15" to 17" wheels

[DoubleV]

With the stock rear brakes, I had 17x8's with 4.25" backspacing and a nitto 555R drag radial on it, 275 wide. Plenty of room, can easily go to a 9" wheel. With a 9.5", I'm concerned I'll be rolling the quarter panels.

I'd be worried about being in the quarter panel lips with a 4" backspace on an 8" wheel on a lowered car. JMO... when going to discs, the thickness of the rotor and spacer I had to run (3/8" gain) had the tire into the quarter lip in bump. Went back and ordered new rear wheels with 3/8" additional backspacing to get back to where I started.

Unfortunatly, the 17x8 Torq Thrusts come in only 4.07" or 4.81" BS. Seems 4.81 would be too much. Custom built TT are obviously more expensive. I have no problems paying more for something, but I don't even know if I have too, and if I do what I need to get....

So for those who have swapped to a 17"+ wheel, was your straight line traction ( aka launching from a stop ) improved due to a better overall tire, or worse due to less sidewall 'give'? I'm asking all of this because I'm preparing for the big block-like torque I'll be having with my engine swap.

On a related note, it is VERY frustrating shopping and reading reviews on tires! You find a tire that would be perfect for you then you see they don't come in the sizes you want. When reading various reviews, everyone contradicts each other. One reviewer would say brand x tire was the quitest tire he ever had and the next reviewer would say the noise level was deafening on the same exact tire. Hard to get the real scoop on things y'know? Decided on Continental Extreme Contact DW's.

 

[Steve Curry]

I have 17" Torque Thrusts on my lowered 79 Cutlass and they work fine.

 

[-83MONTESS-]

Installed them on the '88 too just to see how they would look:

Sorry to highjack the thread but what is the name of those rims? Might be a newb question but im new to aftermarket rims. I to am considering going to 17s instead of 15s.

 

[online170]

DoubleV

If youre going for olds torque, your car will roast tires all the way down the quarter even with slicks. Dont concern yourself with that. If you street drive your car look for road noise and wet traction.

If you are concerned with traction go with the tire with the least life rating. Itll be soft.

Also, the american brand tires are much wider as they usually measure at the tread. Goodyear, bfg nitto etc.

The chinese, japanese and korean brans are much skinnier. I was very happy with my Falkens. Quiet, excellent in wet, cheap and soft. They are skinny though. My 275 is more like a 245.

 

[FE3X CLONE]

Sorry to highjack the thread but what is the name of those rims? Might be a newb question but im new to aftermarket rims. I to am considering going to 17s instead of 15s.

American Racing Hopsters

 

[DoubleV]

I have 17" Torque Thrusts on my lowered 79 Cutlass and they work fine.

Yeah, I PMed you on ROP about that but you said you didn't know the backspacing you're using and that's what I really need to know.

 

[DoubleV]

If youre going for olds torque, your car will roast tires all the way down the quarter even with slicks. Dont concern yourself with that. If you street drive your car look for road noise and wet traction.

If you are concerned with traction go with the tire with the least life rating. Itll be soft.

I certainly don't expect to hook very well on the street with street tires, but there are some street tires that do hook better than others. That's what I want. Other things like wet traction and road noise is factored into my tire choice as well. I feel the Continental Extreme Contact DW's fit the bill and come in the tire sizes I want.

For drag racing, I will use drag radials.

Also, the american brand tires are much wider as they usually measure at the tread. Goodyear, bfg nitto etc.

The chinese, japanese and korean brans are much skinnier. I was very happy with my Falkens. Quiet, excellent in wet, cheap and soft. They are skinny though. My 275 is more like a 245.

It does seem some tires appear to be bigger or smaller than what their size is advertised at, which quite frankly is completely moronic.

 

[online170]

You got it.

I don't know if you have read this review, but I found it very informative.

The Continentals are right up there.
http://www.caranddriver.com/comparisons ... rison-test


For the sizes, I was typing from a phone earlier;, but section width is usually wider than tread width (where the tire bulges a bit).
But the American companies seem to list Tread Width, as well as the Section Width.
The other companies seem to only list the section width.


As a comparison;
My 245/40/17 Falkens are just as wide, or maybe a tad skinnier than my bro's 225 Tires by BGF (KDW).

My 275/40/17's are noticeably skinnier than my 275 ET Streets, or my friends 275 Nittos.


They are not lying, they are just telling you the section width and not the tread width.

 

[83hurstguy]

If you are going to run the 4.06" bs, I'd keep the tires no wider than a 255. You'll be fine provided the tire doesn't bulge on the rim.

The Dunlop Direzza ZII's won the latest hot rod shootout: http://www.hotrod.com/feature_stories/1 ... nitto.html

They make a 245/45r17 that will be a 25.6" height. The downside is that the 255/40r17 is a 25.0" tall tire.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp ... irezza+ZII

 

[vanrah]

Greetings Guys; Over on the LS2-GTO forum a guy started a tire data base, here is my .03 cents worth.
" Dunlop Direzza Star Spec Z1
UTQG rating of 200 *
235/45/17 front & 245/45/17 rear
Traction 2 **
A4 & OE converter
3.42? OE gears
3900 Lbs - w/full tank of fuel, no humans on board

* When I purchase tires (mostly from Tire Rack since around 1981?) I've been bias toward the lowest UTQG # and what I could afford. And since I run winter tires 4 to 5 months of the year the summer only soft tires give great service life. Referring to my year round vehicle. I should mention that the GuTOo & Brown Brick sleep for those 4 nasty winter months.
** Traction, Coming South from the Nation Wide race at Road America this past June Around 11:00 pm It was raining cats-dogs & fish (?), the few other cars on the road were pulled over. I slowed to 35 MPH & felt little hydroplaning. My buddy in the passenger seat commented how stable the car was, he had never experienced that much traction in that much water before. He runs all season tires!
Most of us here understand that negative rear camber KILLS traction. That being said mine has been adjusted to correct that problem as I didn't like throwing away tires that had the inside edge gone from poor factory welding tolerances. Many of us received these automobiles with rock hard BFG (junk), they spun so easy that the traction control would kick in at 6 to 8 ft from a dead stop to full pedal on the metal. So early on I mounted Dunlop Direzza Star Spec on the front & DZ101 with a 300 UTQG # on the rear. They had fair traction, FT from dead stop they would spin less than the BFG's, 8 to 12 ft before the traction control would kick in. Well I liked the Star Spec's on the front so much I mounted a set on the rear this past summer (2013). I could NOT be happier with the traction, from a dead stop FT the car accelerates very nicely doing a slow spin for 12 - 17 ft & hooks With OUT tripping the traction control function. These tires make the car real quick on the street, as I know I can go to full throttle an they will stick on most surfaces".
The guys over on that site-forum deal with larger wheels more than most of us here, you might want to take a look. The one profound thing I've learned from hot rodding 53 years is once you can over power your tires, money for more torque may not be the best path. And from my experience in a street set up 450 Lbs of torque is the upper usable limit, just my perspective. Mother Nature is testing us, she changed her mind and sent us more winter. Bob Jr.