Looking for new rims, opinions wanted

[Cooter]

Well I'm starting to burn out on this stuff.  I've been reading reviews on tires and people seem to love the Nitto nt555's but not the nt450's and that's the only one they have in a 275/50.  Then I read reviews that these 17" tires won't be as good a street tire as a 15".. WTF???

Does anyone running 17" tires feel they are not as grippy as a 15?  I don't see how that's possible but with the amount of money I'm about to spend I'd like to be sure this is the way to go.

Ah Dino...Hadda guy actually come up to me at Crusie night the other night as I had the Dart out and it has HOOSIER rear tires in 15" BIAS sidewalls.
He asks me "Hey man? Do them things actually work? I got this Pick up witha' 540 BBC in it and I can't get it to hook for sh*t with these "Drag radials" on here!!"

I looked at him and stated..."Well, for one thing, it's a TRUCK, number two, all I see for suspension mods is a set of "fix-all" Cal-trac bars, and number three, you ain't hooking 700 Ft. Lbs on NO damn low profile drag radial tire kid."

He looks at me like I just grabbed his ol lady's ass or something. I saw him at cruise night Last Sat. and saw he had a set of 16" wheels with some sidewall (Didn't look like rubber bands this time) and I asked how it "hooked". He said, "must be something wrong with those tires, these hook pretty good"...

See, in order for a tire to "Grip", it must have some "give" to it. A 15-16" tire's sidewall will "Give" a little and allow it to hook better.
Tires are made with Hard Carcass/ Soft Rubber, or Soft Carcass/ Hard rubber. NONE with Both being hard.
An Uber stiff sidewall relies heavily on the Tires TREAD to keep it from pushing the tire through corners. The Hard Rubber tire relies on it's sidewall to provide it's grip. One shoves the tires round corners, and one allows the sidewall to flex round corners. neither is gonna work well if you do not have the suspension to get them to work.

[Dino]

Well I'm starting to burn out on this stuff.  I've been reading reviews on tires and people seem to love the Nitto nt555's but not the nt450's and that's the only one they have in a 275/50.  Then I read reviews that these 17" tires won't be as good a street tire as a 15".. WTF???

Does anyone running 17" tires feel they are not as grippy as a 15?  I don't see how that's possible but with the amount of money I'm about to spend I'd like to be sure this is the way to go.

Ah Dino...Hadda guy actually come up to me at Crusie night the other night as I had the Dart out and it has HOOSIER rear tires in 15" BIAS sidewalls.
He asks me "Hey man? Do them things actually work? I got this Pick up witha' 540 BBC in it and I can't get it to hook for sh*t with these "Drag radials" on here!!"

I looked at him and stated..."Well, for one thing, it's a TRUCK, number two, all I see for suspension mods is a set of "fix-all" Cal-trac bars, and number three, you ain't hooking 700 Ft. Lbs on NO damn low profile drag radial tire kid."

He looks at me like I just grabbed his ol lady's ass or something. I saw him at cruise night Last Sat. and saw he had a set of 16" wheels with some sidewall (Didn't look like rubber bands this time) and I asked how it "hooked". He said, "must be something wrong with those tires, these hook pretty good"...

See, in order for a tire to "Grip", it must have some "give" to it. A 15-16" tire's sidewall will "Give" a little and allow it to hook better.
Tires are made with Hard Carcass/ Soft Rubber, or Soft Carcass/ Hard rubber. NONE with Both being hard.
An Uber stiff sidewall relies heavily on the Tires TREAD to keep it from pushing the tire through corners. The Hard Rubber tire relies on it's sidewall to provide it's grip. One shoves the tires round corners, and one allows the sidewall to flex round corners. neither is gonna work well if you do not have the suspension to get them to work.

That makes perfect sense!  I guess it's a big factor on the track but it seems I won't feel much of the effect on the street.  Thanks Cooter!   

[oldschool]

cooter speaks the truth! 

[WHITE AND RED 69]

Well I'm starting to burn out on this stuff.  I've been reading reviews on tires and people seem to love the Nitto nt555's but not the nt450's and that's the only one they have in a 275/50.  Then I read reviews that these 17" tires won't be as good a street tire as a 15".. WTF???

Does anyone running 17" tires feel they are not as grippy as a 15?  I don't see how that's possible but with the amount of money I'm about to spend I'd like to be sure this is the way to go.

