60s NASCAR Wheel/Tire Size

[ikbrown]

Hey all,

I’ve been throwing around the idea of doing a vintage NASCAR inspired build with my 68 Charger, starting with a lowered stance and some seriously meaty wheels/tires. I’ve been searching high and low through the threads here and elsewhere looking for inspiration and have found a good number of pictures of 68s and Charger 500s, but when looking for specifics, haven’t found any info.

Does anyone know what size wheels and tires NASCAR ran back in 68? I’ve found some Goodyear tires that may be close (short of running slicks) and they offer them in 26.5x8x15 and 26.5x10x15 http://www.jegs.com/i/Goodyear/478/2547/10002/-1. Would the 10” wide tire be close to what they would have ran? Back then would they have used a 15x8 steelie or did the NASCAR teams run anything wider?

[Mike DC]

  
There have been a number of old threads about this.  They go into good detail about it.



Short answer:  

With a street car you can get about halfway to the look of a 60s NASCAR before it starts causing big problems.  

If you are willing to cut the fenders & quarters/wheelhousings pretty severely then you can get the wheel/tire combo in the ballpark.  But the severe lowering jobs they did are not feasible on a near-stock unibody.  The OEM subframe rails hang down too far below the bodywork no matter what you do with the suspension.   

[ikbrown]

Yea, I've read through a couple of the NASCAR clone threads in the aero car forum talking about how they chopped/rolled/pulled the fenders to fit the tires and am familiar about the chassis difference making it impossible to go quite as low as they were but wanted to get as low as possible to emulate the look. My fenders are pretty rusty and likely all need to be replaced so I'm just throwing around the idea.

Any feedback on the size wheel/tire they used?

[A383Wing]

I'm either gonna go with 275-60-15 or 295-60-15 on the clone NASCAR car I'm doing here

[Lennard]

This is kinda like it...

[Mike DC]

  
Wheel rims -

I'm not the expert but I think NASCAR was running 15x8" in the 1960s.  Then around 1970 they went to 9.5" wide.  

You can visibly see the difference between Petty's famous 1966/67 racer versus his wing cars.  

[ikbrown]

I'm either gonna go with 275-60-15 or 295-60-15 on the clone NASCAR car I'm doing here

Wow! That's a tall tire. 295-60 is like 30" tall right? Who makes a tire that size, just Hoosier?

This is kinda like it...

Is that your car Lennard? I've seen that one posted on a wheel/tire thread and that's the setup I was leaning towards running, although the tires aren't quite as tall as something from vintage NASCAR pics I've seen I dont think. 245/60/15 in the front and 295/50/15 in the back if I remember correctly.

Wheel rims -

I'm not the expert but I think NASCAR was running 15x8" in the 1960s.  Then around 1970 they went to 9.5" wide. 

You can visibly see the difference between Petty's famous 1966/67 racer versus his wing cars.

Got it, yea that's sorta what I was thinking would be the case as well. I was hoping in my searching of the webs for NASCAR history I would've been able to find when they switched over to 9.5" but couldnt find that. ..... hmmmm to run 8" wheels all around? I've heard that running 295s on 8" wheels is technically OK but not recommended

[Lennard]

It's one of my brother in law's Chargers. Rear: 15x10 with 295/50-15 and front: 15x8,5 with 235/60-15. This is the same set up as I'm going to mount on my own Charger.

[ikbrown]

It's one of my brother in law's Chargers. Rear: 15x10 with 295/50-15 and front: 15x8,5 with 235/60-15. This is the same set up as I'm going to mount on my own Charger.

Right on, what backspacing is on the 8.5s in the front? I measured the back recently and if I do 10" wide, 5 would work best to keep things centered, haven't measured the front yet though.

[HPP]

For the basic look, I'd suggest 15x8 steel wheels all around with a 26x10x15 MT SR tire. This gives you the basic look without requiring extensive body modification.  15x8 wheel with 4.5" backspace would work on keeping it all under the fenders. The 26x10 tire is around a 255/55x15 metric size which is a lot of tire for the front end. If you wanted a slight rake, you could maybe step the back tire size up to 28x10x15.

The original race tires were typically 27" tall, so a 275/60 will be too tall and probably won't work on the front end without rubbing.

  I've found some Goodyear tires that may be close (short of running slicks) and they offer them in 26.5x8x15 and 26.5x10x15 http://www.jegs.com/i/Goodyear/478/2547/10002/-1. 

