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The tire that the factory installed on the 15" x 8" wheel is 225/50R15. That's the tire that was installed by the factory on the GTS Panteras with the 15 x 8 Campys in the front. The widest tire you can fit in a narrow body wheel well with "minimal" rubbing is a 245 section, but those should be mounted on a 9" wide wheel. A 295 section tire will rub too much. But just as importantly, it is not a good fit on the 8" wide wheel.

A rule of thumb, the width of a tire's tread should never exceed the width of the wheel it is mounted on.

cowboy from hell
quote:
Originally posted by Cowboy from Hell:
The tire that the factory installed on the 15" x 8" wheel is 225/50R15. That's the tire that was installed by the factory on the GTS Panteras with the 15 x 8 Campys in the front. The widest tire you can fit in a narrow body wheel well with "minimal" rubbing is a 245 section, but those should be mounted on a 9" wide wheel. A 295 section tire will rub too much. But just as importantly, it is not a good fit on the 8" wide wheel.

A rule of thumb, the width of a tire's tread should never exceed the width of the wheel it is mounted on.

cowboy from hell


George, how far can you safely go the other way? My tires are too wide because they rub when you hit a real hard bump. I am talking about 245 fronts and the 335 rears. I am not certain how wide the rims are, these are the Hall Ultras. Could I get away with 205 and 305??????
quote:
Originally posted by Cowboy from Hell:
The tire that the factory installed on the 15" x 8" wheel is 225/50R15. That's the tire that was installed by the factory on the GTS Panteras with the 15 x 8 Campys in the front. The widest tire you can fit in a narrow body wheel well with "minimal" rubbing is a 245 section, but those should be mounted on a 9" wide wheel. A 295 section tire will rub too much. But just as importantly, it is not a good fit on the 8" wide wheel.

A rule of thumb, the width of a tire's tread should never exceed the width of the wheel it is mounted on.

cowboy from hell


I agree with George. I had 295's on my 8" rears and they looked odd and were probably quite unsafe too. They would also look ridiculous on the front, IMHO.

One thing I do question is that the tire width should not exceed the width of the rim.

Most of the 17" x 11" Campy clones are shod with 315 or 335 width tires (which both look right to me). But 11" is only 279.4mm (I know George likes precision...). I have never seen such a narrow tire on an 11" rim and doubt it would look very good (if it would even fit at all?).

Flame suit is on and ready... Wink
quote:
I had 295's on my 8" rears and they looked odd and were probably quite unsafe too.

Only unsafe if an 8" rim is outside of the manufacturer's specifications. If the manufacturer includes 8" rims within the spec for suitable rim sizes, then it's no less safe than any other size within the specification. The question becomes one of cosmetic appearance.
quote:
Originally posted by garth66:
I'm running 225/50VR15's on the front of my narrow body pre-L and 295/50HR15's on the back. But I think you have a flared car, right?

Yes sir, it has flairs and it looks sill with the 285 on back that came with it. I was hoping to find tires that won't rub yet still look right for flairs.
quote:
Originally posted by Mark Charlton:
...Most of the 17" x 11" Campy clones are shod with 315 or 335 width tires (which both look right to me). But 11" is only 279.4mm...

Mark & all, section width and tread width are two separate things. What's the treadwidth of a 335 section tire? About 11 inches. It will vary somewhat from one tire model to another. A rule of thumb, expect the treadwidth to be 50 mm less than the section width on todays very low profile (aspect ratio) tires. The difference will be greater as the aspect ratio increases.

When mounted on the rear of the early cars, the 15" x 8" wheels were equipped by DeTomaso with 215 section tires. Ford was really pushing the limit when in 1973 they equipped the same wheel with H60 Arrivas (equivalent to a 255/60R15).

cowboy from hell
quote:
Sorry for the hijack, but what size are your front/rear wheels? I'm assuming 8" front...?

Do you want to know what size my front/rear wheels are, or PLT-1's front/rear wheel size?

Mine are stock Campy 7's and 8's. I'm still looking for one more good 8" Campy, then I'll change the fronts to 8" wide Campys.
quote:
Originally posted by garth66:
quote:
Sorry for the hijack, but what size are your front/rear wheels? I'm assuming 8" front...?

Do you want to know what size my front/rear wheels are, or PLT-1's front/rear wheel size?

Mine are stock Campy 7's and 8's. I'm still looking for one more good 8" Campy, then I'll change the fronts to 8" wide Campys.


You. Yours. Garth66. Your car is almost identical to mine. I just bought some 8's for the front. So, you have 7's on the front & 8's on the rear, but will be switching to 8's all around? Once you have the 8's all around, what size tires will you have front/rear?
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