What does "our cars are lug centric" mean? The stock alloy wheels are center bored to the size of the wheel hub. Not using the correct center bore on
a wheel creates shear forces on the studs which can create vibration and worse can shear off studs.
Like did they just design it with that hub metal there just for kicks and giggles?
what holds a wheel to the hub is the clamping force(friction) provided by the lug nuts between wheel and the hub surface.
the lug nuts and studs hold no horizontal force(if torqued correctly), only lateral force facing in. when you see a sheared stud that means the lug
wasnt tight.
the center hub holds ZERO force if the wheel is tighten properly. the OE does it for two reasons, one to hold the wheel on the assembly line and two
as an extra measure of safety, if the lugs are not tight enough then the hub bore will bare some weight but the hub bore will do nothing for the
rotating force of the wheel which can be much greater than the weight of the car on one wheel (imagine slamming on your brakes with loose lug nuts
the wheel will shear all of the studs rotating around the hub bore then fly off.
for this reason hub centric rings are made of plastic or soft aluminum because it holds zero force.
For anyone wondering the first generation (1G) Paseo stock alloy wheels weigh 17 pounds. I believe the second generation Paseo wheels are lighter but
I have no sources to confirm this information.
Test fit some Geo Prizm alloy wheels today. These are 14x5.5 / 54.1 / +45 / 4x100 and use mag style wheel nuts interestingly enough. Pleasantly
surprised to see they clear the Paseo's front calipers. Weighed just under 15lbs with all the crud on them.
All in all these look like a cheap go-to for Paseo or Tercel alloys as the originals become more rare and weigh more.
Also surprise to no one all the online databases that list the 1995 Geo Prizm as having a 14x6 / ET40 wheel are completely wrong!
I'm running mini cooper stocks on my red turbo car and some aftermarket 16" wheels off a mini on my green daily. Both cars have the corolla
caliper/rotor upgrade, the 16's cleared just fine, the 15" ones required some grinding of the caliper bracket to clear the wheels. Lots of really cool
Mini wheels out there for dirt cheap on CL.
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