Comparison of OEM Aero vs Signature Forged 18inch Wheels: Weight | Range | Feedback

[EVM3]

Some background:

- Model 3 Non-AWD
- 3 out of 4 wheels bent during a road trip to Santa Barbara, Tesla wouldn't replace them
- suspected autopilot is challenging for any bad road since it only knows to stay within its lanes
- crucial to have stronger wheels otherwise not safe with these Aero cast wheels IMO

Purpose is to have stronger wheels than our aero stock, i don't want to go wider and lose range. I decided to go with Signature SV902 in matte black in 18x8.5 so I can reuse stock Michelin Primacy MXM4 235/45/18. This way I can keep Model 3 design intact with same wheel diameter and width. Also I can do a apple to apple compairson.

OEM Aero vs Signature Forged 18inch SV902 Wheels

Weight (Wheel Only)
Aero: 23lb
Signature SV902: 17.5lb

Weight (With Michelin Primacy 235/45/18)
Aero: 49.5lb
Signature SV902: 44lb

Range
Aero: 244 Wh/mi (7750 miles testing)
Signature SV902: 226 Wh/mi (100 miles testing so far, will continue updating)

Feedback:
- I have only driven 100 miles after putting them on, so I will keep updating this thread.
- after 22lb reduction of unsprung weight, the car definitely felt lighter, noticeable pickup speed right off the line
- forged should be stronger, but need to take another road trip soon to test it out

Since I took the time and money trying to improve our beloved Model 3, I want to share the datas with the forum members. Any comments or input are welcome. Below are some photos, thanks for reading.

 

[e-FTW]

Love it!

Is that a 2 inch drop?

 

[Daniel in SD]

So, you bent three rims and decided to replace them with $5000 rims? Bold move
They do look very nice though!
I don't think autopilot is supposed to be used off-road

 

[e-FTW]

View attachment 390692

Those are the stock tires? On an identically sized wheel (18x8.5)?
Because those tires don’t look nearly as stretched as they do on the aero wheels. Gives you some nice curb protection!

 

[EVM3]

Those are the stock tires? On an identically sized wheel (18x8.5)?
Because those tires don’t look nearly as stretched as they do on the aero wheels. Gives you some nice curb protection!

Yes these are stock tires, and the SV902 wheels are 18x8.5 from Signature.

 

[Eth3r]

Love it, nice choice!

 

[srs5694]

What's your mix of city vs. highway (high-speed) driving? The claim is that the aero wheels help aerodynamics, but that effect is most important at highway speeds, not driving around town at 20 mph.

 

[EVM3]

What's your mix of city vs. highway (high-speed) driving? The claim is that the aero wheels help aerodynamics, but that effect is most important at highway speeds, not driving around town at 20 mph.

Good question, I should've included this information. I am about 30/70 city vs highway, that aero cap is too much of an eye sore, I just can't do it no more, LOL!

 

[MrRoboto]

Looks awesome. Are the offsets the same between the two sets of wheels?

 

[wenkan]

Seems you also lowered the car? Have you factored it out for the range increasing?

 

[EVM3]

Seems you also lowered the car? Have you factored it out for the range increasing?

I did lowered and wheels together so I didn't factor in lowering for potential range difference. Can any of you with non-awd, aero wheel contribute to us the Wh/mile number just for compairson?

 

[EVM3]

Looks awesome. Are the offsets the same between the two sets of wheels?

It's different.

Aero is 18x8.5 ET40

Signature SV902 is 18x8.5 ET24 (so it's more flush fitment and more concave than stock)

 

[Luudcrs]

Looks great! Tires definitely look meatier than on aeros. What are you lowered on?

 

[T3SMA]

i think we need to know how you bent three rims...

great replacement using the stock tires btw!

 

[Skione65]

How do you bend 3 Stock 18” Aeros? Everyone says go to those and slams the 20’s because they say 18’s are the holy grail?

Ski

 

[kbecks13]

- after 22lb reduction of unsprung weight, the car definitely felt lighter, noticeable pickup speed right off the line

Sorry but...

 

[zhu-]

Aero is 18x8.5 ET40

Signature SV902 is 18x8.5 ET24 (so it's more flush fitment and more concave than stock)

Those wheels look great but I've seen an ET25 wheel fit much more flush than how these ET24s look.

 

[Daniel in SD]

Sorry but...

Someone has to do the math on this. What is the theoretical 0-60 improvement from dropping 22lbs from your wheels?
You probably get about 0.5% just from the weight loss but how much do you get from the reduced rotational kinetic energy?

 

[kbecks13]

Someone has to do the math on this. What is the theoretical 0-60 improvement from dropping 22lbs from your wheels?

Haha yea i was going to do this but i'm a little busy with work at the moment...will need to do it soon though.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Quickly used some calculators. I might have screwed this up.
Assuming: 10kg spinning @ radius of 8 inches (this is obviously approximate and probably overestimates the energy of the additional spinning weight?)
At 60mph, vehicle speed in ft/s is at: 88ft/sec, wheel circumference is 6.89ft, so 12.77rev/sec
Angular velocity: 80.2rad/sec
Moment of inertia: m*r^2 = 10kg*0.2m^2 = 0.4kg*m^2
Rotational KE: 0.5*I*omega^2 = 0.5 * 0.4kg/m^2 * 80.2^2/sec = 1286kg*m^2/s^2 = 1286joules

KE of vehicle at 60mph is 1/2*m*v^2 = 1/2*4100lbs*60mph^2 = 669kJ

So an additional 0.2% improvement beyond the weight savings if you lose that rotating weight?

Please correct obvious errors here. Maybe I'm off by a factor of 10 somewhere? I don't have a feel for what is reasonable, though it seems like the answer would be a small (but significant if you're racing!) effect. This answer due to rotational KE only would drop ~10ms off the 0-60. The weight would be an additional 20ms (0.54% of 3.6s), so total would be 30ms better 0-60. That's not nothing!

Some results from people here suggest it could be more like 100ms though (could be vehicle variation or driver weight though). But maybe calculations above are wrong.