I think the reviews you have been reading are a bit off. The grip ratings offered for 17's are better than any 15's on the market. Unless you are buying 17's off the discount rack? For my car when I switched wheels I could Immediately tell a huge difference in ride quality and handling(and this was all on a stock suspension, wheels were the first thing before I bought anything aftermarket). Was the ride as soft as the 15's? Well no, but the car just felt more planted to the ground and I knew going from a 50 series to a 40 series tire would make the ride firmer. That is what I wanted though. On tight turns the old wheels would squeal and slide everywhere(And no, they were not bald). And with the new tires I could easily handle any turn the old tires couldn't. Just look at the grip ratings and you will see the difference.

I agree with Cooter that the tires should have some give but too much give and then you are losing traction. A 17" wheel with a 45 series tire will offer the "give" needed and still grip better than a 15" tire.

And yes, for straight line drag racing a fatter tire on a 15" wheel will always hook up better than a low profile drag tire. But a lower profile tire (35-50 series) will always grip better in the handling department than one with too much sidewall. So it comes down to do you want straight line performance or handling performance. I think with the 17's you are making a good balanced decision between the two.

Also, don't buy mis-matched tires. It might look odd unless the tread pattern closely matches. There should plenty of options from various vendors that will match with the sizes you want.  

[Patronus]

Slap some 13" Baers on there and some 17" wheels you like and you'll be a happy guy again. I'd be runnin' the 555's in a 295..hell with 5.5 bs you'll even get the 305 in there!

also: run the same tire f to b

[Patronus]

I think you'd be a good candidate for the 17" magnums.

[Patronus]

 

[tan top]

Will any of these work for the photoshop wizards?

My current tires are Firestone 215/70R14.

check out this video , like these wheels     , but dont show much of them 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0TeiX1AUhg

[Dino]

I remember that car tan top, almost the same car as my own.  Very nice wheels by the way but I am dead set on these MB/Coy wheels.  I just love them.  The magnums would probably be my next choice, they look very nice.

I'm not going with same size wheels though, I want the butt to go up.  

W&R I tried and tried to find the same tire in the sizes I want but they simply don't exist.  The Nitto NT 450 is the only tire that comes in a 275/50 and I really want that sidewall.  

These are the tires I'd be using.  NT 555's on the front and Nt 450's on the back.  The people at discount tire didn't see an issue runing this combo and unless you go looking for it, I doubt anyone can tell the difference in tread.  Different as they are, they are still the same style of tire.  A DR on the back would look off with one of these on the front but in this case I think it's fine.  

I looked high and low for other tire options but I'm running out of ideas.  I can get an NT 450 in a 225/50 but that's gonna be quite narrow.

Here's a pic of a challenger with 275/50 on a 17x8 and 235/50 on a 17x7.  Fronts are Nt 555's, rears are Nt 450's.  I also added pics of each tire.

I was going to run the 275 on a 9.5 ide tire but this guy is running it on a 17x8.  Looks pretty good.  The vette has Nt 450's ffront and rear.

To be honest, I think the tread pattern on the 275 is pretty damn ugly, but I'm running out of options.  

Why couldn't they make the machined lip on the 15's wider, I wouldn't have to do all this crap.   

[Dino]

Just spoke to a Nitoo rep, they're phasing out the nt 450....this is getting better and better.   

[Patronus]

With the right set-up that 'Vette would be hard to beat against the clock. Diggin' the satin roof!

[bill440rt]

Dino, have you looked into the BFG G-Force T/A KDW 2's? That's what I'm running on my car. Tire Rack has them in a wide variety of sizes. Might be worth a shot. 

[WHITE AND RED 69]

Well, finding a 275/50/17 is a bit tougher to find than I thought.      It looks like all the big series tires are meant for skinnier wheels. Newstalgia wheels still have the Nitto 450s in 275/50, so if local places don't have them you can always get them from there.

I know you don't want anything bigger than a 17" wheel but have you thought to maybe go with an 18" in the rear and run the staggered look? The nitto NT555 have a 295/45/18? I'm not trying to push you towards bigger wheels but there is so many more tire choices in an 18". Or what about sticking with 17's but going with an 8" wide for the rear?   

[Dino]

Bill BFG doesn't make anything taller than a 40 in a 275 and I would really like a bit more sidewall than that.  If you look at the picture of the Vette, that sidewall is near damn perfect to me.

W&R I have not been looking at 18's much but I'm puting it on the option list.  The only reason I'm going with a 9.5 wide wheel is because it's the only one that has the wide machined lip which I absolutely love but it makes for having no bulge whatsoever in the sidewall and that's a shame.  If the 8' had that lip I would put the 15's back on the option list.

