Does Anyone Run 16's Anymore

[idreamofthe60s]

Does Anyone run 16 inch wheels anymore? I remember Camaro Performance Magazine once recommending 16 inch wheels over 17's to keep a little bit more rubber between the street and wheel. I had all but forgot about it until I recently saw a 69 Firebird on Ebay sporting GTA wheels. It looked nice. At 16X8 with 4.75 inch backspace on the fronts and 5.25 inch in the rear, it is often recommended to use four fronts. However, someone once told me they had better luck running rears in the front of their 68. Does anyone remember what the best backspack is for 16 inch wheels on a first gen?


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[68Formula]

That article was from 2002. Concern about lack of sidewall was on the 18/20 combo. Their only complaint on the 17s was they were "too wide" in front, but that was probably more a function of too tall and perhaps improper back spacing (225/55R17) more than the width. Most on here run a 245/45R17 or 245/40R18 on the front with no problem. As a matter of fact, it was Carl's car that was tested and he now runs a 285/40R17 on the front (with a bit of work) and a stock-based subframe.

With 17s you get a lot more tire choices, and the latest in tire technology.

[DoABarrelRoll]

...

With 17s you get a lot more tire choices, and the latest in tire technology.

For now, lol. How long until that changes?

[Turbo67camaro]

Big brakes are what prevents use of 16" wheels in many cases around here.

The brakes I'm using (C6 Z51) require 18" wheels.

I'd bet that most of the projects on this site lately need at least 17" wheels to clear the calipers and larger rotors.

[Pro-Tour Heavy Chevy]

I probably have one of the few 16" wheels that will clear 13" brakes,Edelbrock 409's. These were bought 10yrs ago when they were more mainstream, but today you will be limited on tire choice.
For example I currently run 245/50-16 on the front and 255/50-16 on the rear. The tires need replacing due to age and the selection is limited. I can find front's in just about anything, but anything larger and I'm out of luck, especially if I want something sticky and good luck. So I may be switching to 17's for the front and 18's on the rear. Or just 17's. This is on a A body of course

[Vegas69]

They are oddballs.

[Bryce]

i run a 16 on my falcon. Because i need a small OD tire. 25.5" and i like the look of some sidewall. Plus at my weight i only need 11.75" rotors. And a 16" wheel tire combo can be a lot lighter.

[b-man]

I was running these 16X8.5" '84 Corvette wheels back in '89 when 16s were still considered to be pretty huge.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/01/DSC02220-1.jpg

They're a good fit and look right on cars with smaller wheel openings, but that leaves out most of the American musclecars and pony cars.

If you're on a very tight budget and don't mind the constantly shrinking tire size selection available they're not a bad choice. You can get 16" wheels for a song these days.

[mjdwyer23]

Buick guys love their GTAs because they resemble gnx wheels.

[MuscleRodz]

Few guys are, this is my neighbor's 69 with aftermarket GTA wheels.

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[idreamofthe60s]

Found part of the article. It is from CHP. www.chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/92318/index1.html, but the link does not work.

16 Inch Wheels

Front
Backspacing: 5.0
Wheel width: 8.5
Tire size: 245/40


Rear
Backspacing: 5.5
Wheel width: 8.5
Tire size: 255/50

[rockytopper]

I'm still running 16 ich irocz wheels. I am running a 60 series tire that is 26.62 dia. I run the rears (5.5 bs) on the front and run the fronts (4.75 bs) on the back. The 4.75 rubs my inner fenders while the 5.5 bs works well. I installed 2 inch drop spindles which put the tie rods to close to the 5.5 bs so I corrected that by adding 3/8 spacers to move my steering arms in. It appears to work well. I have been wanting to up grade to the boss 338 wheel in a 18 x 8 but they only come in 4.5 bs. That makes me have to move to a 20 x 8.5 which has a larger bs and looks like will fit on all 4's but I'm having a hard time with going with that size wheel and rubber band look. May be it will grow on me. The other thing mentioned above was perhaps my problem is I'm running to tall of a tire up front and if I ran something smaller the 4.75 would work. But when I ask the question I didn’t get a clear answer https://www.pro-touring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57202

[mc84_zz4]

My SS still runs some old 16"s, the good news is now there are several new 16" tires, BFG comp sport is one.
There are few choices, though...
http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/tires/bf_goodrich/product/byName.do?r=TXSINT%7Cpc%7C78259&tmn=g-Force+Sport&typ=Passenger%2FPerformance

Mine has Enkei mod 92, 16x8, 4" bs (-10 mm offset)
245/50/16, 255/50/16
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/03/ss_nose-1.jpg

And yes, it is getting dropped this year, it sits way too high.
I will be upgrading to 18" or 17" rims next year and bigger brakes eventually. As far as the current brakes there are 175K miles on the car and it's on it's 3rd pair of brake pads, and there is a lot left on them.....lol
It's driven hard, I just don't use brakes that often...

[nowukno]

I run 16x8 V48's on my wagon
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/08/IMG_0330-1.jpg
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