When looking at how much weight you save with different wheel options, you don't automatically save more weight by going with smaller diameter wheels, because you have to consider the weight of the wheel/tire combo together in my opinion. Smaller lighter wheels can have correspondingly heavier tires because of taller sidewalls if you want to keep the same overall diameter, which I do.
Here are the calculations I made when deciding to get stock size 17 x 7 Pro Race 1.2's:
Stock wheel-22.5 lb + stock Potenzas@ 19 lb= 41.5 lb TOTAL WHEEL/TIRE COMBO
17" PR 1.2's-17.4 lb + stock Potenzas@ 19 lb= 36.4 lb "
16" " -16.4 lb + sample 205/45-16's@21 lb= 37.4 lb "
My sample 205/45-16's from Tire Rack were made looking at summer performance tires. Most were 21 lb. Tire Rack doesn't show the stock Potenzas in any 16" size. One or two of the comparison 16's were lighter, so you'd save a pound or so by going to 16's with those few tires, but these calculations surprised me a bit, and for me helped me decide to stay with 17's. I didn't spend as much time on 15's because I wasn't considering them, but a quick look at them led me to some similar conclusions.
I also wanted to keep the quick agile handling and was willing not to soften the ride a bit with a slightly taller sidewall to keep that handling goal. Of course, some want to soften the ride and then going to 16's or 15's may be a way to that, but I'm just talking about weight here. This surprised me a bit because I had just assumed that smaller wheels would save overall weight.
You can also get into more esoteric considerations of how close the rotational weight is to the axle with different setups. I'm not good enough at physics to know too much about that, but my guess is that you would want the slightly heavier 17" PR 1.2 closer to the center of rotation where it's easier to spin, over having the heavier 16" tire farther away from the center in the 16" setup, where it's theoretically harder to spin.
Just some things I thought about to help others in their decision process.
Here are the calculations I made when deciding to get stock size 17 x 7 Pro Race 1.2's:
Stock wheel-22.5 lb + stock Potenzas@ 19 lb= 41.5 lb TOTAL WHEEL/TIRE COMBO
17" PR 1.2's-17.4 lb + stock Potenzas@ 19 lb= 36.4 lb "
16" " -16.4 lb + sample 205/45-16's@21 lb= 37.4 lb "
My sample 205/45-16's from Tire Rack were made looking at summer performance tires. Most were 21 lb. Tire Rack doesn't show the stock Potenzas in any 16" size. One or two of the comparison 16's were lighter, so you'd save a pound or so by going to 16's with those few tires, but these calculations surprised me a bit, and for me helped me decide to stay with 17's. I didn't spend as much time on 15's because I wasn't considering them, but a quick look at them led me to some similar conclusions.
I also wanted to keep the quick agile handling and was willing not to soften the ride a bit with a slightly taller sidewall to keep that handling goal. Of course, some want to soften the ride and then going to 16's or 15's may be a way to that, but I'm just talking about weight here. This surprised me a bit because I had just assumed that smaller wheels would save overall weight.
You can also get into more esoteric considerations of how close the rotational weight is to the axle with different setups. I'm not good enough at physics to know too much about that, but my guess is that you would want the slightly heavier 17" PR 1.2 closer to the center of rotation where it's easier to spin, over having the heavier 16" tire farther away from the center in the 16" setup, where it's theoretically harder to spin.
Just some things I thought about to help others in their decision process.
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