Skip to main content

It might not be exactly what it is ment to be discussed here, but by now many has been on the topic of wheel and tire sizes. By looking around here you will find enough info to make that sort of choises, BUT what should I chose regading style when I in a short while will need to order som new rollers?

Please post a few photos of the more unusual wheels out there!

Last edited by George P
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

I'm old school, I like the orignal Campys on narrow body Panteras & the 10 spoke Campys on wide bodies, painted the original greyish color, not polished aluminum. However ...

I'm not old school when it comes to sizes, so until somebody reproduces the Campys in 20 x 12 rear & 18 x 9 front, I'll run this wheel, which I specified because it will be easy to maintain; no polished aluminum, no exposed hardware (its a 3 piece wheel), 7 large easy to clean spokes painted to match the body color of my Pantera & a chrome plated rim.

Attachments

Images (1)
  • wheel
Last edited by George P
Mark Green compiled quite a number of photos of wheels.

I have added them to my site. I am still organizing them and adding wheel or tire information, but if you know the name/style/size/source/owner etc... of a wheel let me know and I'll add the information.

http://www.provamo.com/Members/TechInfo/WheelOptions.asp

This should give people thinking about wheel options something to review and compare.

Chuck Melton
quote:
Originally posted by Cowboy from Hell:
Hey Paul ... your Pantera is rippin'!

Not bad for an Aussie Wink

The rest of you guys, 17" is old school. My mother's car has 17" wheels, and she's 88. LOL Razzer


You guys need to put bigger rotors in your brakes to make your wheels look right now. Looks like you need about 14 1/2" rotors up front and, oh maybe 16" rear rotors. Making them out of carbon fiber ceramic is real in thing to do now a days too. Don't forget the red six piston calipers too, they look just dandy winking out from your wheels too.
DeTom said: Don't forget the red six piston calipers too, they look just dandy winking out from your wheels too.

...Yes, Brembo's with the De Tomaso script like the Si's and not forgetting drilled rotors of course.

Any wide bodied cars with Wilkinson's 6" dished 10-spokes on the rear and 4" dished up front all painted in campag grey?

I'm sure many of you know this Aus Pantera. Wheels were custom made there.



Phil
79 Longchamp GTS 3061
quote:
Going with fender flares and new offsets.

Say it isn't so Chris! Your car is so beautiful as it is. Lean and mean, just as God and Tom Tjaarda intended. But, it is YOUR car, so make it what you want. Just don't throw away the original fender lips once you cut them out. Someone else (or a future owner of your car) may need them someday to return it to its proper svelte body.
quote:
Originally posted by v8capri:
quote:
Originally posted by Boyd 73 L:
Re

I just ordered 19x12 rear rims and 18 x 9.5" front rims and I AM PLANNING ON USING THE SAME NITTO INVOS 255/35/ZR 18 AND 345/30/19. iREALLY LIKE THEY WAY THEY LOOK ON YOUR CAR . HOW DO THEY HANDEL? Do you do any track drivimg or just street? I appreciate your feedback. My email address is boyd411@gmail.com
; V* Capri aren't those tires the Nitto INVO's ?
Boyd

Yes they are.
For what I wanted they work fine, i just wanted matching tread pattern. Yes bigger brakes would be nice, but it would only be for looks ! the std brakes work fine for me.
quote:
Originally posted by Pantera 4134:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Pantera 1887:
Always loved the look of stock Pantera wheels but with no Z rated 15” tires available the

"Z" rated ?
What rating do you need for a car that never goes more thn 5 miles from home and hits a max of 25MPH ? Wink

Merry Christmas Mike !
Jeff


Well Jeff you never know when you might need to choose off on another Pantera with H rated tires!!

Hope you and the family have a great new year.

Mike
quote:
Originally posted by RobertVegas:
Believe it or not, this is the only shot I have that shows my wheels up close-ish. They are 17s and are available from PI Motorsports. I love them and think they will look great in black.



Here is the side view:



- Robert


Robert,

I remember reading about about your trials and tribulations getting your car repaired and color changed, but I think that it looks great in the pictures.

...even without the window dressing...
quote:
Any wide bodied cars with Wilkinson's 6" dished 10-spokes on the rear and 4" dished up front all painted in campag grey?


I know you're thinking of more of a stock look, but I thought I'd throw mine in here, maybe to help spawn ideas. Mine have dark, metallic centers. They also have the rolled lip in a brushed finish:

Last edited by macman
Silly person that I am, I JUST discovered this thread. My eyeballs hurt from boinging in and out so much. Great stuff.

