Tire decision time

Personally, I'd stay with the 195/60s.  They are a better fit on your 7" wide rear wheel.

I wouldn't worry about the rear fender clearance.  Many of us have less than a finger width clearance.  I have 185/65s on mine and can only stick 3 or 4 sheet of paper between the tire and fender.  That's close!

 

Another option is to buy two different tire sizes from the same manufacturer.

Falken makes a decent, inexpensive tire in many 'speedster friendly' sizes. 

Here's a partial list of tire sizes available:

 

 

 Note these are Canadian prices.

 

Is your speedo accurate with the 195/60s?  Here's a comparison between your 195/60s and 185/70s

 

 

ITS TIRE DISCUSSION TIME!!!!!!

I liked the pirrellis that came on boTh my tubs From vintage speedster.  

Be sure to get a tire with a speed rating around 120 to 130 mph or more. I have a lot of stories about tire failures at high speed on LA County Sheriff patrol cars.

I have Yokohama tires. Take a look at those. They ride very nice and hold in a corner. Very good ratings too.

Thank you guys those are definitely some good options.

Does anyone have first hand experience with the Vredestein Sprint Classics?

I have 'em and love 'em.  Great tires and they are actually round----what a concept!!  Mine are 26 months old and have 8,000 miles on them with no discernable wear at all. 

 

The look a lot like high quality Michelins and are reasonably priced and give enormous road-confidence compared to the Chinese ones.  Shop around on the internet to see pricing.

 

I got mine from Vulcan Tire Sales, item # 10826.

 

Speed rating, H ("H"= 130 MPH rating)

Size, 165R 15 86 H

The tread seems much deeper than other tires I've seen.

Price, $116.00 each

 

www.vulcantire.com/sprint_classic_t.htm

 

I use a TP of 22-24 front and  24-28 rear  (Higher load, higher pressure)

 

Good luck!

I agree on what Ron said about the Vreds.  Wont fit or look right on 7 inch Rim.  Also doing up an entire inch is also going to change the look and feel of your car.  Here are a Yokahama 195/60's on replica Fuchs and what I now have 185/65 Pirellis an Bivens/Coddington wheels.  Spent some time at Carilse looking at tires and the Pirellis are by far the best look and the drive nice too.  Not a pure summer flat like my Yokahamas but modern sport touring for sure and they come in 195/60 which you can run in the rear.  Another options is the BF Goodrich Radial T/A 195/60 that Coker is geting in soon.  Run the white letter inside

http://www.cokertire.com/p195-...oodrich-t-a-rwl.html

Can't get my pics to load-must have bad java. I'll load from Iphone

I don't know about the 185/70's on that wide a rim; the 7's are a full inch wider than recommended. 195/60's would be a better choice, (better fit and handling), but what about running 195/65's (24.8" tall) on the back? They're a little shorter than the 185/70's (25.2"?)but a little taller than the 195/60's (24.2")so they don't feel short on the highway and they'll be wide enough to fit properly on your 7" rims. The 185/70's on 7" rims will also ride hard, having no sidewall flex.

 

If you have the room up front (the tire's not close to hitting the headlight bucket), 185/65's are just a little shorter than stock (24.5" vs 25" so they won't mess up the speedo much) and will fit nicely on a 5" rim. 185/60's would work as well but are a little shorter (23.7"). Hope this helps. Al

 

Marty- Love the look of the brown painted insets on the alloys against the off-white car color!

 

Continentals are the best combination of ride and performance I have found. It seems to me size is relevant to suspension set up. I run 155 65 in front and 165 65 in rear but I run air in front and adjustable swing arms in rear 2 clicks down from stock and handling is great and ride is tolerable lol.

Way to skinny for Outlaw356's application and to short in diameter too.

Sorry for my lack of clarification I didn't mean to confuse you Marty. I was simply pointing out that there are several configurations that can be used depending on how the specific car is set up.

No problem, I did not mean to be coy.  Outlaw356's tire question was specific to an old school look of which there are only a few options and then he has the issue of wide rear wheel.  Its all good.  

Sorry to resurrect a month old thread, but I'm soliciting opinions on tires.

 

I run 195/60R15s on 6" rims. I'm 99% sure that the only thing available is an A/S tire, but there are two that have piqued my interest: 

• BF Goodrich G-Force Super-Sport A/S
• Goodyear Eagle Sport A/S

The Goodrich tire has an "AA" traction rating, an "H" speed rating, and a 460 tread-wear rating. Oddly, I can get them at Walmart for about $88/tire.

 

The Goodyear tire has an "A" traction rating, a "V" speed rating, and a 560 tread-wear rating. I can get them at Sam's Club, and they are about $84/tire, with an $80 rebate if I buy 4.

