I feel like I should use some lightweight lug nuts with my new lightweight wheels. Any recommendations? I'd like a set that will hold up to being taken off and put on many times as I swap tires for race days. Any brands that stand out or ones to avoid?
Factory Porsche magnesium lug nuts?
The Porsche ones are amazingly light
How much weight are you going to save with lug nuts, and would it really matter?
I ran 949's for 2 years, although the anodizing came off and they started to get corroded. And I never drove the car in the winter.
Going by the advertised weights & assuming 4 lugs / wheel, would save nearly a pound. Would it matter? Are there better ways to spend $60? Maybe, but sometimes it's just about wanting something ...
novaderrik wrote: How much weight are you going to save with lug nuts, and would it really matter?
I've always struggled with this myself, and have decided that lug nuts are pretty far down my weight reduction pareto.
Yes, it is a pound of rotating mass, butt the radius that the lug nuts rotate about is so small.
Just get the smallest steel ones you can find. I weighed some of my 17mm open ended ones one time and they were very similar to the weights posted for 949 lugs, but will be much cheaper and more durable.
The weight savings is purely mental, I just want to look cool.
EDIT: I went with the 949 lugs. They were less expensive than a lot of options out there and the OEM Ford nuts have a chrome cap that caused problems. Thanks for the link!
Lug hardware is challenge exempt, and I have wanted to exploit that and buy lightweight lugs.
Can't convince myself of any performance gain that would be measurable though, and couple that with the fact that if you're not likely a front runner then you blow the loophole for no reason.
BTW, I see 949 offers aluminum valve caps. Unless you're running bolt-in metal valve stems, these are a bad idea. The heavier your valve caps are, the more centrifugal force will be applied to the valve stem. This force is what can cause valve stems (especially if they're rubber, press-in, and/or long) to tear out at high speed and instantly deflate a tire. If you drive at high speeds (like 180kph+) you want your valve caps to be as light as possible above all else, which means running the same plastic cheapos the soccer moms do. They're the lightest.
If you have metal bolt-in valve stems you can get away with heavier valve caps...but lighter is still safer.
Also you might want to think about how much thread engagement those aluminum lugs need. The threads would be damaged more easily than on a steel lug nut, so if you only have the ~1.5cm of threads sticking out, which is enough to get complete engagement on the usual steel lug nuts, these 40mm long nuts might not be the best idea.
^^^ what he said about the stud engagement on the aluminum nuts. Last year I bought the 949 nuts for the autocross Miata. I do not use impact tools on them ever, but for my peace of mind I also went with extended ARP studs so ALL the threads are in contact.
Lighter nuts and heavier bolts: probably exactly the same weight at the end of the day, but I feel extra pimpy doing it. 
(and having seen a car break it's studs off at the track I figured it was a good time to replace my 20 year old hardware.)
I bought aluminum tuner lugs off eBay about 5 years and 300 wheel swaps ago and have 0 issues. I use an impact to zip them off and snug them on. I always use a torque wrench for final tightening.
tripp wrote: The Porsche ones are amazingly light
And yet a lot of racers use the original steel ones. Hmmmm
Sure, we may already have established it's more cool than useful, but don't forget it's both rotating and unsprung! 
The weight savings is purely mental, I just want to look cool.
I can pretty much assure you that the last thing people are looking at when at the track are your nuts.
Your driving, maybe....
markwemple wrote:tripp wrote: The Porsche ones are amazingly lightAnd yet a lot of racers use the original steel ones. Hmmmm
Because they are cheaper and aren't typically very brittle or have dissimilar metal reaction issues.
I've had work ones forever, zero issues.
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