Tires for 15" wheels

Johneye...I'am still riding on the original 15 inch campys on my 74.The tires are BF Goodrich Radial T/A, front P205/60 R15, rear P255/60 R15. The tires have the same tread pattern. They are only rated at 112 mph. I have looked and can not find 15 inch,high speed [ 150 mph would be sufficient ] tires with the same tread pattern that are available in different sizes for the front and rear. Johneye you said your rear wheels are 10 inch, double check that, as 10 inch rears are rare and valuble. Chuck

I have Pirelli P7 VR275-55-15 rear, Vr225-50-15 fronts. 8/10" Campies. I'm told that you can't get the rears anymore. They must be well made, Both the fronts and the backs took less then 1/2 once each to balance.
You have to run the front spring spacers with this setup.

Pirelli manufactures batches of old tires at the request of manufacturers, clubs etc, from time to time. I believe I also read somewhere that Pirelli announced they would begin stocking certain old types & sizes of tires. The classis car craze is big business right now, both in the US and in Europe. You may want to check with Pirelli regarding their classic car tires.

The biggest supplier of obsolete tires among the classic car crowd is Coker Tires. They can manufacture just about anything, I don't know what their minimum quantity is however. I would advise contacting Coker, getting the facts from them, and then working with a vendor to order a batch. This is another area where the vendors are not meeting the needs of the Pantera owner seeking to keep the car 100% oem. They have chosen to instead stock Campy clones in larger sizes.

If we want the vendors to help, to stock the parts we need, we owners have to stop bitching about prices. These guys have to make a living.

Your friend on the DTBB, George

George,
I thank you and the other gentlemen for responding to my question.

I checked the wheel widths on the way in today and found the fronts are 15X7 and the rears are 15X8.I thought the rule of thumb was the width of the tire tread was to be equal to the wheel width.

That would mean a 265mm tread would be 10 7/16"
Can I get away with an 8" wheel?

Thank you,
John

Johneye,
I have larger tyres than you have on my the 7" and 8" wheels.
I have 225/50/15 front on 7" and 275/55/15 rear on 8" rim.
I have had no problems - I might have when I want some new ones.
I am part way through compiling a Excel spreadsheet of tyres for comparison to see what might fit. I can email it to you if you are interested.
275 looks to be about the limit for the 8" rear. I have seen 10" rear 285 tyres and this looks right.

quote:

Originally posted by JOHNEYE:
...I thought the rule of thumb was the width of the tire tread was to be equal to the wheel width...John

John,

Each manufacturer has a specification for the range of rim widths allowable for each of their tires. For a given size tire, the spec for each manufacturer will be a bit different. In general, you want to run the widest wheel allowable, but that's not always possible. These specifications are available on the Tire Rack web site. I did some quick checking for you, limiting my search to 15" tires with an OD between 26" and 27", here's what I found:

255/60R15 (27.1" od)
BF Goodrich........6.5" - 10"
Dunlop.............7" - 10"
Goodyear...........7" - 9"
Yokohama...........7" - 9"

275/50R15 (25.9" od)
BF Goodrich........7.5" - 11"

295/50R15 (26.7" od)
BF Goodrich........8" - 11"
Goodyear...........7.5" - 11"
Yokohama...........8" - 10"

The last one listed gets my vote. I'm a Yokohama guy.

Your friend on the DTBB, George

I have rstored original 7 & 8 inch Campys...just purchased Dunlop SP8000 245/50/15(rears) and 225/50/15 (fronts). They are "Z" rated. After reading various articles and with my limited budget for this year's upgrades...I belive the level of performance due to ligher wheel weight will be great for the street.

Thank you all for your input.

I thought I was going to be forced into something I didn't want.

Some fantastic people on this site, very refreshing.

John

I put Toyo's on my car last year. The fronts are Proxes 225/50 R15 V-Rated and the rears are 295/50 R15 H-Rated on 8" rims. I believe the H rating is good for about 130MPH (plenty for the street).
They ride nice, are quiet, economical and have quite a bit of grip. The tread patterns don't match, but it's quite an impressive look for those that are behind you.

I'll bet it is.
John

quote:

I'm a Yokohama guy.

I never liked her cause she broke up the Beatles.

You could run a pair of BFG Drag Radials in 335-50-15 and yank the front tires off the ground at every stoplight. They're pretty tall for a Pantera though.

quote:

Originally posted by DeTom:
I never liked her cause she broke up the Beatles.

She did what?

The Beatles are what?

Say it isn't so ....

Yep, a couple of them is even dead now.