Ticketmaster
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- Nov 28, 2019
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I drove once in light snow with the factory wheels and summer only tires. I'd rate that experience somewhere between sketchy and dangerous. It was enough to convince me that winter wheels with all season tires if not winter only tires are a necessity.
TIRES I had a brand new set of 255-40-18 Goodyear Eagle F1 All Season laying around so I chose to use those otherwise I would have done a winter only tire. These tires are the exact same overall width and height as the factory rears however they are close to the same overall height as the factory fronts and a noticeable chunk wider than the factory fronts. Ideally you want a slightly narrower tire to "cut" through snow and slush. I'm sure I'm giving up some traction in the snow however when the roads are dry or just wet there is more rubber on the road. I DID notice improved stopping distance with my winter rims/tires. I DIDN'T notice any difference in steering feel or cornering feel. If I had driven on a road course or autocross course there might have been a noticeable difference. On public roadways I never pushed it hard enough to notice a difference. It does tend to follow the straight cracks in the road that run parallel to you. It's noticeable when switching lanes. I'm not sure if this is more to do with the width of the tire, the tread pattern, or a combination of both.
For the record the recommended tire size for winter tires is 225-45-18 front and rear. I don't see any reason to deviate from this size. I only did so because I wanted to use the tires I already had.
RIMS Konig Ampliform 18x8.5 +35 The color is Dark Metallic graphite. These are a Flow Formed rim. That makes them lighter and stronger than cast rims but not quite as light and expensive as traditional forged rims. They weigh 19.2 pounds each and cost $230 per rim. I purchased them through Discount Tire. One cool thing is you can use their website to select your car, it's color, and the exact rims in the color you want and see a picture of them on your car.
I did need to purchase new acorn style lug nuts which were $45 through Discount Tire. I also purchased new Kia TPMS sensors part number 52933J5000 through Amazon for $114
Weight To the best of my knowledge the OEM rims weigh 32 pounds for the front and 34 for the rear vs 19.2 for the Konigs. That's a big deal in acceleration, braking, and steering! I'm only going by the butt dyno to verify this but I swear it feels like it accelerates faster. I'm sure someone can find a calculator and do the math but I would honestly expect it to be about 2 to 4 tenths of a second quicker in the quarter mile for our cars. Rims are only a small factor in total wheel weight. As the rim size goes down of course it weighs less but that means the tire is larger and weighs more. Total weight for the Konigs with 255-40-18 tires was 48.5 pounds. The factory front was 55.4 pounds. The factory rear was 60.5 pounds. As you can see tire weight plays a huge part here. Without getting too much into tire science it's worth noting that the amount of steel inside the tire has an effect on its weight. The less steel the tire has, the less the tire weighs. As a result the less stiff it feels, the less load it can carry, and the less the speed it's rated for.
TIRES I had a brand new set of 255-40-18 Goodyear Eagle F1 All Season laying around so I chose to use those otherwise I would have done a winter only tire. These tires are the exact same overall width and height as the factory rears however they are close to the same overall height as the factory fronts and a noticeable chunk wider than the factory fronts. Ideally you want a slightly narrower tire to "cut" through snow and slush. I'm sure I'm giving up some traction in the snow however when the roads are dry or just wet there is more rubber on the road. I DID notice improved stopping distance with my winter rims/tires. I DIDN'T notice any difference in steering feel or cornering feel. If I had driven on a road course or autocross course there might have been a noticeable difference. On public roadways I never pushed it hard enough to notice a difference. It does tend to follow the straight cracks in the road that run parallel to you. It's noticeable when switching lanes. I'm not sure if this is more to do with the width of the tire, the tread pattern, or a combination of both.
For the record the recommended tire size for winter tires is 225-45-18 front and rear. I don't see any reason to deviate from this size. I only did so because I wanted to use the tires I already had.
RIMS Konig Ampliform 18x8.5 +35 The color is Dark Metallic graphite. These are a Flow Formed rim. That makes them lighter and stronger than cast rims but not quite as light and expensive as traditional forged rims. They weigh 19.2 pounds each and cost $230 per rim. I purchased them through Discount Tire. One cool thing is you can use their website to select your car, it's color, and the exact rims in the color you want and see a picture of them on your car.
I did need to purchase new acorn style lug nuts which were $45 through Discount Tire. I also purchased new Kia TPMS sensors part number 52933J5000 through Amazon for $114
Weight To the best of my knowledge the OEM rims weigh 32 pounds for the front and 34 for the rear vs 19.2 for the Konigs. That's a big deal in acceleration, braking, and steering! I'm only going by the butt dyno to verify this but I swear it feels like it accelerates faster. I'm sure someone can find a calculator and do the math but I would honestly expect it to be about 2 to 4 tenths of a second quicker in the quarter mile for our cars. Rims are only a small factor in total wheel weight. As the rim size goes down of course it weighs less but that means the tire is larger and weighs more. Total weight for the Konigs with 255-40-18 tires was 48.5 pounds. The factory front was 55.4 pounds. The factory rear was 60.5 pounds. As you can see tire weight plays a huge part here. Without getting too much into tire science it's worth noting that the amount of steel inside the tire has an effect on its weight. The less steel the tire has, the less the tire weighs. As a result the less stiff it feels, the less load it can carry, and the less the speed it's rated for.