As you may recall, I'm a psycho for originality (looks-wise) but I must say, some great stuff here. The Aussie GR4 with the massive Goose style wheels took my breath away.

I only have the Campy 8s and 10s, downright pedestrian in this group, but what can I say?
Easy Larry, easy......

Now just think about this -- you're at Riverside in the seventies and people are going down the quarter mile and this guy pulls up to the tree with this car -- while everyone else has GTOs, Chevelles, Mustangs -- you see where I am going with this. So in that light -- the Goodyear Eagles may not be right for the street, but damn, on the quarter mile track is where it is at.

Mark
I have never seen a set of rims for a Pantera I actually like other then the 15" Camp's and the Gr4 racing wheels. To me the larger rim has never looked right on the car. The way rims are built today just don't give the depth old cast wheels did and many of the shiny wheels today look like MR T's jewelry and I simply can't get my head around them. They make me think of "Autozone".

I would love to see a 15-16" cast wheel with some of the original depth campy or not.
A few years back, I came across a website. It was called the Panteraplace, and there it was a car that in every way looked so right, and it had the "original" wheels in what I think is the perfect size (front and rear) to the car, and gave just the right amount of modern flare to the car to bring it up to date. That car is the reason I again (after a few years only looking towards Lambos) started to look into Panteras, and OPS, I bought me one last year.....
I have a question about back spacing
The car is a 71 Narrow body with mostly stock suspension
I would like to go with a 18 inch wheel front and back, fronts something like a 225/35ZR18 with a 8 inch wide rim, rear 275/40ZR18 with a 9 inch wide rim
I am concerned that the fronts will have tire rub and the rears I would like a deep dish rim that pushes the tire to the wheel lip.
Can anyone suggest proper back spacing for the rims?
Welcome here Q-K. There are lots of various wheel options and threads here. If you search "wheel offset" using the forum search, you will find a wealth of information that will likely impact your decision. The best approach might be to find the car that looks exactly how you want yours to appear and ask that owner for his wheel details. Personal preference plays a huge amount, as of course does proper fit. Too wide will cause issues on the fronts (not so much an issue on the rears), but what you propose should be fine. The rears you plan may be on the narrow side considering many of us are running anything from 295 up to 335 widths (I have 295/50/15 on 10" wide Campys plus a set of 335/35/17 on 11" wide repro wheels and both fit the rear perfectly, especially when the stock spacers are removed from the springs.

Please start a thread with some details and photos of your car. It looks pretty nice from the avatar.

Mark
On max-width front wheels & tires on unflaired '71-'75 Panteras:
First, some (maybe most) Panteras are slightly asymmetric: the front suspension construction may cause a right side wheel to protrude as much as an inch outside the fender, while the same wheel will be slightly INSIDE the left fender. This is also influenced by what shocks and springs the car has, whether the OEM DOT headlight-height spacers are in place or have been removed, whether the car normally carries a passenger and/or 100 lbs of cargo -e.g- the ride height has been altered, plus your driving habits: do you make sharp turns at moderate speeds as in autocross, or are you more of an around-town driver?
If you routinely use the car's top end capabilties (150-170 mph), it's recommended to add roughly twice the max-possible caster in the front suspension for stability. This pulls both tire tops backward as much as 1/2", which changes all the above contact points- some for the better, some worse.

So do not buy any wheel unless you get return privileges if it doesn't fit your particular Pantera and you're not willing to make a little clearance in a number of areas. Normally, mounting a tire voids the return possibilities of any wheel, even if the car never rolls a ft, on it.

Second- in tight turns, expect to slightly modify any Pantera in which you add max-width front tires. With 10-1/2" wide tread tires (245-50x XX), in tight turns, the main contact points are:
*the center 14" of both fender's outside lips need rolling under, per factory recommendations in '74
*the front inner fender panels near the bottom of the panel, by the radiator base
*the cowl drainpipes
*the center rear of the inner fender near the brake hose mounts
*the right side windshield-wiper shield

All the above can be done simply, at home, with ball-peen hammers, sections of pipe to pound on for nice neat cavities, and some marking materials. Also, after doing this, the brake hoses may need re-angling to miss rubbing on wider tire walls. Some Panteras have had a few, or all the above mods. But substantially changing wheel alignments or tire brands/sizes may mean another round of tire rubbing and changes. Of course, one can always go for a little less than max-width front tires....
quote:
Originally posted by Malow:
I have seen a few wheels that are stock looking campys that are 10" front and 14" rears, what are they from?