This was supposed to be a fun job to do in my stressful life and it's just making it worse.  I'm shocked at how little choices there are in tire sizes.  I thought 17 had so many choices but 15 has a ton more.

When the Nitto rep told me the 450 series was being phased out I just threw my hands up.

[Dino]

The fronts on this camaro are 17x8 and the rears are 17x9.5.  Quite the difference in lip and I love that wide lip.

[Dino]

Does anyone have a 29"-ish tall tire in the back of a 2nd gen?

[HPP]

Newstalgia wheels still have the Nitto 450s in 275/50, so if local places don't have them you can always get them from there.

That would help for now, but once this set wears out, that choice is gone because the stock will be exhausted and Nitto isn't making them any more. This is what I was saying earlier about being cautious when buying boutique sized rubber. You will always be in a much better position to find tires that are in sizes originally installed on OEM offerings. However, this is almost impossible in Dino's case because of the desire for taller aspect ratios.

For example, 275/40 and 335/35 17" tires are always going to be around because those sizes were factory on Vettes and Vipers. 295/45x17 didn't come on anything and was only offered for a short time in the aftermarket until OEMs starting moving up to 18 and 20 sizes and now these tire makers are putting their effort into offerings for OEM diameters and dropping more and more 16 and 17 inch sizes all the time. So this could become a pursuit of diminishing returns as you need to update your wheels to different diameters every decade to keep pace with the OEM changes that drive the tire manufacturers.

[Dino]

I can get the Nitto 450 from my local discount tire...but for how long?  Like you sau W&R, when the tires wear then what?  The Nitto rep said that they may offer that size in an NT 555 which would be great but who knows this will actually happen?  I wish they had a 285/50 or 295/50 in a good all around tire...for less than $300 but nooooooo.

I'll proibably end up with the nt450's in the back and nt555's on the front.  I'm running out of options.  At least I can hope the tires last a while so I'll be good for a long time.  I only put around 2-3000 miles on the car per year.

[WHITE AND RED 69]

That would help for now, but once this set wears out, that choice is gone because the stock will be exhausted and Nitto isn't making them any more. This is what I was saying earlier about being cautious when buying boutique sized rubber. You will always be in a much better position to find tires that are in sizes originally installed on OEM offerings. However, this is almost impossible in Dino's case because of the desire for taller aspect ratios.

That's kinda why I recommended going 18" for the rear. There are just WAY more options of 18's with a 45 series tire than a 17 with a 50 series. Just about every brand has something to offer.

A 295/45/18 will give you a 28.3" tall rear tire. That's more than 1 1/2" more than what I currently run on my car. That should give you a good amount of cushion for those bumpy roads.

[Dino]

That would help for now, but once this set wears out, that choice is gone because the stock will be exhausted and Nitto isn't making them any more. This is what I was saying earlier about being cautious when buying boutique sized rubber. You will always be in a much better position to find tires that are in sizes originally installed on OEM offerings. However, this is almost impossible in Dino's case because of the desire for taller aspect ratios.

That's kinda why I recommended going 18" for the rear. There are just WAY more options of 18's with a 45 series tire than a 17 with a 50 series. Just about every brand has something to offer.

A 295/45/18 will give you a 28.3" tall rear tire. That's more than 1 1/2" more than what I currently run on my car. That should give you a good amount of cushion for those bumpy roads.

Nitto has the 295/45/18 in the NT555 series so that owuld be prefect...but guess what, they don't make this rim in an 18x9.5, they make an 18x9 and the machined lip is only half the width so no 18's for me.  I almost wish I never saw the damn wheels.

[Dino]

I'm sure you guys are all tired of this, I know I am.

Never thought it would be such a friggin' pain in the neck to find a tire.  I'm totally burnt out on this and don't even want to look at the damn car again.

[71green go]

I will Take your car off your hands for ya if its stressing you  ...Least I could do

[Dino]

I will Take your car off your hands for ya if its stressing you  ...Least I could do

Be careful what you wish for.

[HPP]

I wish they had a 285/50 or 295/50 in a good all around tire...for less than $300 but nooooooo.

For that price, stick with the 15" rim and run an Avon CR6ZZ, Z rated, d.o.t. approved racing tire in 295/50.

That's kinda why I recommended going 18" for the rear. 

That works for now, but in another few years as more OEMs start dropping 18s for 20s, then this situation can repeat itself all over again. Granted I do not know that for sure, but I'm willing to bet that back in 1992, most of never throught we've be moving much beyond 17" on supercars and now 20" rims are common place. Where will it end, I have no friggin idea.

[Dino]

Where will it end, I have no friggin idea.