18" rear, 17" front pantera east???????

quote:

if everyone thinks diferent please let me know

I'm not the only owner who thinks 18" is too large for our cars. Proportions seem to be out of wack with that size.

You asked.

Larry

I have seen 18 rear and 17 front on a very few cars and I think it looks perfect, gives just the right rake to the car. Be sure to set your shock height low otherwise it may look funky. I think 17 & 18 is just right, nice middle of the road rim, not like going super bling up to 20" or more with 1" side width rubber. Lots of this stuff is just a matter of opinion and taste though. Maybe try a little photoshop with larger rims on your car. Watch your overall diameter too, if your car has been modified fenders.

Rims and rubber aren't cheap, so before spending your $$ I'd look at other examples.

I've seen some that have looked too tall - they raised the car up somewhat noticeably. Don't know if that can be fixed by lowering springs or something, but I'd tread carefully. Could be expensive if you don't like the result...

I run 18's and 20's out back and people tell me they look awesome.
345/25/20 tyres fit well too.

17" front 18" rear just need a tire that is about 1" shorter in the front than the rear.

Not the best of pics .. but these were specially made by Wilkinson to fit my car. I;m very happy. 18 x 13.5 rims with 335/30/ZR18 Michelin Pilot Sports and 17 x 10 rims with 255/45/ZR17 and this is the best pic I have when the flairs were being fitted.

Ron

This is a topic that involves personal taste, and so we must always take that into account. Some people just don't like the ultra narrow side walls of today's newest performance tires.

Here's some general notes on fitting tires & wheels onto Panteras.

The GT5 & GT5-S wheel wells were designed around tires that were 23.9" OD front, 24.5" OD rear. A difference in OD of only about 1/2 inch. The difference is so small that I really don't think staggering the wheel size will look good.

As the OD of your tire gets larger, the tire is going to start looking too big for the wheel well. It's damn near impossible to find modern tires (of adequate width) that are only 24" to 24.5" in OD. However, they are available around 25" OD, so my recommendation is to buy a set of tires designed for the same size wheel, where both front & rear tires are about 25" OD.

I helped a GT5 owner a while back with this issue, he wanted to run modern low profile tires, we came up the following package:

Front: 19" x 10" wheels, 265/30R19 tires

Rear: 19" x 12" wheels, 315/25R19 tires.

The tires are 25.2" OD front & rear.

Narrow body Panteras are a different story, the front tires were 25" OD, the rear tires were ~27" OD, a difference in OD of 2", so staggering the wheel diameters 1 or 2 inches emphasizes this difference in wheel well proprtions, and looks very good. When selecting modern tires for a narrow body Panteras you want to fit a larger tire OD in the rear, 26.5" or a bit more, in comparison to the GT5 or GT5-S. The narrow bodies look best with about a 24.5" OD tire in the front.

The 325/25R20 tire on the rear of 6018 is 26.4" OD, and fits the wheel well about as full as its going to get.

I guess the point I'm emphasizing here is to pay attention to the wheel wells, size the tire to look proper in the wheel well, which means keeping the tires approximately the same OD as stock, and maintain the front to back stagger in diameter the same as stock too.

18" x 11" & 19" x 13" - 285/30 & 345/30

A thing of beauty Micheal. Perfect fit and selection.

Ron

George really nice fit and selection ... those are big boys .. I guess I happen to like the low profile look.

Ron

Great insight....the thought again for 18 rear is to achieve the wider tire,345's and the pantera east because they fill t he wheel wells better and look more like GT5 as appossed to my Hall's which look to me more like a narrow body style. I just found an old thread about hall pantera using 1" spacers, apparently still available, to offset the Hall 17" out, ie eliminating that so called funny car look.
Has any one done this? I not sure I like the idea of 1" spacers, I know they do it on racecars all the time.....but.....

Thanks,
Daniel

quote:

the thought again for 18 rear is to achieve the wider tire,345's

Many of us are running a 335/35 X 17" on an 11" rim.

Your desire for 345 width adds only about 3/8" of width over that of a 335.