 

I'm looking for feedback on either tire. The Goodyear tire is new, and has limited feedback on tire sites- I'm reluctant to put much faith in the feedback on those sites anyhow, as everybody from grandmothers who would be happy with wagon wheels if they didn't wear out to guys with Patrick Long delusions of grandeur post reviews there.

 

I run a lot of negative camber on my rears, so they wear quickly. I'd like a set of tires that was nice and sticky, had decent wet-weather performance, and which would last 20K mi. So far, I'm still looking.

 

Any intelligent input would be appreciated.

Stan to me its a toss up on these two.  But the BFG will look much better on your car with the wide 5's.  The side wall is nicer(has the right curves).  

Ron O (in another thread?) suggested someone look at the Falken Ziex ZE 912. It has similar specs- A traction, H speed and 480 wear ratings. Although labeled an all season, it looks to be more of a dry/wet summer tire, and a lot of the reviews (I know, I don't think much of them most of the time either, but they were pretty universal on this) said it sucked in even light snow (which I think is actually a good thing). Even Falken's product description http://falkentire.com/tires/car-tires/ziex-ze912-tire only talks of wet and dry performance. Sounds like a tire we should be looking at....

 

 

What did you end up putting on the car?

Stan, I'd still vote for the ZE 912s. 

I bought Yokohamas, AVIDenvigor.  Good tires.  H-rated.  Unidirectional.  Inexpensive.

FWIW, the BF Goodrich tires put more rubber on the road than either the Falkens or the Goodyears (6.7"). The Goodyears only put 6" on the road. The Falkens split the difference with 6.4", and can be had for $51/each... but the freight is $20/tire.

 

I'm really digging on the AA traction rating on the Goodrich tires, but I struggle with how much faith to put in that. According to TireRack, the Goodyears weigh 17 lbs each, vs 20 lbs for the Goodrich and Falken tires.

 

Each tire has it's strengths. It's nice to have some choices, and none of them are crazy expensive.

And in 3/4/5 years whatever you chose will probably be obsolete and we'll all be looking new technology anyway! And I noticed the AA traction rating of the Goodrich tires as well, but it is measured as straight line grip and doesn't necessarily translate into improved cornering ability (or so the industry says)....

I realize these are discontinued in 15" sizes, but they are still available in some places. Bridgestone Pole Position RE960. I like them on the rear of my Spyder(running 185/65 in the front, same tire):

 

http://simpletire.com/bridgestone-p195-60r15-049275-tires?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cse&utm_term=3395199989130LegacyL30thAnnivers19560R15&gclid=CJOjuKOGub8CFWQQ7AodfD8AoQ

I believe that the 960 Pole Position has been replaced by the 970.

But it is not available in 15" sizes, smallest is 205/55/16.

And it seems a lot of the companies are slowly removing the 15" sizes from most of their lines...

The Kelley charger gt is H speed rated AA traction rating and a 420 wear rating and fairly inexpensive around 70 each. 

 

 

My absolute favorite! It'll be crying time for me when my set wears out.

Costco may still carry the Poles.  

Not on the website.

I saw them on the shelves a while back.  I have purchased from Simple Tire before and the tires were a tad dirty but they came in promptly.   

 

Or go old school with BFG Radial TA, Coker has in 195/60 now.  No idea on how the highway ride will be. 

 

Dzjee... You're driving very wide tires on your cars!

 

I'm having original wheels on mine (4,5J Lemmerz from 1961) and I drive with 145SR15 on the front and 165R15 on the back and my car drives razorsharp and has great road handling!

 

 

 

I've run 145's before (on the front of a beetle) and although they aren't as bad as 135's (truly scary with discs on the front of the car), I still found there wasn't enough rubber on the road to elicit "real confidence" in the car's abilities. With the variety of shorter, slightly wider sizes (155's to 195's in rolling heights from 22- 24") there are many more choices today. I realize you were going for a look with the narrow original rims (and tires) and that's great; as long as you're happy, and I do love the look of your car (one of the few with a racing stripe that pulls it off). I, on the other hand, am working on getting 215/60-15's with 7" alloys on the back without going to flares... Al

Well...

I first had 165/15 on the front also and I thought the roadhandling was okay, but when I changed to 145 at the front the roadhandling got much much better!

You have to remember that you'll have more rubber on the road with wider tires, but the pressure on the road per cm2 gets lesser. Especially on the front, where there is little pressure on the road anyway, the grip gets lesser and lesser the wider you go...

On the rear it's a different story! I would like to go wider on the rear, but I think that 165 is wide enough...