What conventional wheel and tire combination will fit in the space-saver tire well and reasonably be used as a spare? I have the original 15x7 and 15x8 Campys.
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A modern 5 x 4.5 PCD space saver spare would be your best bet to take up least space (thickness), but there really isn't an option that will fit in the wheel well, as that was designed for an inflatable space saver spare. You could put it up front and use the rear well for luggage. Many of us just carry a AAA card!
No type of a modern spare tire will fit in the original fiberglass tub recess. Except the original space saver and those are obviously no longer a safe option.
as posted above, a cell phone and a AAA card, and perhaps a couple of cans of fix a flat aerosol is what most owners rely on. I believe owners that are still carrying a spare tire are few and far between.
Larry
Concur with the above. Also, while I generally try not to be a harbinger of disaster... I understand that running a spare tire of a different diameter on your rear wheels will (quickly?) cause damage to the limited-slip function in your ZF.
I just wait for AAA to send the tow truck!
(Tows are a rare occurrence once you get your car sorted out!)
Rocky
You could potentiality rework the fiberglass tub to accept a larger modern space saver tire. As Rocky said get one with the same nominal diameter as your tires and use it as a stop gap means to get to civilization only.
It is worth mentioning that there is a list of Pantera owners around the country that are willing to help out a fellow owner in need. The list used to be distributed by POCA or on the website I think, they also used to publish a full member directory with contact details.
Thank you.
Suitable space-saver spares are no longer being made except maybe by Vredelstein in Europe. The OEM takes a 14" x 6" Ford pattern steel wheel that barely clears stock front brakes & uses standard car open-top wheel lugs. An OEM space saver spare simply won't fit over big brakes on either end. When I inquired at some tire shops for a replacement, the young clerks didn't know what I was talking about. Any you locate may be up to 20 yrs old even if completely unused. But since they are/were only to be used once, at 50 mph max for up to an hour, maybe that's not significant. I had to use mine one time (cracked rear wheel), and in 60 slow, gentle miles, the spare was as smooth as a racing slick.
Drawbacks: 1)- when the factory space saver is fully inflated, it does NOT match the OD of a regular rear tire, so there WILL be LSD clutch wear inside the ZF. On the front, be prepared for some odd steering effects. Wet pavement will be particularly interesting on either end as tread is almost non-existent. They are essentially folding-sidewall 2-ply inner tubes with a printed tread!
2)- they require a gas bottle inflator and many aftermarket inflators use cheap PROPANE as a propellant! If the can says- Danger-Combustible, it means you are holding a hand grenade! At high temps combined with high altitudes, they have 'cooked off' and damaged front or rear trunks as a result of the explosion. Find one filled with a non-combustible gas! An on-board 12v compressor is a far better choice, even if not period-correct. Some tall, thin high-pressure spares may fit in the front trunk if you rearrange everything and drop the battery below the floor. It will NOT fit in the rear trunk space made for a space saver but only as a loose, bulky package. Such could fit better in a custom made fiberglas trunk insert.
3)- A flat 225-50 x 15" nor a flat 275-55 x 15" tire on a Campy mag will NOT fit in a completely empty rear trunk. Larger wheels & tires will only be worse. The flat must be carried in the passenger seat (or in your unhappy passenger's lap). Alternatively, carry a bungee cord of suitable length, put the flat in the trunk and drive with the lid unlatched, held by the bungee. The inside mirror will be blocked.
Thank you. VERY enlightening.
I still carry the 2nd version of the OEM spare (BFG series 1 were all recalled for early sidewall cracking), mounted on a 14 x 6" spun-magnesium racing wheel and a non-propane gas inflater bottle with the required fill hose & valve. I normally wouldn't use a spun wheel on a street car, but the spare tire's 50 mph/50 mile distance limits are so low, I think it will work- if required. This spare easily sits in the front trunk with a tie-down stud & wing nut, covered by a trimmed '80s Buick felt cover that matches our trunk felt. I mount the spare upside down & use the backside wheel cavity as a tray to carry small spare parts, a qt of brake fluid, spare lug nuts & the inflater bottle. Wipe rags keep things from rattling.
