you can drive it normally... actually, if you have a lighter fly wheel you will drtive more safely and the speed limit because you'll most likely be staying around the lower rpm area

heres the easiest way to break this one down, the lighter the anything rotating, the less the moment of inertia, the more power/torque to the wheels.

recurring wheel hop and acceleration issues can be solved by another suspension upgrade or new motor mount.

with lighter drivetrain parts, you take your typical drivetrain losses and reduce them, i would guarantee that you would be at an advantage with the flywheel and a lightened pulley or two and your bolt ons as opposed to most others who just follow through with just bolt ons.

I wouldn't say that a lighter flywheel would kill your launch, but your car will behave differently.

Basically the flywheel stores all the energy that is created by the pistons in the engine.
a heavier flywheel takes more energy to make it rotate, but it also takes more energy to make stop, while a lighter flywheel take less energy to rotate, but less energy is required to stop it as well.

this is where it changes how your car runs, if you had say a heavy muscle car ( most likely RWD) and your intend to drag your car you'd stay with a heavy flywheel, because when you drop the clutch it take more energy to slow the flywheel down. So your wheels will have more power to them for a longer period of time (RPM stays high). but if you idling and you pin it it will require more time for you to pick up speed (RPM slow moving).

now with a lighter flywheel; when you drop your clutch all the energy is transferred quicker so your wheels will have more power but for a shorter period of time. (RPM drops quicker during loading), but if your driving and you pin it you'll accelerate much quicker (RPM increases quicker)

so if you think of the Cobalt which is a light car when compared to a Muscle car.
In a drag race we have to granny all our launched because we get nothing but wheel spin, so dropping the clutch at high rpm does us absolutely no good, and a heavier flywheel will makes for slower acceleration. now a lightweight flywheel will accelerate much quicker then a heavier one, which means the car will too.

Basically your car will react quicker, and transfer power quicker. so when you shift gears your rpm will drop lower then it does now, but it will accelerate quicker.

the key is to find a lighter flywheel that will still keep you in the high mid. power band, where the torque is still high.

you have more power from the engine sent to the wheels because less is used to turn the flywheel.
when letting your foot off the pedal, you will decellerate faster, this is because there is less momentum in the lighter spinning flywheel.

heres an easy way to put it if you have played baseball:
- with a lighter bat, you can swing faster, but hitting the ball will not go as far as the lighter bat will have less momentum

- with a heavier bat, you swing slower, but when you connect that ball flies because it has more momentum because the bat is heavier.

fortunately when referring to cars, we arent looking for momentum, but rather horsepower and torque so the only disadvantage with a lighter flywheel is that we dont have the momentum which means faster acceleration and decelleration (without braking)

autos dont use a flywheel you would need a diff torque converter

"the key is to find a lighter flywheel that will still keep you in the high mid. power band, where the torque is still high"

that would be nice but which flywheel does that, or does it better, i know down the road im gonna get a clutch, but still unsure if i wanna go wih a lighter flywheel, how much do ours weigh?

I have a Fidanza on the way. I'll let you guys know what I think when I get it. I hope it works out well for me. Once again, I'll have to re-learn how to drive the car. It get's better though with every mod.

i never had a lightweight flywheel, but i had a lightweight pulley on my old ecotec and i dynoed a small increase in power at the wheels.

Speed, is part of the equation for momentum, just to let you know with your baseball reference and all.;)

yes but speed (not acceleration) is assumed constant in that analogy.

What do you mean?

Something lighter and traveling faster can have more momentum than something heavier that is traveling slower. Bat speed is very important in baseball.

i agree, bat speed is important in baseball...the distance the ball is going to travel is based on momentum, so the mass of the bat plays a role as well as the velocity at the moment of impact, thats why most baseball players want to use the heaviest bat they can comfortably swing...

as relates to a flywheel, if you let off the gas, you will decelerate faster because there is less momentum from the force applied to the engine because the mass of the flywheel is less keeping the flywheel turning. same as accelerating faster. sorry i didnt type it clearly, i was assuming that you basically stomp the gas to get the car moving then let off (simmilar to a moment of impact in baseball)

an analogy for how it improves acceleration is pushing a box, if the force you apply on the box is constant, the box will accelerate, the force that is applied is the engine which is constant, the flywheel is the mass being moved, since the flywheel is lighter and the force is the same, acceleration will increase.

because the flywheel requires less energy to turn, the losses used to turn the flywheel are reduced, thus the overall drivetrain losses are decreased (more whp).