The only stock Campi's I know of that wide are the 10 spoke ones that came on GP4, GT5 & GT5S cars (i.e. widebody Pantera's) They are typically 10" front and 13" rear, although there are some 14" wide rears around, but those are quite rare as they are GP4 wheels. If you want the wide Campi's be prepared to shell out some $$, the last full set I saw sell, was for $7K, then you've also got the challenge to find 15" diameter tires for them.

Julian

Attachments

Images (1)
  • 80_GT5_9182__1_sized
My wheels are ROTA GTRs and they can be bought from http://www.rotaaustralia.com.au/ . Price was AUD $1555 for all four. In the USA I am sure they are much cheaper.

The tires I bought from Albion Motorsport http://www.albionmotorsport.com.au/ and total was around $1880. Again I am sure they are much cheaper in the USA.

Fronts are 5x114.3, 17x9" with +25 offset(backspace 5.5"). Tires are Toyo Proxes R888 235x40x17.

Rears are 5x114.3, 18x12" with +20 offset (backspace 6.75"). Tires are Toyo Proxes R888 335x30x18.

My rotors and brakes are stock 72 and the body is also stock.

The fronts scrub on the inner fender well when at full lock both sides. Also has caught the right side outer fender lip and bent it out slightly. Ideally the front should be a 35 series and not the 40 series that I have which make the tires slightly more round. Apparently proxes in 235 width are not available in 35 series. Maybe going to a 225 width or a 35 series would solve the scrubbing.

For the rear wheels to fit I had to slightly bend the rear brake lines out of the way of the rim on the inner. This was easy because the brake lines were non stock and Australian compliant. I have had no issues with the rear scrubbing.

Also the centre caps that come with the wheels would not fit as the center hub was in the way. I made them myself out of 63mm exhaust pipe which I capped off with some sheet metal. It was then powder coated silver and I am currently having some T emblems printed in vinyl for the center. I also had to use a die grinder to open up the center on the wheel and then I trumpeted(peened) the inner of the center cap to keep it from coming free at speed.

After fitting the new wheels and tires I found that it sat too high and the gap in the rear tire well too large. So I ended up buying adjustable coil overs from one of the vendors. I found that the rear spring set I got are not really low enough. Another thing I don't like is that when the car is jacked up the springs do not hold in place but that's a whole other story.

Attachments

Images (1)
  • IMAG0363-1resi
Those look great, and the price is just as good as their looks.

On the topic of inexpensive wheels I have a couple to add to the list with the Forgestar F14 wheels. I've been looking at ET Wheels, two specific retro models, the LT-III which looks like a mini-lite, and the AC-III which looks like a Cobra wheel. I am also considering the Enkei RPF1 wheels mentioned in the forums a few months ago. They are all inexpensive, and available in sizes recommended by Pantera International. I'm planning to go with a tire combination recommended in Pantera International's tire/wheel chart attached below. I haven't purchased any wheels yet, probably not until next year, so no pics.

Attachments

Images (1)
  • georges_tire_combinations
Last edited {1}
quote:
Originally posted by mistersolo:
Forgestar F14's will make you a custom offset wheel and supply hub centering rings. I went with 25mm offset f/r. The wheels are the least expensive option I've found to get the max tire sizes to fit on a narrow body car short of buying used. Thru Jurrian at ModBargains the wheels were $1500 and they took 4 weeks to get.

I checked the Forgestar website, and could not find F14 18X12 with less than +36mm offset? (+36mm to +68mm)
Yep, Augustaboy is right. Got them from Vintage wheels. I always liked the look of the GT-40 wheels from the 1960's. So I wanted the exact replica wheels to put on my GT5-S. The design of the original GT-40 Wheels were 15" diameter. The wheels I ordered were 18" wheels. As the diameter enlarges the wheel pattern gets distorted, and I had to learn that lesson the hard way. I was extremely disappointed when my wheels arrived because that is not at all what I wanted. I still don't understand why they can't keep the same wheel pattern even on a larger diameter wheel. But it's done now, so I need to live with it. However, once the wheels got put on the car they didn't look so bad. Now I actually like the look.

David
Just an update regarding the Billet Specialties Street Lite wheels I got some time ago. I wasn´t completely satisfied at first with how they came out on the car. Couldn´t really put my finger on it. A very expensive experiment! Anyway, gave it some thought and realised the setup needed much lower profile front tires, for aesthetic purposes Smiler These are 225 35 17 (not easy to find, it turned out)(rear 335 35 17). Now I suddenly love the look Sweet

Wheels are 17x11 and 17x8 with 6 and 5" of backspacing respectively.

Attachments

Images (1)
  • street-lite-2
quote:
Originally posted by Piney:
checked the overflow tank coolant level - empty! Ok, fill her up, and out on the floor comes the coolant... Bottom is completely rusted out. Thumbs Up!