Over the years, I've TIG'ed & redrilled an '80s Porsche 16" aluminum spare wheel/space-saver tire to fit a Pantera, & also converted an '80s Thunderbird 18" x 4" high-pressure spare to fit. This last aluminum wheel barely fits inflated, in the front trunk & needs 3 of the 4 mounting holes TIG-welded & redrilled to Ford 5x 4-1/2" bolt pattern, then an adapter ring shrunk in to resize the big register hole from 4-bolt T-bird to 5-bolt Pantera size. The Porsche spare was quite a bit heavier than stock but the other two choices turned out lighter than stock. With some imagination & work, there are other choices. If you have to leave a disabled car alone out in our desert boonies, drunken cowboys sometimes come by & shoot up abandoned cars.....
I'm wondering why someone doesn't offer a tub modified to fit a real spare.
As previously noted, few owners bother to carry a spare and seldom does it cause any serious problems.
Even if you modified a tub to carry a spare tire, with different front and rear tire sizes, the question to be solved is what size spare would one carry. Carry two spares? Also, once the flat tire is changed where will you store that flat 335/35-17/18/19 inch tire?
Cell phone, AAA card, and two cans of fix-a-flat. 👍👍😉
Larry
Judge, Kirk Evans in Ohio does build a special rear tub. But he went in a different direction, using the extra depth in his custom to make a hidden valuables cavity. All the vendors have molds for the stock tub, or an owner with fiberglas experience could chop one up and reconfigure it about any way you want. There are two or three stock varieties depending on the A/C setup.
Incidentally, the racing Gr-4s ran 10" x 15" fronts and 14" x 15" rears, and by LeMans Rules were supposed to carry a spare. So there was a bracket that bolted directly on top of the ZF to hold one of those giants- no tub at all. Only way such a spare would fit. The Pantera is a very small car for its capabilities.
Sounds like a business opportunity to me.
I would carry an extra rear tire to avoid transaxle stress from different tire diameters. No transaxle in front and the mismatch can be tolerated for short distances at reasonable speeds. The flat would go where the spare was.
Your car, your choices. In 1983 I began reworking our Pantera L, focussing on dependability and light weight instead of rotate-the-earth power. A stock Pantera on the road with 1/2 tank of fuel weighs 3100-3250 lbs. Ours looks stock from 10 ft away and is street licensed, but weighs 2690 lbs ready to drive. My wife & I used to both compete with the Pantera in all sorts of venues and long distance drives. So its been sort of a hobby to remove unnecessary wt from this car. There's no cast iron left today except the engine block and I have an aluminum substitute almost ready to go.
Sounds great.
I'm looking to make mine a grand tourer a la Ferrari. I street drive my vehicles a lot, often on long trips.
That's the beauty of Alejandro's design. It can go so many different ways.
'...but weighs 2690 lbs ready to drive.' Wow, that is one ton lighter than a Tesla Model S....Lee
True. But the 97 mods I've done took me 35 years! Of course, an awful lot of that time was because I simply couldn't afford to do them the 'checkbook' way....
I carry an inexpensive tire plug kit in each of my cars for emergencies - it's saved my bacon once in the Pantera, and several other times in our other daily drivers. you can plug your tire on the spot with minimal air loss which allows you to drive to safety.
I carry one like this, along with a pair of pliers - necessary to pull the offending nail or screw out of your tire...
https://www.amazon.com/Slime-1...e-Plug/dp/B000ET525K
And here' a fancier kit with a nice carrying case...
https://www.amazon.com/Tooluxe...cycles/dp/B002I52RG0
On long journey's I carry a tire plug kit, fix a flat and a compact tire inflator, with the last resort being the AAA card.
Internet research seems to show that the overall dimensions of the commonly available high-pressure spares in most sizes will be 24" OD x 4" thick. Put the inflated tire inside a tasteful cloth bag and the pkg might fit behind the passenger seat back? That would solve the fit-in-either-trunk problem. Chrysler and Ford both use a 5-on-4-1/2" bolt circle, as well as many Japanese cars that use the -5-on-114.3 MM which is the same dimension. So their OEM spares should bolt on to a Pantera- if the spindle register circle is the same.
wasnt it mentioned some time ago a Datsun spare tire fits ?
Some '70-'80s Datsun wheels (5-on-114.3mm) fit the Pantera bolt circle. But that was 40+ years ago. Not sure what bolt circle or type of spare they run these days, so whether a new one might fit or where you might carry it aboard our cars could still be a problem. Ancient spares are a safety issue. And there's always the ZF limited-slip clutch wear problem to contend with, since NO modern spare tire ever invented will match the 26.5"OD of a Pantera rear tire. At least none I could find. Using my stock spare for 55 miles cost me a ZF diff rebuild.
Interesting.
Thanks again.