15" Speed Rated Tires ??

[69hemirr]

Does anyone make/sell 15" speed rated tires that are not low profile design?  Last year I had the opportunity to run my 68 Charger at Talladega.  I did 15 laps with top speed of 157 down back straight (2.76 gears on floor board).  I have BF Good Rich T/As on now and was a little nervous since speed rating is around 112 mph.  Now I know thats sustained speeds and short bursts should be ok but just a little nervous.

[HPP]

Mickey Thompson S/R are H rated to 130 mph sustained, as are the Maxxis Marauder MA-S1. Expect to pay around $175-200 each for them.

Avon CR6ZZ is a Z rated to 149 mph, 15" d.o.t. competition tire. Expect to pay over $300 per tire for these.

[JR]

You can buy a whole ton of 17 inch speed rated tires for around 150 each.

I'd pick up a set of 17 inch wheels for track use and swap them when you get there.

Switch back after if you like the look of 15s.

[HPP]

Yes, you can get tires called ultra high performance with V and Z ratings, but once you get down to the sub 300 treadwear catagory, the prices ratchet up pretty quickly. To get a Z rated, 200 treadwear, 17" tire is going to run you up around the $200 each range and higher. Add in a couple grand for wheels and it isn't necessarily an inexpensive change over.

[JR]

Yes, you can get tires called ultra high performance with V and Z ratings, but once you get down to the sub 300 treadwear catagory, the prices ratchet up pretty quickly. To get a Z rated, 200 treadwear, 17" tire is going to run you up around the $200 each range and higher. Add in a couple grand for wheels and it isn't necessarily an inexpensive change over.

Why use such an agressive tire compound?  A standard high performance street tire would hold up to 15 laps around talledega fine. There are even a handful of all season tires that are Z rated and perform very well for a street tire.  Such as the General AS-03. I've personally driven those tires flat out at a handful of track days at speed and found them perfectly fine for a street car. They are somewhere around 150/each and would be perfectly fine for what he's doing.

On top of that, I'd strongly reccomended against an inexperienced driver jumping straight to R compound tires anyway. Sticky tires with no feedback piled on top of a softly sprung 2 ton 40 year old chassis would be a miserable, risky combination. Especially with an inexperienced driver at that.
Sticking to good street tires will give much more feedback and give plenty of warning before breaking loose. Which would be much safer for what sounds like a nice, original Charger.

For a good summer performance Z rated tire, he could run RS-3s or Star Specs and still have plenty of money left over. Theyre all around 150 each.

Summit racing offers a handful of 17x8 or 9 steel wheels for between 115-150 each.

That should easily be in budget.

I'm looking at things from a pure function over form standpoint.

I don't understand the emotional attachment to 15 inch wheels here. Wheels just bolt on and off. Most of the track day crowd has a spare set of wheels/tires(and brake pads and rotors) to switch back and forth.  
Some people here act like it's destroying the car just to bolt different wheels on it.

I don't get it. Actually driving the car flat out is more fun (to me, anyway) than looking at two more inches of rubber on the wheels.