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Seems there is a delima with what size wheels to upgrade to from the stock 15's. At least I am having one.

We all know that 15" tires for GT5 & GT5S are pretty much non exsistent unles your willing to pay major money.

Seems already that 16" tires are getting harder to find already as well.

The last thing I want to do is spend 3000.00+ to upgrade my wheels and tires only to find I am in the same situation I am in now looking for 15" tires a year from now looking for 16".

I think to much rim and not enough tire doesn't look right. But that's only my opinion.

What do those that have gone through this think about this situation ?

If those of you that have 16's or 17's, all around or combination of the two on their car, would you please post a picture or two so I can see what they look like to compare the variations.
Thanks much.
Coz
PS: Happy Holidays and a Very Happy New Year to all my Pantera brothers and sisters out there !
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My thoughts are the wheel/tire choices are 16, 17 or 18 up front & 17 or 18 out back.

The world will never run out of 225/50-16 tires for the front, if thats what you choose, although I doubt you want that small of a tire on your wide body car. 16" diameter wheels limit how much "brake rotor" you can install up front, if you update the brakes in the future. 17" front tires offer several choices in 235/45-17 or 245/40-17 for the standard cars, I'm not sure what the guys with wide bodies are running. The sidewalls are getting pretty thin with an 18" front wheel, trying to maintain a tire diameter no greater than 25".

In the rear the challenge is to keep the tire diameter near the oem 26.8" diameter. The 335/35-17 & 335/30-18 are 26" OD. Word has it the choices in the 335/35-17 size are getting slim. I haven't verified that.

The tire choices you make may upset how "level" the car sits, which will require making a spring pre-load adjustment to correct. If your car doesn't have shocks with that feature, factor in the price for new shocks & springs. Also, the low profile tires need modern, low friction, gas filled shocks to prevent the ride from being too stiff.

If you want 2-slot Campy clones Pantera East offers them in 16 or 17 for the front & 17 or 18 for the rear. The 10 spoke clones for your wide body car are only available in 17" diameter all around, to my knoweledge.

I'm running the Etoile wheels on my '73L, 17" all around, 245/40-17 in the front, 335/35-17 in the rear. If I were chosing today, I would chose 18" wheels for the rear. My advice when shopping for wheels is to shop weight. Some wheels are much heavier than others, the lighter the better, light wheels improve ride quality, acceleration & deceleration.

George
Last edited by George P
Nice looking combination Ron, very nice looking car. Thanks.

George,
My GT5 is currently running 285x40x15's on the front and 345x35x15's on the rear.

Have Hall 12 way adjustable shocks already installed. I will be upgrading the brakes in the near future.

With new wheels I want at least 275 in the front and 335 in the rears. There lies the delima, getting tires in the future it seems for any size.

18" just look so big for the car....
the 225/50-16 size tire is an old size, dating back to the late '70s, yet there are many choices in that size today. I think this is because that particular tire was used on several high & low volume produced vehicles.

My point in bringing that up is it seems the best strategy would be to select tires for which there will be a reasonable demand long into the future, i.e. those used on high volume production autos, or a size common to many low volume production vehicles.

The tire industry has gone through a period of rapid developement & change over the last 20 years regarding aspect ratios and widths, I personally would think sizes will have to stabilize sometime in the near future, there simply isn't a need to continue the trend of lowering profiles, increasing wheel diameters or widening treads.

Or am I just showing my age?

I will be interested to learn what sizes you decide to go with.

George
Beautiful blue Pantera. I like the look of the new Torino wheels too.

Just for grins I ran the size 335/35-17 at the Tire Rack web site today and received 9 results, 2 of which were race tires (Kumho & Hoosier). Among the road tires were the Michelin Pilot Sport, the Pirelli P Zero & Dunlop SP sport 8000. There was also a Goodyear Eagle GS-A & 3 Kumho tires. I would say these choices are no less than there were in the past.

The 335/35-17 was original equipment on the Dodge Viper for several years, should be reason enough for this size to remain in production for a decade or two (?).

George
GREAT INFO George. Thanks for checking that out.

Just for grins I ran the size 335/35-17 at the Tire Rack web site today and received 9 results, 2 of which were race tires (Kumho & Hoosier). Among the road tires were the Michelin Pilot Sport, the Pirelli P Zero & Dunlop SP sport 8000. There was also a Goodyear Eagle GS-A & 3 Kumho tires. I would say these choices are no less than there were in the past.

The 335/35-17 was original equipment on the Dodge Viper for several years, should be reason enough for this size to remain in production for a decade or two (?).

George[/QUOTE]
I too am interested in the detail, dimensions and measurements of Chris Darlings wheels.

  • Are the hub faces that the wheels attach to in the stock location?
  • Are there any spacers between the hub face and the wheel mount face?
  • What is the 18" front wheel width?
  • What is the front wheel offset, front spacing, rear spacing?
  • What is the 18" rear wheel width?
  • What is the rear wheel offset, front spacing, rear spacing?
  • Are the fender flares rolled or enlarged any?
  • Does any tire contact occur with any portion of the car?
  • If you did it over again what would you do differently?
  • how much has the ride height front and rear been changed from stock?
  • What are the tire brand and model front and rear (overall OD needed)


ANY info from anyone is greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Nate
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