And you should get the same drop with the trd struts as you will stock struts. The trd's have different damping characteristics due to the different spring rate on the trds springs, but the drop should not be affected.
Larger wheels are not automatically heavier. The stock wheels are heavy, and you can find 18's that are lighter than stock. However, there are other effects of having larger wheels. For one, with a larger radius (the d in the torque equation) the engine will have to provide more tq to the axle center to apply the same amount of lateral force to the ground (the F in the torque equation), given by the formula for torque and calculating backward to figure the amount of tq for a given F. So you lose some in that area.
Rotational friction is decreased. So you gain some in that area.
If the wheel is heavier, then you increase the moment of inertia, a loss in that area.
Running larger wheels will usually mean a lower sidewall to compensate for overall size. Too short of a sidewall is not always great either.
So overall, I prefer to stay with 17" wheels. But I will probably be moving towards a 245 setup at some time, especially as I start playing around with auto-xing the car.
For the tC, tires will be the easiest and best performance mod in the handling dept over stock. A thicker rear sway, or front and rear set (if you go much stiffer in back than the trd, then you will need a set with a stiffer front to keep it from promoting oversteer too much) is probably the next most noticeable and the springs are pretty close to that.
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