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Real World Review Of Weld Racing’s RT-S Wheels For The C6

[1]Weld Racing [2] released their new RT-S rims for the C6 Corvette and getting a real world opinion of the new product is never more than a few mouse clicks away. A poster by that goes by the name “Zturd” on LS1Tech website received his new Weld RT-S rims and posted several great pictures of the wheels.  According to LS1tech [3] the poster received his new wheels and immediately headed off to the local tire shop to have the new rims and tires mounted on the Z06.

Weld Racing builds their own cold forged rim shells, and thanks to their efforts they are able to get a 17-inch wheel to fit and clear what is customarily the territory of the larger and heavier 18-inch wheel. “Zturd” commented that both his 17 by 11-inch rear wheels and the 17 by 4.5-inch front wheels cleared the brakes; in fact the design is so keenly engineered for the C6 that RT-S wheels flow along the body without sticking out in some obscene manner. Another benefit of using a 17-inch rim over the 18 is the having more sidewall while at the dragstrip; sure, lower profile tires assist with handling through corners thanks to their innate stiffness, but drag racing benefits from having a little flex in the sidewall.

A noteworthy tech tip from Weld Racing is that the C6 uses a 5x120mm metric bolt pattern and using wheels with the standard 5 on 4.75” bolt pattern will result in bent studs once the lug nuts are tightened; with this issue in mind, Weld Racing made sure to design their rims with the proper 5x120mm bolt pattern. With the proper size already handled, the weight savings provided by the new RT-S rims should assist “Zturd” with his drag strip passes. Basically the lower weight (mass) and the energy required to move the weight or RMOI (Rotating Moment of Inertia) should result in a decrease in the ET and increase the trap speed.