345 tires

Robert,

I have never heard of a 345,45,15 are you sure? Check again. What make is you current tyre?
Pirelli make a batch of the 345,35,15 once a year. Not sure about the front though.

Johnny

Coker handles these and they have a 335/35/15:

http://www.longstonetires.com/michelintb15.php

The 335/45 would be more opriginal looking. The 335/35 is a little thin but it's about all that is available. If you find a 335/45 I'd love to know.

Gary

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny Woods:
Robert,

I have never heard of a 345,45,15 are you sure? Check again. What make is you current tyre?
Pirelli make a batch of the 345,35,15 once a year. Not sure about the front though.

Johnny

Will this tire fit on a stock fender car with a 10" wide x 15" diameter rim?

quote:

Will this tire fit on a stock fender car with a 10" wide x 15" diameter rim?

I have seen it done, but it looks ridiculous.

Johnny

At this point I am going by the info given to me by the owner of the car. I suppose he could be incorrect.

The current tires are Yokohamas, but I know they are at least 5 years old.

They aren't for a stock fender car, it is a GT5 conversion. They go on a 14" wide x 15" wheel (which I'm told is rare).

The 14" wide wheels are extremely rare I believe, most wide body Panteras that are wearing the Campi's have the 13".

A lot of people that have wide body cars have aftermarket wheels for the exact reasons we are discussing here, tire availability.

As far as I'm aware the Pirellis P-Zero and Yokohama's only come in 35 profile i.e. 345/35-15

Julian

If I remember right, there is a company out there, cooker I think, but maybe not, that will make any historic sized tire you ask for. I think they make brand new tires for like model Ts and stuff. Things that have been obsolete for a century even. All you have to do i$ a$k them how much it will co$t and then have the $heckle$ ready when they $hip.

Yes the 14 x 15 are rare .. I have a set of 13 x 15 and I was looking for tires also.

good info thanks

Ron

Unless you get really, really lucky, or are prepared to buy old rubber (not recommended), the 285/40-15 tires are available only from Kjell Jansson in Sweden or Roland Jaeckel in Germany. These are recent production tires from the Yokohama AVS Intermediate series. Brace yourself, because they are not cheap when you factor in the shipping, duties, brokerage fees, taxes, etc.

The 345/35-15 tires are occasionally available in North America from Pirelli in their P-Zero Giallo Asimmetrico series. They are still an "active product", but Pirelli only sends them to North America as "filler" if they have room left over in a container. As a result, they have only been arriving in very limited numbers (six pairs from last year's production run, I'm told). If you can't find them and are in a hurry, Kjell can probably supply them as well.

I have purchased a number of tires from Kjell, and found him to be very patient, knowledgeable, helpful and a real pleasure to deal with. I think we all owe him and the Swedish DeTomaso Club a debt for having had the foresight to purchase, stockpile and make these tires available for us.

Kjell Jansson, 08-541 370 40, reservdelspoolen@detomaso.nu
kjell.jansson@detomaso.se

Svenska DeTomaso-klubben
Kolgruvegatan 14
417 07 GÖTEBORG
Tel/fax 031-22 99 22

As I pointed out earlier Cooker has thes new:

http://www.longstonetires.com/michelintb15.php

Comp2:

From the ad in your link, the Michelin TB tire sizes and prices are as follows:

26/61-15 Michelin TB15 Tire 295/40VR15 £222.00
29/61-15 Michelin TB15 Tire 335/35VR15 £244.00

Although the tires are V-rated, I wonder how well they would work on a GT car being used for its intended purpose? It looks to me like these tires are more old-fashioned racing tires with some minor modifications to make them street legal. I would also want to know how modern the tread pattern and compound are. It should also be noted that the tires sizes, while they will mount on the 10" and 13" Pantera wheels, are a slightly different size than stock. I would be interested to know what affect this will have on the appearance of the car and on the speedometer calibration.

