road racing slicks

[RobM]

im looking to run some road racing slicks on 15X8 steel wheels what tire size will fit under a stock bodied first gen camaro in a 15 inch wheel size?

[vintageracer]

If you run "Goodyear" racing tires, about all you will get under one on an 8 inch wheel is a 6.00-15 up front. You may be able to get a 7.00-15 under the rear depending on the suspension setup you are running.

These are the sizes all the vintage race guys run under 1st gens.

[jcs]

I use Goodyear Blue Streaks (vintage bias ply road race tires). Fronts are 6.00x15 on 15x7 Torque Thrusts, rears are 7.00x15 on 15x10. I need a spacer on the fronts, about 3/8". Many vintage guys run 15x8.5 wheels front and rear, I think that was the old Trans-Am rule. I tried 15x8.5 on the front, but they did not have enough backspace. Going down to a 7" wheel tucked the tire in enough. On the rear, my rearend is narrowed a bit, so I used the 15x10's to move the tires out. With a stock rearend, I think 15x8.5 wheels would work. Equavalent tire sizes are about 270/15 front, 305/70 rear. These barely fit under my 1968. My ride height is also not terribly low, I could probably lower it if I used stiffer springs, mine are 550# front/175# rear. I run these on the street, but usually only to drive to a road course. Unless you are going to track your car, I wouldn't use them. One good pothole would probably blow them, they are paper thin, and have 'not for highway use' molded in to the sidewall making inspections interesting. When cold, there are horribly slick and the car hunts like crazy, and you will never get them warm enough on the street, but they rock once warm.

Pic attached.

[vanzuuk1]

Jcs, thats a tuff looking car , I love it. Can you give a little backround on the car and what you use it for? Was it always a street car? More pics please.

Does anyone know if slicks heat up enough in an autocross? I see guys run them and I wonder if they work better than a good set of street tires without a lap or two to warm them up.

[vintageracer]

A good set of "high performance" new technology street sticky radials will work MUCH better than Goodyear Bluestreaks for autocross. The vintage guys run bias ply Hoosiers or Goodyears because we are required to run these. If you want to run this type of tire and autocross, buy a Hoosier "Street TD". The are available in all the popular sizes you will need and will work much better for an autocross than a Bluestreak. Hoosier's are also cheaper than a Bluestreak. Hoosier's also do not last as long and go away MUCH faster than a Bluesteak. You have to pay to play! After saying all this about the bias ply Hoosier, it is better for autocross and lot's of folks run them in Vintage racing also. I ran them for a long time and now run the Goodyear Bluestreaks. The bias ply Goodyear Bluestreak is plain and simple a much better tire for road racing a heavier Camaro or Shelby type of B production car.

The problem with the new technology "sticky" radials is that there are few if any brands that make a large enough 15 inch tire size for our cars. Unless you are able to go to "Plus Size" technology with 16-18 inch wheels you are out of luck. Example would be the street legal racing tires made by Kumho. Great tires, just not made in the larger 15 inch sizes for old iron. Kumho, Avon and to a degree Hoosier,are catering to the import and sports car market with their racing radials.

Another thing to consider is that the "bias" ply tires are much more forgiving than radials on a heavy car (2700lbs-3000lbs). BFG previously made an "R1" compound radial that a lot of guys tried in East Coast vintage racing. The radial tire worked real well until they broke loose and that was it, no recovery, big spin, hope you do not hit anybody! You can gather it back in with bias plys tires when the rear end lets loose. This problem may be solved with the newer generation of road racing radials available today. I have not tried any of the new crop of road racing radials as there are not any made in 15 inch sizes large enough to properly fit my car.

[jcs]

Vanzuuk1, that is about the only good pic I have, my car is apart right now for a new motor. It is a street car, but i use it mainly for track days recently..377ci short stroke 400, doug nash 5-speed, 9" rear, 4wheel discs, harnesses, etc. I used to work on vintage race stuff, drooling over Trans Am cars, so that is what I know.

Regarding your question about autocross tires, I'm no expert, but I know there are specific autocross tires that are made to work at lower temps than road race tires. I agree with the previous post...if someone made good 15" high performance radials, I'd use them instead of real race tires in a heartbeat. You measure tire life in hours, not miles, with Bluestreaks, and they are far from cheap, over $200/each. Unless you want to step up to 17"'s, practically the only 15" tire choice I know of other than race stuff is Radial T/A's, which won't hold up to track abuse very well.

[Tobey]

For DOT R-compound radials, Hoosier, Kumho, and Toyo are probably the most common.

Hoosier makes their A3S04/R3S04 (Autocross/Race) tire in 245/50/15. They are $195 each at the Tire Rack. They also have some 225 sizes.

I saw some Kumho R-compounds at my buddy's shop a couple weeks ago. I think they were the ECSTA V-710. The size written on the tire was 225/50/15, but they looked like the 245's on my street car. By far, the widest 225 I have ever seen.

The Toyo Proxes RA-1 is available in 225/50/15. We raced a 6 hour endurance race in an RX-7 on some Toyos a couple years ago, and still got another 6 hours of track time out of them.

[Damn True]

Pic attached.



WOW, thats a nice car!

Zuuk and myself are among the few who dig something like that.

[Damn True]

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=C

[69Nova]

Zuuk and myself are among the few who dig something like that.

Dont forget me. My next car will be a 68 camaro and be very close to something like that.

[vintageracer]

As stated above, there are lot's of newer racing radials however I still have found the largest radial currently available, the 245/50-15 to be far to short in height compared to 600-15 Goodyears that are normally run on Camaros and Shelby's vintage racing. They are wide however they are not tall enough.

It is great that the 245/50-15 size is now made as they are getting closer to a good size tire for our cars in a 15 inch tire. Vintage is still required/requested to run bias ply tires for Group 6 or the old B production type cars. HSR will allow a plus 1 inch tire size increase so I guess I could run a 16 inch tire as Shelby's were delivered new with 15 inch tires. Several of the E Type Jag guys are now running 16 inch tires in Group 6. Even without modern tire technology, the vintage cars raced today are MUCH faster NOW than in the good days!

[Damn True]

Anything available in a 17" radial?

The Michis look like the only solid offering that isn't a one or two day tire for a heavier car.

[vintageracer]

With 17's you should be able to get somewhere in the size department. Personally, if street with some open track is your goal, get shaved 17's with good proper wheel fitment and go have a ball!

[RobM]

well thanks for the info. My car actualy looks and sits about the same as yours but has steel nasscar looking wheels on it or a set of 17 inch intro's. And its black with silver stripes. Whats the best 15 inch tire that would be good to run on the street? does the bfg radial TA have the highest speed rating a tire that would fit right on a camaro? my car is capable of going faster then the speed rating for the bfg's. I'm planning to drive the car to the track on slicks by the way.

[ProBell]

Just found this old thread and thought I would try to revive it and see if anything new has been found.
I am looking for slicks for my car , I want something around 25.5" tall and 9.5" wide for the front. I would like something 27" tall and 9.5 to 13" wide for the rear.
I would like a 17" OR 16" rim but am willing to go to 15" if need be.
I find looking for tires very frustrating. The selections are very limited. Thanks for the help. Randy