17 inch tires

Your car is going to look really sweat!

tirerack.com

Is the place for tires. I like the 235-40-17 in the front it is a nice size for that rim. The 245 looks to wide for a 8" rim

Do a searce by tire size. Most Panteras are running Michelin Pilot Sports around here

Congratulations Bill!

Michelin & Pirelli are good rubber. They are kind of a status thing with Pantera owners. There's a lot of follow the leader around here if you haven't noticed.

Yokohama is excellent rubber!

Kumho is developing a good rep among the grass roots motorsports folks too.

George

You can also try a 315/35/17 for the rears. Found a pair at Tirerack and they were a little lower in price.

LPB, I've found that they may list the size you want but they may have stopped manufacturing them, at least for the time being. This was the case when I was looking for Pilot Sports. Don't be surprised if you can't get the ones you want, even if they claim availability.

Ordered mine thru Allen Tire Co. tires were avaliable within 7 working days. Bill, did you get my e-mail?

Yes Mark, I got it. My tires have shipped from NY Michelon sport pilot. 335-35-17 The last 2 in stock! I have shipping confirmation. Not many choices in that size. tiresavings.com I guess I will sell my 10 inch campys on ebay.

Believe it or not Costco can order the Pilot sports and other brands and was a little cheaper than tire rack and included free mounting and balancing and lifetime free rotation while you shop. Some of the larger stores may even have them in stock. You can can also get them from Costco.com. There is the tricky part...they do it by car not size, so you have to click on a exotic or maybe a Corvette to match your size. My Costco here in Hawaii was out of stock from their supplier for the larger tires 335/30x18. Some of the stores are scared to mount them on real expensive wheels too. Just something check out before you buy. May work out better for you mainlanders.
Congratulations Bill on the Tire/wheel buy!!! It pays to be kind to the wife huh! Hee Hee! "A Happy wife is a happy life!"

UPS came today with the tires..My wife said "so big" lol They are over 12 inches w i d e. I hope I like the look before retro comes back..

I just bought goodyear 315/35-17 rear &245/35-17 front from tire rack.Rears are 25.7 tall & fronts are 23.8. Ordered on Thursday & arrived on Friday.Costs $43.92 shipping.Just mounted but have not put them on yet. I am very pleased with how they look. I am using campy lookalike wheels from Wilkersons's 17-11 rear & 17-8 fronts.

Alls well that ends well! $ 2800 later and I am pleased rears 335-35-17 fronts 235 40 17 Michelin sport radial zr

WOW GUYS.
Seems like theres a "Big Wheel / Tyre" buying - frenzy going on.
Do us all a favour please. Someone out there weigh one of these Campy - cloned 17 x 335/35 tyred items. And any other combination in these sizes. It would be very interesting to All @ Sundry, (whoever they are ...) re the Unsprung Weight Debate....with the well known problems of the poor design of the Pantera's suspension / rear A- arms, etc. ( see Rear Suspension Rebuild posted by SWENDOG.) - I am of the opinon that to bolt MUCH heavier whls. / tys. on an already way out-dated and poor design ( designed in the late 60's for goodness sake ! ) could NOT be a GOOD thing....What are the weights ????? compared say to the org. Campy 15 x 14 as fitted to the GRP4 racers or , if thats not a fair comparison, - then at least the Campy 15 x 13 /345/35's of the GT5's.......
A frightening example of the above was very grafically demonstrated to me a while ago by the engeineer / rolling chassis designer of many Cobra's, GT40's, and now Pantera GRP.4 Replica's made here in little old South Africa: He slid a hyd. jack under the rear of his Replica and told me to watch closely as he slowly lifted the rear. No tyre/whl. movement whatsoever re. the dreaded Scrub - In. etc. - They went straight up in one strt. vertical line. He then did the same to my '76 Pantera and to my horror it lookled like I had swapped a VW Beattle backend in......the whls / tys did a whole 'swing axel' movement going into total postive camber.....frieghtening...Try it. This is why we all are spending masses 0f $$$'s trying to make an antiquated system work, in stead of spending those $'s somewhere else....u can make a Pantera handle wellish, but its a lot of work....and then none of the settings stay set !!!....... No, no, no....thats why we have built these modern, state of the art 'new' Hi-Tec Specials or Replicars..... remote brake fluid resiviors, suspensiom fully adjustable all round with one Allen Key etc ....the lap times around Kyalamy Race trk. of one of theses cars was minutes ( felt like minutes...) quicker than my poor old '76, with comparable power outputs.......
Be careful of weighing up the suspension to much, - heavy whls/tys, bolted-on chunks of iron trying to hold geometery in place....ohh boy...... Guess what the weight of these cars are ? ( ...with PROPER Carbon Fibre body panels...etc...)..u would flip.