Larry

quote:

Originally posted by accobra:
A thing of beauty Micheal. Perfect fit and selection.

Ron

Thanks, Ron, I appreciate the compliment!

I pained long and hard over which wheel to go with and with the backspacing. Then, should I get them polished or have them anodized grey. I was definitely happy when I saw them on the car. The grey centers tie in with the grey side lettering and the gray interior just like I'd hoped they would. Another reason I didn't get the centers polished is I didn't want the wheels to overpower the design of the car. In my opinion, they compliment the car, not compete with it.

The lips need to be polished something fierce now. I'll just start another page on the list...

Where in NY do you live? I'm a Bronx boy myself.

Michael

It is such a shame that Z rated 15” tires aren’t available anymore. Our Panteras look so perfect with them. And, yes I’m running 16” and 17” rims but 15” would be wonderful.

Mike

Daniel,

I went with 18" rear and 17" front for the GP4 conversion on my '74 during the Kodiak wheel group buy as I liked the additional rake they offer, (I'm not sure it isn't more of an optical illusion) and wide 18" tires are somewhwat more readily avaiulable. However, I stuck with Pilot Sport 335/30 series tires even in 18".

The 345 series are a Pilot Sport Cup and they have 14.1" section width (versus 13.4" for 335/35-17's), however, the Sport Cup is a competition tire that comes with 6/32 tread depth vs. 10/32 for the Pilot Sport, so 60% the tire for about the same $400 investment each.

Now on the GT5 I have 17" all round and would not change that as the Group 5 flares and sill tend to provide more level symmetry. On the rear I already have clearance issues with the way the car is set up (low) and I wouldn't want to raise the rear to get the additional section width under the flares. If you do decide to go 18" with the 345's you should look at wheel offsets very carefully and may want a custom offset.

Are you going to Vegas? If so we can swap a wheel on to you car to see how it looks. That is if I can get it all back topgether in time as the ZF is out and oil pan off at the moment.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by LF - TP 2511:

Many of us are running a 335/35 X 17" on an 11" rim.



Wilkinson...single clone fit perfect... same as Larry 335/35 17 on 11 inch rim...... Made for the car... There aint' but a fraction of an inch clearence. But thats all you need..

Wilkinson custom 10 spokes 18" front and 19" rear. Pirelli PZero Corsa 285/30ZR-18 Front with Pirelli PZero Corsa System Asimmetrico 345/35ZR19 rears.

Very nice and superb work on the flares.

I can see two more P car shells in your photo, what's the plan for those?

Hi Julian,

The other P cars in the photo are not mine, and the metal work was performed by a professional at this shop. I do not know whose they were or what the prospects were for the other cars either -- sorry. I do know that all of the welds on the flares are butt welded and NOT lapped. The metal craftsman was also careful about how the crease came out from the body of the car to the flare. It was one of those things that the rims and rubber were purchased first, and then the flares were set according to how the wheels fit on the car. The flares turned out really well doing it this way. I just hope that there is no contact when the suspension travel moves around and when the car is steered in different directions.

Mark

That is really the way to go, to massage a set of steel flares to fit a wheel tire package of the owner's choice.

This of course is different than fitting wheels & tires to an existing wheel well.

Mark your car is gonna look bitchen when its done.

George,

If you ever get a chance to get over to Wilkinson's, that is where the car is being built, you should take a look. You are right about getting the rims and tires to match a car that is going to have Group 4 flares or a GT5-S package installed. It better turn out, or it cannot really be classified as a success.

I cannot wait until the car is done either -- but then again, good things come to those who wait.

I've seen it.

I have a narrow body car and will probably run 17" front and rear for tire selection although I might put 18" on the rear. As it relates to the question above I am curious about offset.

Can you put 17x9" on the front of a narrow body car? What offset?
What offset for 17x8"?
What is proper offset for 17 or 18 X10 or 11 at rear? - thanks.

I also have 17's on the front and 18's on the rear, and really like the look. I like the rake or slant that it seems to give the car. And although it is a flared car (group4 look) the wheels and tire combo really seems to fit the wheel wells.