The price of these tires is comparable to what I recall Kjell would charge for the Yokohama and Pirelli tires, which are the exact correct size and engineered for modern GT cars. Personally, I would feel a lot safer on the mass-produced tires rather than these obviously limited production, specialty vintage and possibly obsolete technology Michelin/Coker tires. Mind you, this would not be an issue if a person were to only have their car out for leisurely drives in perfect weather.

In a post on the E-mail Forum dated April 28, 2004, Mike Drew wrote as follows:

Hi guys,

For years now, people have been wringing their hands regarding the demise of
available tires for the 15x10 and 15x13 wheels used on the wide-body Panteras.

I just discovered that Michelin has revised its TB line of tires. These are
vintage-looking V-rated radials, which were original issue on supercars and
racing cars of the day. The new tires continue to use a screwed-up, antiquated
nomenclature system, such as 23/61-15. The first number (23) is the tread
width in mm. The second number is the tire height in mm. And the third number
is the rim diameter--in inches!

The Pantera originally wore Pirellis in 285/40-15 and 345/35-15 (modern
nomenclature). There are two new tires that are close in size for the
front--23/62-15 (which is 270/45 in modern nomenclature), and 26/61 (295/40). For the
rear, they have 29/61-15, which is 335/35.

These tires are marked with DOT stamps so they're road-legal in the USA.
Here's a direct link to a UK distributor with a fair bit of information and
prices:

http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/michelintb15.php

These tires are now available in the USA from Coker Tire. Here's a direct
link to their page:

http://www.coker.com/store/customer/home.php?cat=274

Thank you everyone for the info.

I will definately contact Coker, Kjell and Roland when I need to replace the tires. I will also look into the custom made tires just to see how expensive they are.

Hopefully those rare 14" wheels won't make this even more difficult. I would hate to give up the wheels.

Shoot, I just realized this car has no spare. Could this be more difficult?

R.

If you ever decide to sell the wheels, let me know.

In terms of the spare, the inflatable space-saver is available from the vendors. I bought one from Precision Pro-Formance at an exhorbitant price and an even more exhorbitant shipping and handling cost. I don't use it because a) it is heavy b) because it takes up my front trunk and c) because the thing is only good for less than 50 miles anyway, and I'm usually further than that from a shop that can do a flat repair. I run with a can of instant flat repair instead, and hope for the best.

Robert,

I have a spare and a new cover for it. It should be going up on ebay around the end of the month.

John

I will let you know if I decide to sell them.

I'm trying to decide whether or not to go to a larger wheel/lower profile tire combo. I wouldn't mind a more modern look. But then I would need to shave the door handles and repaint the car. And then I would need to go to 180 degree exhaust. And then I would need to change the interior. And then add scissor doors. And then...

But wait, didn't I buy a finished car so I wouldn't have to change anything?

R.

quote:

Originally posted by RobertVegas:
...Shoot, I just realized this car has no spare...

Robert, You don't need a spare. Get yourself a tool, like needle nose pliers, for removing whatever has punctured your tire, a plug kit for plugging the puncture, and a good 12 VDC air compressor. Takes up less room than a spare tire.

George

345 35 15 on a 15x11 tire with stock fenders.

i have a set of 15 inch wheels for a wide body car I have been trying to sell. I can send pics. They are three peice wheels, aluminum with removable knock offs. I also have a new set of 345 35 15 wheels in yoko flavor. They still have the shipping lables on them. Never mounted.

Make offers!!

greg.jacobs@jacobsracing.com

Greg

quote:

Originally posted by RobertVegas:
I will let you know if I decide to sell them.

I'm trying to decide whether or not to go to a larger wheel/lower profile tire combo. I wouldn't mind a more modern look. But then I would need to shave the door handles and repaint the car. And then I would need to go to 180 degree exhaust. And then I would need to change the interior. And then add scissor doors. And then...

But wait, didn't I buy a finished car so I wouldn't have to change anything?

R.

Infectous isn't it?

Infectious? Yes!

I don't think this is a good sign. I don't even get the car until next week (assuming the final inspection/test drive goes well) and I am already starting on a list of things to do to a nice, complete car.