What Size Wheels

I personally like the Pantera East 16" front/17" rear combo. Ron

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

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

17 x 8 fronts with 225/45/17
17 x 11 rears with 335/35/17
tires are Michelin Pilot sports
All from PI Motorsports, Look Great, Very Happy with them

.

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

George, I sure hope so....we're both getting old otherwise.

Shotgun, awwww, very nice. Something wider for the fronts on my GT5 and the size looks great. That's a beauty man....

Thanks for posting the pic.
Coz

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]

Please post some pics when you get your new rims

wanna sell the current wheels and tires? I am in need of the 15 inch wheels and tires for my goup 4 project

shoot me an email

greg.jacobs@jacobsracing.com

Hey Shotgun,
How come all of the pictures I've seen of your car are at gas stations? You have to fill up often? I'm having to put $40 in 2 to 3 times a week.

Yes ,, Gas is way to much,, I only have a few pics of the car in the PC. Its the best one. That was the HAPPY day that I got my car,, (with no gas in it). I need to get the wifes little camera and get some more pics of the cat

Here's Chris Darling's car showing off his 18 inch wheels. Yes, 18" wheels...front and back Bitchin.

That 18 inch look is very impressive!

Anyone know Darling's tire size?

They do look better than I thought they would.
Nice look !

Sent you an e-mail..

quote:

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Originally posted by crash test dumba$$:
wanna sell the current wheels and tires? I am in need of the 15 inch wheels and tires for my goup 4 project

shoot me an email

greg.jacobs@jacobsracing.com

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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