Just thought I' pop this in for ur interest...

tai krige
Pantera SA.

quote:

and now Pantera GRP.4

Can you elaborate what he has done?

Thanks.

Jeff
6559

(I have a set of Michelin Pilot sports for sale. 2) 235x40x17 fronts and (2) 285x40x17 rears in the nice sticky tread pattern everyone is going to. $399 for the set of four excellent shape. 4900 miles on them. Thats the cost of one of the rear tires!!!! You pay the shipping from Hawaii zip 96732. I can put them on a pallet and send via DHX http://www.dhx.com/default.cfm?CFID=703893&CFTOKEN=62914657
Or one at a time through USPS Priority mail or parcel post. http://postcalc.usps.gov/
Emery
emery@hawaii.rr.com
808-870-8531 RememberDon't call too early, I'm on Hawaii time zone.

Tai, the shipping weight on the 17x11 campy clone was 32 lbs. I say the tire is another 20 lbs. I'll try and get a scale.......again.......

Thanks LPB for your quick reply.
Yeah I know . Its a pain hey. iam considering installing a permanent scale in my garage since I seem to be spending too much time in the bathroom weighing 'oilly car parts' ( herwords not mine_) on the wife's scale and getting caustic comments & funny looks.
Just like our friend in the cold north of Europe; Goran, I am also going fully along he's route in an attempt to get my '76 a slimmer waistline. So far I have pulled out all the glass, door panels, center instrument panel, useless pop-up lights with all their connected bits and Goran was right, you save 46.2lbs just on the lights, and the projector lites and clear acrilic covers look very contempory.
I will definetly buy my own, workshop dedicated "Car Parts Scale" and keep track of the weifght saving to post later.

P.S. Read P.I. 's magazine about 2 / 3 back ; Goran's fantastic article on weight saving ...what a way to go.....My mate's Noble weighs soooo much less than my '76....I've HAD to starve the lbs off it.....Will post the weight differences between the carbon fibre parts soon as they are ready.....

Hey LPB,
Yeah you guessed it, I got out the old scale agin to check the weight differences 'twix your 17x11 at 32lbs and my 18x13. - Are u sure u didnt weight it with the tyre on ? Only kidding.
Anyhow my 18x13 came in at 26.4lbs. & my frt. 16x9.5 came in at a low 15.4lbs....As u see i am into the "Big / Little" look and also like a slight nose-down attitude.- I feel to get the ride-height where i would like it, prohibits the use of tall tyre/whl combo's due to the inherent lack of space within the Pantera whl-wells.....
By the way, I forgot to say; your car looks absolutely fab....Excellent color, beutifull wheels.....Killer Wicked !

Tai, Thanks for the compliment on the car......I have been working har to get it right. On the weight, I think you should knock my wheel weight down 2 lbs because or the box they came in. I took weight into consideration before my purchase. Just those single slots on the button car, I had to go there! I like the way they cover my stock brake system and fill in the wheel.

Just weighed my wheels and tires mounted on 17/8 fronts and 17/11 campy look alikes.
rear is 56lbs. and fronts are 43lbs.That is without lugnuts.

Thanks for going to the trouble JW.
I will weigh my 18x13 with the tyres on soonest ( 335/30 ) and post the weight, also the frt 16x9.5's.
Yes u are quite right LPB, ur Campy clones's look really great. They HAVE to be the best look out there for me.....and how they've managed to keep the 'older' orginal design look is fab. Who designed these wheels ??? Is this the wheel that Tom Tjaarda penned ?
By the way if you have the de Tomaso 'Bible'; "Pantera's For The Road" by Henry Rasmussen theres a whole excelent section with the best photos ever on ALL the de Tomaso Campy wheels.....this book has the best pics of all the de Tomaso's...the ones on the pretiest Vallelunga's ( ...my first de Tomaso. ) is awesome and the Pantera's ....get the book... The vendors had copies awhile ago....i got a new copy from Hall's.....Its an absolute Gem of a book, although the copy is a bit naf, but the pics glorious......
LPB ! Your coverage of your removal of the shock spacers was just the best. Well done indeed.... to see the rear bottom A -arms at the horizontal is the way to go. Bravo, great piece and so helpfull to all....Boy, do we all have a lot to thk PI ...this Site is tops....

Tai The singles were one off special made by some guy named Boyd. They are forged, 2 peice.

