Tire size help

As you can see..I feel these are too big.....and would consider a trade or swapping them out....

It's a shame as they are brand new wheels from VINTAGE and brand new beautiful TOYO proxies....just in case anybody might be interested...

I ran 225R50-16's on my CMC widebody for years and liked them.  I had them on 16X7 rims on the rear, and 205R50's on the front with 16X6 rims.  Looked great, handled amazingly and gave a decent, semi-soft ride.  I got the rims from a 1989 911 (the owner wanted to do some autocross and ordered wider rims and sold his Fuchs to me).

 

The recommended wheel widths for a 225/50-15 tire is 6-8".  With a wide body I'd go with a 8" wide wheel to fill the wheel well.

A 225/50-15 has a diameter of 23.9", which might throw your speedo out a bit.

 

Gordon, those 16s look nice on your speedster.

Thanks
Should I be concerned about bulging or rolling with 8" tires on a 5.5" wheel?

MarkV,

 

What size are your current wheels and tires? I may be interested in purchasing them and would like to know what you would take for them if you do sell them.

 

I've been running the baby moon setup on 15" rims on my widebody Speedster for almost 11 years now and have tossed around the idea of selling the car to get something different but maybe with a new pair of shoes, it would make me feel like keeping it for a while longer.

 

Don't have a side view here at work but I think the baby moons look pretty good but I do like the newer style wheels.

 

 

The ones you have look great - is there room in wheel wells to lower both front and rear maybe 3/4".  Just looks like you can see maybe too much rubber at top.  I like the shinny polished rims with that color!  I bet those are 6-7" wide.  5 1/2" is a narrow rim for much over 205 profile tires. 

Wolfgang!

Thanks for reply

That was my next question...can anyone recommend a suspension/ lowering kit for the CMC?

there isn't much room to lower them. I want them to looked more tucked in.

These are brand new 17x8s all around from Vintage Speedsters.

Lowering kit?  Does your front beam have adjusters welded in the center of both upper and lower beams?  If so you can jack it up and possibly adjust the torsion bars.  CMC recommended cutting the beam and rewelding it - cheap but you get just one choice - no adjustment.  If adjusters are there and its as low as they will go.  You'd have to get lowered spindles - for a 2.5" drop.  With adjustable beam you'd have infinite combo.  

 

For rear (if IRS), the rear torsion bars can be re-indexed.  The rear wheels go up on an angle so should clear flared rim.  

 

I think your fighting the old skinny tire look vs the new modern fill the opening look.  Moving the tires back in (tucked in) for the skinny tire look would take a narrowed front beam and narrowing of the rear swing arms.  Or narrower rims.

 

Check out MangoSmoothies build journal.  He's the man for ideas on lowering a Speedster.

 

here is the side view.

I think the tub is on a little crooked because one tire (passenger rear is a tiny bit outside of the wheel well.

thanks for all your advice in advance.

A common occurance with CMC and Street Beast....

Yes I've heard that
So how would you solve this?

Hi MarkV,

 

The baby moons do actually look really good on the car and I get compliments all of the time on them but don't think I'm ready to get rid of them just yet. They are definitely not a high dollar wheel in terms of money so I wouldn't be saving much in terms of a trade.  In reality these 15" wheels are just 1 inch lower as the other inch is at the top of the wheel. Though I don't remember the actual depth of the rims, they really are pretty deep.

 

I'm running KYB air shocks on the rear of my CMC so I can adjust the height as I feel necessary but really like the way it looks and rides with 120psi of air in them. If you do find something else that you like and come up with a price for the current setup, I may be interested.

 

I have a few different exhaust setups that I change from time-to-time when I want to go from "tame" to "waking up Harleys" so if I was able to do the same with a set of wheels and tires, that would cool. I've always liked the looks of that particular wheel (along with 1 or 2 others) and think that those particular wheels really go with the high HP turbocharged setup that I'm currently running.

Hello Mark, I did my body alignment today a s a matter of fact as one tire was too close on the drivers side.

I put the rear of the car on jack stands and removed the two bolts that hold the body to the rear support mounts, this is the hard part as after you remove the bolts the quarter inch plate will have to be drilled to create a slot so the body can be moved side to side. Once this is done I removed the bolts at the rear of the pan near the shifter coupling connection on either side . The rest of the pan bolts were just loosened as these have some compliance and would allow the body to be shifted. I then placed a block on the jack and lifted the body by the rear frame just enough to get it up off of the rear body supports (the alongated holes) and used a large "C" clamp to put sideways pressure from the rear suspension to the metal body support,once it was under tension I used a pry bar on the other side to lift the body over. It took a bit of prying as my body was silicon ed to the pan to seal it and I didn't want to break the entire seal.

I used a string and a nut as a plumbob on either side hung from the body so I could measure from the brake drum face to the string to gauge my progress. When all was said and done I was within a 16 of an inch side to side.

Sorry this is so wordy and I should have taken pictures today as I went along.

Hope this helps, the hardest part was drilling the new holes in the steel plate which by the way, make sure you put something in the bolt hole so shavings don't fall in and give you problems threading the bolt back in.

Mike!

 

Thanks for the info!
Did this solve the crooked body issue?

I think my pan is around or as much as 1.5" off on one side..

the rear passenger side tire is outside the wheel well..just barely...but enough to if I  tried to lower the car it will hit the tire.

So..either I get some new wheels and tires with more positive offset....or I try what you did..

 

How long did it take you to get the pan straight?

Last time I was under the car, I could swear the pan was welded to the frame and unmoveable...?

Hello Mark, yes it solved the body alignment issue and gave me just enough clearance to be able to run 185/65s with my Fuchs. I still had to file the inner wheel well and I could have gotten away from all the work by putting 175s on the car.

 

My pan is bolted to the tub as I built the car myself and my tube is pretty square and was setup diagonally with an angle iron fixture before welding it back together, I then put new floor pans in it.

If your pan is not welded you should see a seal or beading of silicone all around the sheet metal floor pans to tub pan metal tabs with bolts holding it together.

 

It took me about four hours to move the body over and for me it was worth it as things that aren't symmetrical drive me nuts and the body on my car still needs work with regard to door alignment as they came to me pre-hung on the body.

 

If your body is welded that's' another issue for sure, I would take some measurements of the chassis (donor car) to make sure its fairly true before shifting the body on the original chassis. Twisting the body to accommodate the chassis will set up another set of alignment issues in the glass tub.

 

The bottom line is that getting it to look the way you like is all that matters. The car looks great from the picture so maybe just tuck em in with a different wheel offset and drive it and enjoy.