Tires for classics

My Alfa GTV (and Spiders too) need 205/60, 195/65, 185/70 by 14. There are very few performance street tires available in any of these sizes. Our Vintage Racing org (VARAC) limits us to 60 series so we don't have mush choice there either - Hoosier 206/60 14 Street TDS are the only one :(

Ken Lee Alfa GTV #13

I’d like to request 225/70-15 and 205/75-15 with stiff sidewalls and an H or higher speed rating for classic American cars, trucks and vans.

Something with better performance than the usual S- or T-rated white letter tires.

Phantom

AndreGT6 wrote: 175/70-13 on the Spits and GT6's. A.

Funny, that's pretty close to the OEM size for my Dodge Dart (or maybe it was 185/50R13). However, the brakes that are currently on it won't let me run anything smaller than 15's. And I don't have too much trouble finding appropriately sized tires for 15" rims for it. Currently I went a bit larger with the rims and am running 225/50R16s on all four corners.

Rob, looks like high performance 225/50R15 and 275/50R15s are available; would they work for you? Or is the shorter sidewall something that would look wrong? That size would look pretty mean on my Dart, but it's got smaller wheel openings.

I don't think too many people in the Mopar crowd would be interested in performance tires for 13" or even 14" wheels; they'd usually be running 15s if they want handling and are sticking with period correct wheels (which I didn't, but I might go for some 15" Minilites later - could also go for Torque-Thrusts or Cragars, but everyone has them). Most of them upgrade the wheel size a bit when upgrading suspension, and the 13" wheels won't clear OEM disc brakes. And the idea of driving almost any bone stock '60s suspension designed for cornering possible on '60s era tires on something more like Dunlop Direzzas sounds a bit scary. Modern performance rubber would probably have a stock A-body suspension cornering on the bumpstops.

Thanks again for the feedback, and we'll see if this eventually turns into something tangible. Personally, I'd love to see more tire choices for us.

Matt,

Yea nobody in the Mopar community is looking for a high performance 14" tire. And only some of the A-body guys would even acknowledge that the cars that came with 13" wheels.

A 50 series would look goofy to me on my '68 Barracuda. When building the car I aimed for what's probably considered a traditional look. Not to mention PA roads are hell on wheels with less than a 60 series tire.

I have to admit the Mickey Thompson ST's I put on it aren't bad for an S rated tire. For some reason they decided the 225 didn't need raised white letters but the rest of the line gets them. So I had to go black wall this time around. On the black car the tires get lost. It needs either RWL or a stripe on the tire to break it up.

I'd love to trade off a good bit of the tread wear for grip since they will dry rot long before wearing out. Don't worry, my suspension hasn't been stock for a long time.

For my car, if it gets any serious handling use at a timed event I'll put together a track set of 17" wheels and contemporary sized tires. No different than bolting up the slicks for the 1/4 mile. Just more stuff to store. Which is its own headache...

I would want a 205/60/13 street tire.

I have a 1973 Capri with vintage 13" Formula Libre wheels

Since the Sumitomo HTR200 was discontinued, there are no viable options. Coker has a Vredestein available, but the cost is $$$$.

Another vote for the 185/60, with a wear rating of 200 or slightly above.

KLH

Pet peeve!

It is impossible to find any decent performance tires in any of the original sizes supplied with British sports cars, so if you want to buy anything at all sporty, you need to go to wider rims.

I'm on 5.5" rims on my street MGA now and run 185x65-15 Yokos that do a good job.

I can't even buy proper Z rated tires for the old Lamborghini, and hope that the ones I have on there (Pirealli P4000) will last a few years.

Even my 1988 Fiero, which came with 205x60-15 and 215x60-15 Goodyears has exactly 3 options for the fronts and 2 for the rear.

I would like a wider selection of 15" and 16" tires. 225 50 15, 235 50 15 255 50 15 and 265 50 15 (some choices to slip a little more rubber under my early A-body MOPARs), and in 16" 285 40 16, 315 35 16 and 355 25 16 (for my street driven CP Mustang that I'd like to run with 16x12 wheels like I do when I'm dodging cones).

Another vote for 185/60-13 and 205/60-13. Very much prefer sticky street rubber. I never would have imagined when I bought my Lotus, the hardest replacement part to find would be tires.

Other sizes that are useful for me are 175/70-13 and 185/70-13 touring type tires.

Bainford wrote: Other sizes that are useful for me are 175/70-13 and 185/70-13 touring type tires.

I'm considering these http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Sumitomo&tireModel=HTR+T4&partnum=77TR3HTRT4&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes for my Elan Sprint. Nice rounded shoulders for a period look and I'm not too concerned about the T rating

I'd love to see BFG Radial T/A's in 265/50-14 (doubt they'll ever re-make 'em) They're on the rear of my '85 Mustang. Trying to keep the period correct look (I put 'em, on back in '87)

I just bought a pair of 175/70-13 Hankooks off a guy on local craigslist, like new for $10 each for myFiat 850 Spider

I'm new and not sure if this is the place to list ONS XZX 165SR14s I know they are old but have been stored in dark dry storage and look perfect! Just tell me if I shouldn't post here. Thanks, a newie

Larry

I hope someone steps up soon. I'm not asking for a super, high end tire (but it would be nice), just something comparable to the old Sumitomo HTR200 in price and performance. I just want to drive my cars and have a little fun.

All the older jap cars are looking for something in 13s with good grip.

I'd like a 205/60x13 performance summer tire if possible. My rx7 came stock with 13x5.5 rims and I don't want to change them. Bonus if they can have an option to get RWL similiar to the original bridgestones or goodwich rubber from back in the day.

Right now I'm runnig Cooper Cobras with the RWL in this size but the tire is definitely not a performance tire. Squeels like pig and breaks away in a snap.

Looking at the Mopar tire comments, I have to laugh. As I remember my '69 Road Runner 440 6 Pack came upgraded with F15" Uniroyal Tiger Paws on alloy rims. The standard offering was the soup bowl hub-capped steel 14" set up with the Tiger Paws. If there were ever a tire that took the P out of performance it was Uniroyal Tiger Paws! I loved the look with the sliver of a red stripe but I think I probably could have gotten nearly as much traction from the bare wheel without the tire even attached!

Unfortunately my '70 El Camino with G15" Goodyear PolyGlass didn't do any better either. With both cars I felt like I hooked up better when pulling my 16' runabout & 75# of tongue weight than I ever did any other time.

Now I tend to think of this month's article on the TR-3. Probably the best advice in the article was from a guy who said don't upgrade your tires and suspension too much. That's takes away what makes a TR-3 a TR-3.

Brakes? Did any of those cars have brakes or was the stopping problem just awful tires? I can't imagine driving my Honda Fit with as poor a tire & brake combination as the "metal sintered" brake shoes on 4 wheel drum brakes from that era. Not to mention the 4.5" x 15" setup on the TR-3.

I agree make tires for all these cars that fit on their rims and look correct. But I wouldn't want to change the character of the cars by too much tire.

A few years ago I began looking for 13" tires for the X1/9 I had at the time and was astonished at how many of the major tire companies had discontinued the size all together.

It is definitely somethign to consider. I really want 14" Panasports and 185/60-14 Star Specs for my GT6, but there is a nagging concern they may offer more grip than the car can handle.

Rupert wrote: I agree make tires for all these cars that fit on their rims and look correct. But I wouldn't want to change the character of the cars by too much tire.