Hey Jeff.
Sorry I missed your query a couple of pages back regarding our Pantera Replicar. I posted some pics of detail shots of the space frame chassis showing the remote brake resivoirs, rose-jointed suspention etc. also shots of the rear section of a working scale wooden-model of the rolling chassis before we commited it to the CAD system and started Laser Cutting to build the first one. Theses pics along with shots of the new motor on stand with quad Webers and 180 degree exhaust are posted somewhere in the Tech. Section on ALAN B's posting of "180 Degree Exhausts" last seen round page 15.....I will forthwith move them to the new Engine Photo's Section asap...I'll also list the specs. We have been struggling with the carbon fibre body panels but now seem to have 'cured' the problems...Pics to follow. The rear deck-lid is a bit extreme and may not be to everyones taste but its sure is strong & light and being heavyly vented will lose lots of under bonnet heat build up...

LPB :-
You must be refering to THE Boyd Coddington (spl.) of Hot Rod fame ? How many sets did he make ? Expensive ?
They sure are pretty.
Regards, tai

Tai, Yeah thats him. I bought them from Steve Wilkinson. There are not many pushbuttons around. I could not belive he had them in stock on the shelf.and on sale too! $1750 USD. he did not really make them just for me but I'll bet he was glad when I called. I really liked the double slots too. The singles were just a match made in heaven. I know it is summer in South Africa, I hope you enjoy it while I'm getting rained on.

Jeff6559.
You asked me 'to elaborate' on our Grp4 Replica chassis/suspention design compared to the problemactic "old" low-tech existing Pantera design and how difficult it was to make it all work properly and then maintain the giometery dialled in......( plse excuse spelling, english is not my first languge..)
Find pics of the same on the ENGINE PHOTO section.
With all the advantages of this present day hi-tech design one also has the advantage of the low weight the space-framed chassis & light weight body offers. Our first 34x examples weighted in at +- 2200lbs, but we hope soon to have a 'proper' Carbon Fibre sandwich/composite body which will lower the weight more and increase the tortional ridgidity of the cars...
Watch this space.
The only vechicle to better our lap time around Kyalamy International Racetrack is Dr Stuart Kidgell's biturbo Alfa V6 ULTIMA (disigned by none other than Lee Noble of NOBLE M400 fame). This ULTIMA is seriously quick. I quote: Street & Track issue # 24 reporting on the '05 FIREBALL RUN ; "This run attracted some hardcore machinery. There were Porches by the dozen ( and not run of the mill types either, Brian White had his twin-turbo monster on the bill. Stuart Kidgell had his fire-breathing Alfa biturbo ULTIMA ( which is reakoned to be the most advanced ULTIMA in the world) on hand. There were brand-spankers BMW CSL's., Nobles, Lotus Elise & Extige, Subaru WRX rally-spec tarmac racers and a bunch of breathed - on Chevy Corvettes ( Mallets, Callaways (?) as well."
Thought I'd pass this on, cheers.

Roland -
Could you post pictures of each wheel taken at the same angle so that we could see the differences? Thanks.

Hey Roland. Wie gehts.
I disagree. Hamberg almost is Germany's nicest town. Ahrensburg is ! Rule Ahrensburg.
We lived there for 2 years. The best years.... What a shame we didnt bump into each other. I had my GT40 Replica there and my Pantera. My everyday car /daily driver was a white '65 Jaguar S-type. Small world.
Keep up the good work spanking those uptight Porsche / Beeemer Boys with your fabulous Cat.
Cheers, tai

Hi Roland. Tai again. Yeah, trust Boyd Coddington to come up with a good looking wheel that is strong AND light. - I struggled for awhile deciding what wheel/tyre combo to run on my GRP4 Replica and finally settled on a set of Work Racing rims; 16x9.5" and 18x13".( I dont like the 'nose-up' look, so i went with 16's in the front....) - Being 3 piece rims with spun ally outers they are both strong @ light. And not half bad looking to boot.
Thought i'd pass that along....i worry about folk bolting heavy chunks of metal on the ends of the already overstressed, 'old- fashioned' suspentions of the orginal cars....have you seen what is sold by vendors to try and keep the front-end setups in place on the suspentions A - arms? - Boy o boy....Cheers again. tai

Hi Roland, wir waren 1992 - 94 - und eigentlich ist Tai's deutsch nicht sehr gut - aber er hatte sich ueber Deine deutsche Nachricht sehr gefreut and so muss ich jetzt antworten. Wir haben einen weissen Old Timer Jaguar in Ahrensburg gefahren und auch einen GT 40 - den die Polizei sofort konfiskieren wollte - eigentlich 2 Minuten vom Hafen nach der Ankunft -(hier hatte er ihn fuer Jahre ohne Probleme gefahren.
Best regards,
Angelika Smirnoff -Krige

Tai,

Mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut. The GT40 & Jag were taken & the Pantera left behind? Any explanation for that? Was this while exiting Germany or entering So. Africa?

Whatever the circumstances, it must have been quite sad for you. My sympathies, my friend.

Sorry to but into the conversation.

George