Thanks for the responses. I am no hurry as we are just headed into winter here in CO. I will probably wait until spring before making a move. After seeing some of the Forgiatos, I am going to keep researching for a bit.

Do you guys think lowering the car with a spring kit will make it too low to drive in the snow? I don't plan on taking it out in the deep snow, but I will likely drive it with a few inches out there.

rmt9e - Are you talking about the rims in my post or his?

 

I'm surprised you guys are considering such heavy rims on a performance car. If it were me, I'd stick to 17" tops, 18" if you must, and try to follow the 1 lb/inch max rule. Weight reduction is important and even more so for wheels (rotational weight) (increased acceleration, handling and braking). For my Maxima, I went with Kosei K1 TS.

Tirerack lists them at 15.4 lb for 17" but when I weighed mine, they were actually 13.7 lb. They're not the best looking (not awful, but not great)but I guess you have to decide what's important to you. With my Maxima, I'm goingprimarily for performance with aesthetics a close second. With the lighter wheels, I did find that I spin more easily at launch but with the S4's AWD, light wheels shouldn't be a problem. I'm currently shopping for the perfect late '01-'02 S4 so I can join the mighty ranks of you guys. I look forward to it. And yes, I'll be buying lightweight rims to replace those questionable snowflakes.

 

Did you have factory sport suspension as one ofyour options when you bought your S5?

I don't think you will have a problem, just get some H&R springs and you will be fine. It will only lower the S5 1.5" to 1.8". If you were going to lower 2" or moreI would become a little concerned.

 

looking at the majority of rims on this page i would have thunk i was on a cadillac forum

please look at getting a proper wheel for your S5 like ptatohed said

 

Not sure what the appeal is of big rims but I guess I'm in the minority. I just got 19s on my S4 and they're borderline IMO. I'd think 20s would be disproportionate. But again, I think I'm in the minority when I say the big rims look "pimp."

Saw an S5 at the shop the other day - beautiful car - grats on the purchase!

 

Agree to disagree with you, if wheels arent your thing, then so be it. Everyone here has different taste andopinion on, "what looks good". I know when my S5is fitted with new shoes, it will retaina subtle, yet, touch of class that will stand out from the next man's car. Forged wheels are the way to go in my opinion and weight concerns are not an issue to me with 400+hp under the hood. Styling is the key ingredient. I will most likely run 20".

 

no, i agree, do what you like, I'm not telling you what or what not to do, i'm just trying to shoot the idea out, you will notice a big difference if you change to lighter wheels in handling and acceleration to some degree, and that doesn't mean they have to look bad either, keep in mind another inch added is equal to putting about a 10 lb weight on each wheel

i dunno, never saw the point in buying a performance car and then making perform worse, kinda like buying an HDTV and only watching standard cable, but it's your car, i just wanna make sure other ideas were considered

 

"performance" first... "looks" second...

 

Unless you are racing the car, the extra weight of the car is not going to make that much of a difference. Are you running quarter miles every night on the way to the gym? The car will still perform very well with custom rims... and look even better doing so.

 

Well, as has been said before, everyone has their own opinion on this. Some go all bling and want 22" chrome 3 piece rims with spinners, some people care about performance and put looks second and get "smaller" lightweight rims. Personally, I would never put a rim over 20 lb and over 18" on a mid-sized sport sedan. I think weight reduction is an often overlooked topic. For instance, I got my 3200 lb Maxima down to 2900 lb by putting it on a serious diet (with no loss of performance/comfort/luxury). It isn't all about horsepower, it's about power to weight ratio. But, my point is, as important as weight reduction is (or at least I think it is) for a performance car, rotational weight savings is even more important. What do they say?... One pound of rotational weight is equal to 3-4 lb of dead weight?Go from a 25 lb wheel to a 20 lb wheel and you just took 5 lbx 4 wheels x 4 lb dead weight/1 lb rotational weight = 80 lb dead weight.To me, it's a shame to put heavy rims on a performance car. As I said before, lighter rims gives you increased acceleration, increased handling, increased braking and - if you stick with 17"/18" rims, increased (or at least not decreased) comfort. Oh, and now that I think about it, gas mileage too. Oh, and less strain on your drivetrain while I am brainstorming. I do understand the desire for good looks. I do think 19" probably "looks" best on an S4 (20"+ starts having diminishing aesthetic returns)soyou do have decide what's important to you.Iflooks is more important then go for the big, shiny rims. If performance is your main goal, get the best looking lightweight 17"/18"wheels you can find. But the attitude "I have so much horsepower under the hood, I can afford to get heavy rims" is silly. Horsepower is like money and sex, you can never have too much. You are literally throwing away horsepower (to the wheels)by adding weight to your rims.