Tires

[emforce]

Has anyone put wider tires on the stock wheels -
How wide can you go? And what do you think looks the best?
Any pictures would be appreciated.

Thanks
SKD

[Desert Stallion]

General rule of thumb is a 245-wide tire is about as wide as you can go without sacrificing footprint. There's lots of people running wider tires for the looks, but they actually decrease performance of the car because the tires fold over and have a really lousy footprint.

Typically the tread width shouldn't be much if any wider than the rim width, which is why the 225 is a good match to the 16x7 rim.

[hrlmk7]

blah,blah,blah....go fix your mustang!

[Desert Stallion]

quote:Originally posted by hrlmk7:
blah,blah,blah....go fix your mustang!

Wanna bring yer flame-totin' VII out to play sometime? tongue.gif HotTeams is racing on the 20th, and I'm probably going to be doing a test and tune on the 13th at Fireslick should you care to attend.

Edit: I screwed up, HotTeams is the 20th, but I'll be doing t&t either the 11th or 12th at Fireslick. Assuming I get my vibration thing fixed by then...

[ November 05, 2005: Message edited by: Desert Stallion ]

[John Dancy]

quote:Originally posted by Desert Stallion:

...
There's lots of people running wider tires for the looks, but they actually decrease performance of the car because the tires fold over and have a really lousy footprint.
...

Hey. I resemble that remark!

http://www.lscclub.org/cars/oldschool2/images/oldschool2021t.jpg (http://www.lscclub.org/cars/oldschool2/images/oldschool2021.jpg)

http://www.lscclub.org/paul/images/20050117002t.jpg (http://www.lscclub.org/paul/images/20050117002.jpg)
(Linked picture is huge)

[Kit Sullivan]

I have 255-60's on my factory 7" rims with no 'folding over', reduced footprint or other problems. They do not rub, and they fit on the rims just fine, and they look correct and they make your food taste better. So there.

[Desert Stallion]

Wanna run your VII against mine in the twisties with your 255's against my meak 225's on stock LSC rims? :D

[emforce]

Hey, I did not mean to start a flamethrower
war or anything.
I want them mostly for looks - but I want something that is safe also.
Could I put wider tires on just the back or
would that be a faux pas?
Kit- do you have pictures??
Thanks,
emforce

[Desert Stallion]

quote:Originally posted by emforce:
Hey, I did not mean to start a flamethrower
war or anything.
I want them mostly for looks - but I want something that is safe also.
Could I put wider tires on just the back or
would that be a faux pas?
Kit- do you have pictures??
Thanks,
emforce

Don't worry man, there's more than a few of us that thrive on giving each other crap. It's all in good fun, unless otherwise noted. ;)

If it's for looks, your wallet and whatever the tire guy can physically fit on the rim are the limit. What you may do is compare some tire specs to see which of the 245/255 tires have the widest tread width and shoulder (section) width, as they vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. Yes, you can run wider tires out back than in front, but remember that if you buy directional tires, you won't be able to rotate your tires in any location, whereas with most all-season tires that aren't directional you'll be able to at least swap them across the car, side to side.

A 255/50 is slightly shorter than stock and a 255/55 is slightly taller than stock, so that's something to take into account as well, as the change in tire diameter will throw your speedo off a little bit.

[Nick]

With bigger rear tires, you might induce more understeer in an already nose heavy car. I'd stick with same size tires all around for that reason and the ability to rotate. If you're a corner carver, you do not want a tire with a sidewall as big as John's. Even with the 60 series tires that are stock on later cars, you get a lot of sidewall flex. You should also look at maintaining overall outside diameter to retain speedometer and odometer accuracy.

Using http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html, a 245/55/16 looks like it will get you a wider footprint but still have a really close OD while shaving some of the sidewall.

[Kit Sullivan]

quote:Originally posted by Desert Stallion:
Wanna run your VII against mine in the twisties with your 255's against my meak 225's on stock LSC rims? :D

Nah, I just put them on there 'cause I like the look. I was simply stating that they fit fine on stock rims and there are no rubbing or clearance issues.

[Desert Stallion]

quote:Originally posted by Kit Sullivan:


Nah, I just put them on there 'cause I like the look. I was simply stating that they fit fine on stock rims and there are no rubbing or clearance issues.

(Baby Huey voice...)Ahhh, nobody wants to play with me...) :(

:D

Edit:
Hey Nick, where'd you find a 245/55R16 tire? I haven't seen anything outside of a 245/50R16... :confused: That's why I posted up those 255/x tire sizes, because I figure they're as wide as you can go on a stock rim while staying kinda close to the stock OD, within a half inch or so...

[ November 05, 2005: Message edited by: Desert Stallion ]

[Nick]

I didn't check into whether or not they existed. I guess they don't or are not readily available. A quick search of Tire Rack shows nothing, but I'd try calling them. They have knowledgeable tire experts, some of whom probably do amateur racing.

Ben, do you know of anyone with a tubular K member that matches or betters the Mark VII's track width?

[emforce]

"A 255/50 is slightly shorter than stock and a 255/55 is slightly taller than stock, so that's something to take into account as well, as the change in tire diameter will throw your speedo off a little bit."

I thought 55's were shorter tires - isn't the
stock size 70's??

[Davemutt]

quote:Originally posted by emforce:
[QB

I thought 55's were shorter tires - isn't the
stock size 70's??[/QB]

Depends on the width. This number describes the ratio of sidwall to width. Given the same width, a 55 is shorter than a 70, but you always have to take the width into account when determing tire height.

[Nick]

70 series tires were standard on base model and designer series models with 15 inch wheels from '84-'87 and for Bill Blass models from '88-'90. '84-'87 LSCs had 65 series sidewalls and '88+ LSCs and '91+ Bill Blass had 60 series.

[Michael VII LSC/SE]

Kit I thought you were running 255X50R60s at 26" dia. and 799 Rev/ mile? That's close to my former 235X55s. The 255 X 60 is About 28" diameter 744 Rev/mile. I would like the taller tire but that would hurt my take off performance some.

A 225 X 60 R16 is about 26.7" dia. and 783 rev/mile. I went back to the stock size but I had to get used to the lost corner carving ability I enjoyed with the 235 X 55s.

[Bill's89LSC]

Here is a good tire site that shows you a comparision between tire sizes.

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

Bill

[macx]

Go to www.tirerack.com, (http://www.tirerack.com,) do a search
for tires by size.

Plug in, say 235x60x16 or whatever, then
pick one and go to the specs.

They'll tell you what rim widths will
work (or are recommended) for that
size tire.

Only thing if you get lots wider than
recommended, you've got to run them
lower pressure to get the tread all
on the ground, so they run soft and
don't handle as well. If you run
them stock pressure, they'll crown
and wear in the middle more than the
edges.