Wide tires and street practicality

[yanchikk]

Hey guys,

I have a 70 Chevelle with a 454 and a full ridetech coil over package, upper and lower Strong Arms, and their drop spindles ready to be installed.

I want to make this car handle as best as possible for everyday street driving. My assumption is that the wider the tire, the better the handling, so I reached out to a shop that can help me fit wide tires in the front (295,305,315).



The guy over the phone told me that this width of tire isn’t too practical because the car will feel “heavy” with all that tire up front. He suggested a 275 being the maximum for the fronts.

Can anyone here attest to this or even throw their 2 cents at this idea? Anyone here run 275+ tires on the front of their A-body ? What’s it like ?

Thank you.

[chevelletiger]

305,or 315 wide tires do track the street road more than say a 275 or 285.
I'm about to have my 18x9 widened to fit the 315,but I am running a custom splined sway bar.
If your not going to autocross or road course itstick to a 275,the other large sizes get pricey also.

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Also what ratio box do you have? I'm running a 10:1.
There's also a 8:1 turnone makes.

[Tsaints1115]

I think you'd be happier with a 275 square setup with a great tire on it. It's more the quality of the tire vs width with a crap tire.

[Olds.PhD]

I think you'd be happier with a 275 square setup with a great tire on it. It's more the quality of the tire vs width with a crap tire.

...typically one would assume same quality of tire either way. Why are we assuming the quality of the wide tire is worse?

[Lonnies Performance]

Depending on how much you drive the car, check out the tire prices first. As you get wider the prices can get insane.

Also, many larger tires are strictly race oriented & not only have a reduced tread wear rating (i.e. 200 or less), they have less tread also.
A tire with 6/32 tread only has 1/8" tread before you are in the wear bars, making the tire illegal for street use... if you care about that sort of thing.
$750 for 2 front tires that only last 1 summer adds up.... especially when the rears wear out even faster.

My experience is with F-bodies & my S10, not A-bodies, but most info correlates.
I drive my S10 over 70 miles a day with 305/30's on the front.
I have no regrets, except when I have to buy new tires.

Going wider often requires a wheel with more negative offset.
This increases the scrub radius which tends to make the car wander on irregular roads.
I mainly notice this effect on worn blacktop roads with low spots where the tires typically run.
Increased caster tended to help as did keeping the wheels with as much positive offset possible.

I actually experimented with wheel spacers & a smaller tire/wheel to see how it reacted & you could feel the wandering increase with more negative offset.
A 255 tire on an 8.5" wheel with 2" spacer was much worse than a 10.5" wheel & 305 tire, even though the outer edge of the tread was in the same location.
If you notice many newer cars have positive offset wheels with the ball joint nearly centered in the wheel for a good reason... even though I would much rather see a fat lip on my wheels.

As for the steering feeling heavy, I never noticed anything negative with the wider tires.

If you do get caught in the rain, be prepared to drive slower as the tendency to hydroplane is increased greatly.

Let's not forget it really looks cool.

[416velle]

Off-shelf wheel prices for something that accomodates a 275 tire vs a 315 are LIGHTYEARS different. Especially for wheels that don't require you to put spacers in. And tires on top of that.
I ran 275F and 315R for a while with 17s, car handled great, looked killer and those 315s really are a vibe filling up the rear wheel tubs. (have 3 pairs of 17" torq thrusts collecting dust if interested) Currently in the process of taking out a mortgage for some rocket racing 18x11s and RT660 315s all around, I will be autocrossing every opportunity possible though, HIGHLY not recommend that setup for street driving.
I think what he may mean by "heavy" is steering, you WILL notice increased wheel effort. Though if you like the car enough, you maybe won't nitpick it.

[streetk14]

...typically one would assume same quality of tire either way. Why are we assuming the quality of the wide tire is worse?

It’s getting harder to find good tires in 17” and 18” sizes. Or at least what I’m after. For a driver, I’d want something like a Michelin pilot sport 4S, which is probably the best every day street tire out right now. Those can’t be had in wider 17-18” sizes, so that’s something that should be considered. Can you get an excellent tire in smaller sizes vs a good tire in larger sizes. It’s something to think about.

[Jeremy]

I run 285/40/17 on all four corners of my 71 LeMans. Its not a daily driver per see but I try to drive it every day. I'm running Nitto G2 555's and am quite pleased with them.

As far as I know it is stock ride height. I added a 1 1/4 WS6 trans am bar to the front and it came with a rear bar. Some better shocks and it would probably be perfect for what I want. Right now I would liken the ride to the 07 Charger SRT I had.