much of a difference in the performance of the car. Obviously lighter is better, but a street driven car won't notice much of a difference unless it's extremely modified or a much heavier wheel.

I think lightweight wheels, even just a few pounds per corner, is one of the most underestimated mods on cars. It's not that performance increases drastically in any one area, but there are small but important improvements in a couple areas. One is static weight, which is obvious. The difference in the EVO8 and EVO RS wheels and the EVO MR wheels is 32 pounds, which is pretty substantial by itself. There is also the rotational weight factor. I have heard people using a factor of ten to account for that, but until I learn to do the math myself (yeah right) I won't quote anything. There is also a reduction in unsprung weight. While small, it is a large percentage of the total unsprung weight per corner, since there isnt much. Makes the suspension work better. There is also less static and rotational mass to have to decelerate, making the brakes more effective. Etc. I think light weight wheels are worthwhile, especially if you are in the market for a set anyway.

The rota wheels seem to have a good weight to price ratio. I have a set for my 90 that are 10.8 pounds and were ~500 new. The total package cost will depend on the price of the tires, and how much tire you really need. I was running 600 dollars worth of tire on the 2g, and thats pretty common for a decent tire. You can get 4 tires for 400 bucks if they are nothing fancy. Depends on your goals. It may be worth increasing your budget to 1100, and it may not be.

I like the rota's but are there any other one's I could get?

Gram lights (sp) are supposed to be really light too. Kevin is right wheels make a difference. When I got my 17's I weighed them and they were lighter than the steelies, but when I got them on I can tell the car is a little bit more sluggish. Even though they weigh less, the weight is centered farther away from the wheel, and in most cases it takes more power to rotate the wheel, so you get less on the pavement.

would a smaller size like 16's help?

Absolutely. Keeps the weight closer to the center.

As far as handling and deceleration, traction in general, it would be more beneficial to just get some 17'' x 10.5'' rims and fender flares (Mustang rims would be cheap with tires on eBay... but that's sac religious lol) OK Maybe that's a little extreme for all wheel drive, but I'd like to see it!