wheels and tires

[gadd zooks]

I seen in turning wheels and ad for steel rims 15x6 . has any one bought these from bob helm? are they new? i need to put some new tires on my 64 r2 . after reading many web articals over the years. i am confused with what will be the best fit some say 215-70r-15, some say 215-65r-15 an some say 235-60-r15 on the rear. and others have said p205-75r-15 their has been many charts and pub. all with good and bad opitions.

[ernier]

my research led me to choose 215/75/15 because they were the closest in overall height to the 6.70 15 that the car came with originally. I have the 15x6 rims, not the TW offerings but the same wheels none the less. Ride, steering response and overall stability improved over my original radials with stock wheels and the 15x6 wheels.

TireRack is a good way to research sizes. IMHO, if you like the stock look the p215/75's are the way to go. They fill the wheel well nicely and don't protrude from the well.

I seen in turning wheels and ad for steel rims 15x6 . has any one bought these from bob helm? are they new? i need to put some new tires on my 64 r2 . after reading many web articals over the years. i am confused with what will be the best fit some say 215-70r-15, some say 215-65r-15 an some say 235-60-r15 on the rear. and others have said p205-75r-15 their has been many charts and pub. all with good and bad opitions.

[SBCA96]

Wheel and tire choice is really a very personal opinion. What you want to

end up with is really what will detirmine what you buy. Thats the first thing

that you need to decide on. Do you want a soft floaty comfortable ride on

the freeway that you can barely feel the road and slight movements of the

steering wheel have no effect on direction - go with 75 series tires. The

sidewall is nice and flexible like a balloon, which gives detaches you from

the road below. If you want razor precise response that also includes a

noticeable increase in road feel/transfer of irregularities - go with 35 series

tires. There are a lot of choices in between, and as you venture out to the

sides of the spectrum the effects are more pronounced. A 60 series tire

can give the best of both worlds, but will lower your car/not fill the wheel

opening like a 75 series ON THE SAME RIM. Keep this in mind. It will lower

the chance of the tire contacting the fender though, which is good. 70 series

will barely alter the look, but will help in handling. Tires MAKE the difference

anyone that tells you otherwise just hasnt experimented. Good luck.

These are Chrysler 15x6 steel wheels :

These are 14x7 wheels with 235/60 tires (rear spring experiment gone bad ) :

These are the current 17x8 with 245/45 tires :

Tom

Edited April 11, 2007 by SBCA96

[gadd zooks]

thanks gents, if tires are a personality thing i guess im in trouble. i would like to go the lean wide and mean . but maybe id better buy a good overall tire first.then move to performace. i have tires that are oringinal size. over 32years old. its snowing here today, i thought this weather was behide us in northern illinois. good thing i cut the grass last night. tom i have some pictures to show you. this year over the winter i finished the distrib. cover, thanks for the pictures and the measurments. i also built and installed an on board charging system. it looks sweet. i would like to show it to the masses but i havent figered out how to add pictures. i will email you if you like, John.gadd@grainger.com

ps thanks ERNIER i am set up to pull the intake and block off the exhaust cross over in the intake, good tip about replacing the hold down clamps. i noticed that when i ordered the intake gasket i got one for a r3/r4 is this the same as a r2?

[ernier]

if you really have r3/r4 gaskets they will not work. Dave Thiebault was my source for the intake gaskets. I recommend the composite style over the metal, with new metal I still had intake vacuum leaks.

Re: the tires are much like clothing, a personal expression. Tom's general assesment is correct except that I don't experience a floaty ride or numb steering response with my 75 series tires. In fact the car is quite comfortable and handles about as good as I want it too. I have an El Camino with 17x45 series tires and I have to run fairly low pressures to make the ride tolerable.

The Avanti rides stiffly enough for my tastes. Also, if you are going to drive your car in any weather other sunny and balmy, the big fat tires leave a lot to be desired. Forget any driving in snow and be careful starting and accelerating out of corners in the rain. I'm in NJ and have driven my Avanti a few times in teaming rain and had very minimal hydoplaning with the skinny tire.

ErnieR

thanks gents, if tires are a personality thing i guess im in trouble. i would like to go the lean wide and mean . but maybe id better buy a good overall tire first.then move to performace. i have tires that are oringinal size. over 32years old. its snowing here today, i thought this weather was behide us in northern illinois. good thing i cut the grass last night. tom i have some pictures to show you. this year over the winter i finished the distrib. cover, thanks for the pictures and the measurments. i also built and installed an on board charging system. it looks sweet. i would like to show it to the masses but i havent figered out how to add pictures. i will email you if you like, John.gadd@grainger.com

ps thanks ERNIER i am set up to pull the intake and block off the exhaust cross over in the intake, good tip about replacing the hold down clamps. i noticed that when i ordered the intake gasket i got one for a r3/r4 is this the same as a r2?

[Gunslinger]

Even though it's been a while, I used to sell tires. While you can make some generalizations, all is not equal in the tire world. To my way of thinking, tire selection is so important that even the absolute best tires are barely good enough. A quality 75 series tire can outperform a 60 or wider series tire of lesser quality, the same goes for the opposite situation as well.

You need to decide on what kind of driving you do...cruising and highway, autocross, etc. Do you want long life in the tires? High performance tires and long tread life are pretty much mutually exclusive. It has to do with tread compounds. A sticky, great handling tire will wear out faster than a long wearing, harder rubber compound tire. To get one thing, you have to give up something else. The trick is finding the best compromise for your style driving.

You should try and find a tire with an overall diameter as close as possible to the original size for an Avanti. Even if you go wider, get the overall diameter correct. To do otherwise will cause an error in your speedometer and odometer which can hurt (or help) your fuel mileage. If you go to a bigger diameter tire, you can improve your fuel mileage, but it will hurt acceleration at take off and possibly put added stress on the rear end and transmission, but that's unlikely unless you go to extremes in tire sizes. If your Avanti suffers from the common problem of compressed front coil springs, a larger (wider) tire could hit the body when hitting bumps or bottoming out.

Determine the use your car will be given then buy the tires that best suit that. You may be going for a look as much as anything else, and that's certainly to be taken into consideration.

It seems to be a fact in today's automotive world that most, if not all the research and development and manufacturing expertise in tires is going into the larger sizes...16" and above. More and more the tires most all old cars use are not being improved in technology nor are they as widely available as in the past. It's just a part of supply and demand...new car manufacturers are equipping new cars with larger diameter tires and the tire companies are servicing that need. They're simply going where their market is.

I believe as time passes, most of the older tire sizes will be phased out by the major companies and left to the niche market suppliers, like Coker and Diamondback Tires.

[SBCA96]

Sure .. Email me the pictures and I can host/post them for all to see. One thing

you can do to see the difference between 75 series and 45 series is walk up to a

corner and start pushing the car side to side. You can SEE the flex in the side

wall, this is how much the tire will flex in a lane change. You can REALLY get a

75 series tire going ... they may seem fine for normal driving, but try to swerve

around something and see their limitations. Ride consideration is important. To

be honest I am pleased with the ride in my Avanti, and my dad rode in the car

on a 110 mile round trip and didnt complain at all. He has a '69 Avanti with a set

of 75 series tires, he is going to be ordering a set of rims like mine this year. He

just turned 70.

Tom