My 17" wheels and tires are now on!!

I just received and installed my 17" wheels and tires which I had on order!! It really gives the car a much sportier look IMO and improves the handling GREATLY over the stock wheels/tires. There is a moderate increase in road noise and you definitely feel more of the road but for those that want handling, this is a HUGE improvement over the stock setup. I will find out the mileage penalty with these wheels/tires but from the looks of things, it will probably be somewhere between 3-5 MPG less.

The Tires are Bridgestone 215 45 ZR17 and is almost an exact match for the overall diameter so that the speedometer reads correctly.

Here is a picture of the car so please let me know what everyone thinks!! Whether good OR bad!!


Brian

 

Thanks Frank.. I do need to get some wheel locks for it. I park it in my garage at night but during the day, it is an open target.

I will keep everyone posted on the mileage hit.


Thanks!!

Brian



<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Frank Hudon\";p=\"91332)</div>

 

I recently finished lining the interior of the car with a generic form of Dynamat called B-Quiet Extreme. The specs are very close to the Dynamat extreme at half the cost. I used aprox 80 sq feet in all the doors, floor and hatch area. My advice to anyone wishing to do this is to skip the floors and concentrate on the doors. This is where my most dramatic reduction took place. Attached, I have a picture of what my car looked like before I did the floor. You will notice that the factory has already installed quite a bit of an asphalt based dampening material and form fitted jute padding. Since I already came this far, I decided to go ahead and install my version on top of the factory supplied stuff.

There is definitely a difference but the most dramatic reduction in noise by far was by doing the doors.

Here is a picture of the front of the Prius minus the carpeting.



<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cairo94507\";p=\"91334)</div>

 

From what my bathroom type scale indicates, it was 35 lbs for the stock Prius tires/wheels and is now 43.5 lbs for the 17"T/W combo.

In the corvette world, we try to save every ounce of rotational weight but in this case, the extra weight was IMO WELL worth the handling and stability improvements it made to the vehicle.

Thanks!!

Brian


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Prius Noir\";p=\"91343)</div>

 

I purchased the generic Dynamat from a company called B-Quiet. Here is a link to their web site: http://www.bquiet.com/

They come in 50 sq/ft rolls so I got 2 of them so there is still some left if I ever want to do the roof of the car. For the amount of work necessary to drop the head-liner and risk damage, I think I will pass and be happy with the results that I currently have.

Let me know if you have any questions if you chose to do this project yourself.


Brian


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cairo94507\";p=\"91365)</div>

 

Hey Bill.. The doors are not too difficult to do at all. One 50 sq/ft roll would easily do all 4 doors. You just have to be careful removing the door panels.

The doors by far are the biggest improvements that you can make. I know Tadashi had really good results doing his whole car but as you can see from the picture I took, the factory really did an excellent job of providing plenty of damping to the floor. The ONLY reason I continued to do the floor is because I already removed the carpeting and I had all this extra material so I knew if I did not use it here, it would have probably been wasted.

The downside to doing the floor is that it took a lot of time and sweat. Removing the seats and trim pieces ever so carefully as to not to break anything and then putting everything back just like factory was a bit tedious. I am happy to report though that I did not break one fastener doing the job and I am pretty glad about that!!

Let me know if you have any questions...

Brian


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bill Merchant\";p=\"91436)</div>

 

Good luck with it cairo.. Please post your results when you finish.


Thanks!!

Brian


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cairo94507\";p=\"91473)</div>

 

Thanks amped.. Actually, I was looking for the 16" version of the Prius' wheels that come standard in Europe but I was not having much luck finding them. Then, this deal came accross and I got it at a decent price so I picked them up and slapped them on!!

These wheels/tries weigh aprox 8.5 lbs more EACH. This is quite a bit of weight, espeically unsprung and rotating but the increases in handling and stability make up for the weight difference IMO.

Thanks!!

Brian
BT Tech
305-652-3115

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