Well, on the bright side, the "overflow" function is working perfectly! Time for some new polished stainless tanks.

Mark
I'm liking the look of this car (third post down on page 7 of this thread). I like the (seemingly 20" rear wheels) with 16 or 17" fronts. I'm flareless as well, and this car looks pretty "hot rod" with the big wheel stagger.

Presently I have PI wheels, 17x8 front and 17x12 rear with 335 rear tires.

I have enough clearance between the tire and fenderwell that I don't think I'd need to cut on my body to add flares, or run a wider offset combo that stuck out past the body.

Adding flares is a consideration (fiberglass, riveted flares).

I just know I want more stagger, and as wide of a tire as I can get for the rear.

Trying for a different look.

Just throwing ideas out there, willing to trade my PI wheels and tires (perfect condition) for something different possibly.

I'm going to be doing my decklid and rear cover in satin black like on this car.

Also not opposed to lowering the car a tad more too.



quote:
Originally posted by LF - TP 2511:
quote:
Weld Stars, I think.

Ugly, I think.
Do you think I could find these wheels in the sizes I need?

'm wanting to increase "wheel rake" by going 18" or 19" in the rear and 17" in the front.

Non flared car, not sure about offsets, I need to research that, but I'd love to run the old-style BBS 3 piece wheels I had on my porsche

Attachments

Images (1)
  • car54
...Page 7, 3rd Post, those look like 'Weld Racing' 'Alumi-Star II', Or Very Similar. I think the Stance is 'Spot-On Gorgeous'!! I have the 'Original' Alumi-Stars in the Rear, but not quit That Much...It's Called a RAKE!!
And just FYI...If the Rear should be lower than the Front..That's called a 'Power Dump'!

Look at the Pantera Race Cars in Europe!
That's How they RACE them, HUGE Tires In Back...tiny in the Front! And the Wheels are kept Small, so the Tire 'Wall' Remains High/Large.

They Know Something MOST of You Don't!!
Such as...BIG DIAMETER Wheels and Low Sidewall Tires, don't 'Forgive' very well, nor absorb shock, along with a Dozen Other factors. Why do You think They DON'T use that set-up in NASCAR Racing??!!

But if your just going for Showing-off, then Skies the limit!

...But, I Know!!"...What 'I' Think, Means Nuts!"
That pic is of the rear wheel off my Porsche race car, 18x13 with very low profile, and it was insanely fast. Set some records at Sears Point and Thunderhill back in the day under the PO's owner and drivership.

I do know what you mean though, low pro isn't always the best handling. Look at F1 cars!

My car is mainly for looks and maybe track days, so I'm going for the right look, and then going to get what I get on track.

I'm still going to run the same "cheater slicks" that I'm already running in 335x35x17.

I just want to go 345x30x18 or 19 in the rear, with no outer tire diameter change.

I saw some vids of HRE wheels, 10G's for a wheelset is a bit steep for me.

I'm hoping there's something out there that's reasonable.
Truly nice wheels, excellent to have this as an option.

Here's another link: Foose Wheels - Pantera

Looks like a work in progress. Hopefully color options & size options will be forthcoming. Since its a 3 piece wheel just about anything should be possible.

I may consider them for 6018. The decision is ... 17 front/19 rear, 18 front/19 rear, or 18 front/20 rear. The 18/20 set I previously had on 6018 sure looked good.
quote:

Originally posted by LF - TP 2511:

While I assume in this day and age it poses only a minor change to a CNC program ...


Correct, especially with 3 piece wheels.

quote:

Originally posted by LF - TP 2511:

... I've already contacted MHT wheels about this and hope to hear from them soon ...



That's groovy that you did that Larry. Thank You. Please post what you find out. I for one am interested.
My personal favorite aftermarket wheels for the Pantera are Halibrand style.

http://www.factoryfive.com/wha...ibrand-style-wheels/

I see Factory Five has 18" wheels that I think would look really nice. Based on George's guidance in Stick #8 it looks like they would fit. They may require 1/4" spacers as the offsets are more than what is recommended.

Front: 18x9 w/6" backspace (24mm Offset)
Rear: 18x11 w/6.46" backspace (12mm Offset)
Wheel Lug Pattern: Ford style 5 lug x 4.5" bolt circle

Factory Five recommends 255/35/18 front and 315/30/18 rear tires for their roadster application. I think 245/35/18 front and 285/40/18 might work better for the Pantera to get that 2" diameter difference George talks about.

Attachments

Images (1)
  • DSC_6324

Add Reply

Post
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×