Those look cool, but for a street car I'd probably advise against using them.  First, they are too wide to work correctly in an unmodified front end. Secondly, they are bias ply. This means they will have very poor manners on the street because their large size will cause severe tramlining. Additionally, you can not alter the alignment much without them wearing weird. Wide tires on the front are going to require some negative camber to get them to clear the fenders.

[Mike DC]

  


Don't mess with racing tires.  Get normal street radials for a street car.  Use the size/stance and maybe paint on vintage sidewall logos to make them look like old NASCAR stuff.

When the car is rolling nobody else will know the difference.  Almost nobody else will know the difference even when it's parked.  

[ikbrown]

Thanks Mike DC and HPP for the advice and feedback! Totally understand about not running a race tire on the street, especially the bias ply Goodyears. I just found them when I was searching around for tires that were similar to what I was seeing in the NASCAR pics from the time.

Good to know about the race tire height as well, I agree that the 275/60s would be too tall, and I hadn't seen the 26x10x15 tire in my searching.

One of my thoughts was to stick with the BF Goodrich tires but mount them so the white letters are facing in and then apply the Tredwear vintage Goodyear logo white letters on the plain black side.

[HPP]

Here are the MT SR tires I was referring to. You can pick them up for most major retail outlets (Summit, Jegs, or local sources). Radial design, H speed rated, variety of sizes. They aren't a 4 ply sidewall for extreme handling, but they are probably the most modern carcass design 15" tire on the market for a pure street tire.

http://www.mickeythompsontires.com/street.php?item=SportsmanSR

[Highbanked Hauler]

 


Don't mess with racing tires.  Get normal street radials for a street car.  Use the size/stance and maybe paint on vintage sidewall logos to make them look like old NASCAR stuff.

When the car is rolling nobody else will know the difference.  Almost nobody else will know the difference even when it's parked.  

I ran a set of Goodyear stock car tires on 10 in. rims for a short time and the biggest problem is they hunt every crack in the road.   You can do a decent job of lowering a car with the parts that are out there today but if you are going old school like I am planning on doing  it takes a fair amount of surgery  to set a car down.

[ikbrown]

 


Don't mess with racing tires.  Get normal street radials for a street car.  Use the size/stance and maybe paint on vintage sidewall logos to make them look like old NASCAR stuff.

When the car is rolling nobody else will know the difference.  Almost nobody else will know the difference even when it's parked.  

I ran a set of Goodyear stock car tires on 10 in. rims for a short time and the biggest problem is they hunt every crack in the road.   You can do a decent job of lowering a car with the parts that are out there today but if you are going old school like I am planning on doing  it takes a fair amount of surgery  to set a car down.

Thanks for the reply, do you have pics of the setup you ran with 10 in. wheels/Goodyears? I can definitely imagine those would follow every crack in the road with the wide size.

Do you have a thread for your build with how you're lowering yours? I am just in the tossing-ideas-around stage, at the moment I'm just mildly lowered using the torsion bars in front and lowering blocks in back. Reading up on the chassis setups from the time I understand to fully replicate the look is damn near impossible with a stock frame car. What are your plans?

[Highbanked Hauler]

 


Don't mess with racing tires.  Get normal street radials for a street car.  Use the size/stance and maybe paint on vintage sidewall logos to make them look like old NASCAR stuff.

When the car is rolling nobody else will know the difference.  Almost nobody else will know the difference even when it's parked.  

I ran a set of Goodyear stock car tires on 10 in. rims for a short time and the biggest problem is they hunt every crack in the road.   You can do a decent job of lowering a car with the parts that are out there today but if you are going old school like I am planning on doing  it takes a fair amount of surgery  to set a car down.

    PM sent.
Thanks for the reply, do you have pics of the setup you ran with 10 in. wheels/Goodyears? I can definitely imagine those would follow every crack in the road with the wide size.

Do you have a thread for your build with how you're lowering yours? I am just in the tossing-ideas-around stage, at the moment I'm just mildly lowered using the torsion bars in front and lowering blocks in back. Reading up on the chassis setups from the time I understand to fully replicate the look is damn near impossible with a stock frame car. What are your plans?

[Highbanked Hauler]

  PM sent.

[odcics2]

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,121072.25.html

Pic of a nascar 15x9.5 wheel and tire.