Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:As long as I can keep them light, I was always a fan of less negative space in a wheel design. Those MR2 wheels look super light, but I might see what I can find in a minilite-type design.
Am I the only one thinking about Miata daisies at this point?
In reply to DarkMonohue :
Daisies are 14". MINI has a 15" wheel that looks similar . All 15" MINI wheels are 5.5" wide and fairly light, so would work with a narrow tire.
MINI 15" 
Any MPG gains you could even imagine from modding the combustion engine are easily lost tenfold by simply picking the wrong tires.
I dunno, I like these.
For 15s vs something larger, check on tire availability. The 15s look good, but the question is whether you have choices of good tires you like in a suitable size for the 15s, or if going to 16s or something else gives you better choices.
Years ago an older listener called in to the CarTalk show unsure how to differentiate her new car in a parking lot. She said her old car had a butterfly on the antenna and it helped her find her car when she came out of the grocery store. Her new car however had one of those new-fangled antennas built into the windshield, so she was unable to add her butterfly.
My answer to you is the same answer Click and Clack gave to that elderly woman...
(In a thick Boston accent) "I'm picturing something that involves model rocketry..."
Don't drive like my brother!! 😂
My (daughters) Prius C with tinted windows and MB wheels.
VolvoHeretic said:I dunno, I like these.
I actually thought about snowflakes a lot. I think they would look amazing. VW did some BBS-type snowflakes that might work, but I'll have to be careful of width and offset.
DarkMonohue said:Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:As long as I can keep them light, I was always a fan of less negative space in a wheel design. Those MR2 wheels look super light, but I might see what I can find in a minilite-type design.
Am I the only one thinking about Miata daisies at this point?
Or even VW beetle daisies?
rslifkin said:For 15s vs something larger, check on tire availability. The 15s look good, but the question is whether you have choices of good tires you like in a suitable size for the 15s, or if going to 16s or something else gives you better choices.
Very wise. 18 is the new 14
red_stapler said:Any MPG gains you could even imagine from modding the combustion engine are easily lost tenfold by simply picking the wrong tires.
This is so true. I've been really playing with momentum and pushing the cornering to get a feel for its dynamics. It's ridiculously capable in the turns on all season touring tires. The car actually handles better than the seats do, so I wouldn't mind an LRR, hard compound, skinny tread pizza cutter tire. It will maybe drop the cornering Gs a tad, but this isn't an autocrosser, it's strictly a DD/roadtrip/commuter. I mean, my other car is a van with AT tires and a heavy roof rack, so anything is better in the curves than that behemoth.
I'm not looking to hypermile it, just make general improvements that don't make other things worse, if that makes sense.
Although... I do have to say that I decided to go home for lunch yesterday and I "played the dashboard video game" to see how high I could get the MPGs. This was only 14 miles, and I got some honks and funny looks, but....
195/50/16 is a standard tire on some Priusiisses. If it were me, I'd look for some 17" wheels just because of more tire choices, but not that many that are low rolling resistance. The Bridgestone S001 is frequently seen on Marketplace because ND Miata owners take them off for stickier rubber and they're an LRR tire in a 205/45/17 size, and narrow for a 205. 17" wheels are common , too.
In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :
That's a great idea, but I've never seen an upsized wheel/tire combo that didn't increase the moment of inertia. The only real way to make that change a net wash is if regenerative braking is as efficient as propulsion, which I assume is far from reality.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:Or even VW beetle daisies?
Not sure if serious, but I'm relatively certain those are 5x100.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :
That's a great idea, but I've never seen an upsized wheel/tire combo that didn't increase the moment of inertia. The only real way to make that change a net wash is if regenerative braking is as efficient as propulsion, which I assume is far from reality.
I'd expect that outside of closesly spaced traffic lights or other low speed scenarios with lots of acceleration and braking, rolling resistance and even wheel face aerodynamics (at least at highway speed) will be a bigger factor than the inertia of the wheel and tire combo.
rslifkin said:Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :
That's a great idea, but I've never seen an upsized wheel/tire combo that didn't increase the moment of inertia. The only real way to make that change a net wash is if regenerative braking is as efficient as propulsion, which I assume is far from reality.
I'd expect that outside of closesly spaced traffic lights or other low speed scenarios with lots of acceleration and braking, rolling resistance and even wheel face aerodynamics (at least at highway speed) will be a bigger factor than the inertia of the wheel and tire combo.
Especially since you are able to recover a decent chunk of that kinetic energy
I didn't realize that the C returns a score. Over in Gen2s we have to make up our own games...but still games.
I see your catching on that Prius driving is a different horse for a different race!
In reply to John Welsh :
It's more like an aging donkey at the speeds (or lack thereof) I need to maintain those numbers, but I get the metaphor :)
I'm going to drive it like the dash wants me to for a week or two, then I'll back it up with normal driving to see how much of a difference it makes. Keeping it down in the "eco" range on that dashboard graphic is ridiculously hard.... like 1/16th throttle and acceleration from 0-15 in 30 seconds.
On the trip back from VT with the cruise set to 72mph, I seemed to be averaging 48-50mpg based on the dash numbers, which is better than EPA estimates, so I'm already winning. Compared to the 15mpg of the van, I'm REALLY winning.
TL;DR: I'm berkeleying loving this car.
In reply to TravisTheHuman :
How much, though, really? If I accelerate (which will take more oomph with bigger wheels and store more kinetic energy), how much of that can I realistically get back during braking/regen (when that stored kinetic energy is converted back to electricity)? Like if I accelerate to 35mph over 20 seconds, then brake to zero over 20 seconds, what is the net energy loss.... or that is to say, what percentage of what you spent do you get back?
How much of your "go" is converted back to juice when you "whoa?" Unless that number is 100%, bigger wheels would be a net loss.... although I have no idea if it will be 2mpg or 0.002mpg. If it's the latter, then bigger wheels could be considered a wash.
I can't answer that. If you your deceleration rate is less than the max motor output, you are probably recovering most of the energy. The efficiency should be similar to a EV charger, right ?(~90%) Here's an example of a Tesla recover >50% of the total energy output from a 1/4 mile run Tesla Model S Performance Energy Usage and Regenerative Braking over the 1/4 Mile. If you were to factor out the amount of the total energy that went to RR and WR, I bet the % of kinetic energy recovered is very high.
If you are coasting and not recovering the energy and eventually come to a stop, all of that momentum was used to push you forward, nothing was wasted.
The aero or RR impacts of big wheels/tires would be a much much much bigger concern from an efficiency standpoint.
Anecdotally, switching to 22lb 17" with 205-50-17 Avid Ascend was an 8mpg penalty over the ~15lb gen 3 wheels with 195-65-15s (Both Hankook and Vredestein) on my gen 3.
This thread makes me happy. And I never saw anything north of 60 mpg while I owned it. Good job!
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
I mean, if we're doing wheels on a prius a set of Ronal Teddys would make me do a spit take:
red_stapler said:Anecdotally, switching to 22lb 17" with 205-50-17 Avid Ascend was an 8mpg penalty over the ~15lb gen 3 wheels with 195-65-15s (Both Hankook and Vredestein) on my gen 3.
I have a really hard time believing that made such a big difference. On SWMBO's Gen 2 it was about an 8 mpg penalty at highway speed, a little less around town when swapping from pretty much any all season to studded snows for winter (both 185/65R15).
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