Tire size question

Take a look at the previous Post.
Tires 7 and 8,page 3.

John

Depends on how you plan to drive the car. For best handling, a tire tread should be no wider than 1" more than the wheel so the sidewalls are close to straight up and down. This optimally supports the tread. A tread much wider than the wheel causes the sidewall to 'cantilever' out, allowing the tread to wobble around in fast turns. If all your driving is NOT in town, 225-50x 15s are about all the tire one can use on 7" Campys. 8" Campys mounted in front have several advantages: they are offset inboard 1" so the clearance to the fender lip is the same as with a 7". The 8" inboard offset corrects the bad scrub radius of the stock Pantera with 7" wheels, making steering easier than with the 7s. And 8" wheels will allow 245-50x 15s to be mounted, reducing front-plow in turns. Finally, most Panteras cannot use 255-50s in front- on any wheels- without massive underbody rework. Your friend's (PJ Coulliard?) car was an exception and PJ's a really good body man. Most of us aren't.

I just replaced my original Arriva tires. I used BF Goodrich 255/60 15's on the rear and 215/60 15's on the front. I'm not going to the track or running the 1/4 mile. I was looking for the closest thing to stock and I think they are dead on. Some will say go bigger. Let me know if you want a picture.

Thanks for the very informative replies. My friends 74 (not PJ Coulliard), had two different types of tires on his front 7" comps. We noticed this when all the tires were removed to powder coat the rims. One front tire was a BFG Comp.T/A HR4 21560R15 and the other a Comp.T/A HR21560R15. The owner complained that while at speeds 60mph + the car would drift on a straight away while not moving the steering wheel. The rack was observed to have been updated with bronze busing and overall all steering links appear tight. A complete alignment will be ultimately performed.
We are thinking this miss-match of tires had some thing to do with this drift problem?
Thanks again to all

quote:

I just replaced my original Arriva tires. I used BF Goodrich 255/60 15's on the rear and 215/60 15's on the front. I'm not going to the track or running the 1/4 mile. I was looking for the closest thing to stock and I think they are dead on. Some will say go bigger. Let me know if you want a picture.

Yes, we want pictures.

quote:

Originally posted by garth66:

quote:

I just replaced my original Arriva tires. I used BF Goodrich 255/60 15's on the rear and 215/60 15's on the front. I'm not going to the track or running the 1/4 mile. I was looking for the closest thing to stock and I think they are dead on. Some will say go bigger. Let me know if you want a picture.

Yes, we want pictures.

Here's a pic of my old ´72 with 255's on the rear. Not sure if you wanted to see the profile, or the offset, or none of the above.. I've got other angles if you tell me what you'd like to see