This is for the rears....
I am going to try running 15" with a 295 50 15 for a spell but I don't know how long it can last, wide 15" tires are on the way out, I am thinking that an 18" wheel in a classic old school design might be the ticket, something like a torq d, or other racy looking wheel.

I am also running a 4" plus L-88 flare and desire the old school deep dish reverse look, I have no idea if the 18" even come deep dish.

the stock backspace on a 69 wheel was 4" right?
if I run a say 10" or 11" x 18" wheel with 4" backspace that would stick the wheel out for my flare and with stock backspace would clear everything inboard does this sound correct?

What would be a nice size tire to run that will not be a complete rubber band look.

The 15" x 10" fake center lines on there now have to run a thin spacer to clear the caliper do the modern 18's require this?

Do I dare even ask if anyone is running something like I want....

 

Bats, I'm right there with you. I have 4 inch flares I just put on and am looking for wheels. I'm looking at 17x11 with 3.5 inch BS. It is my understanding that the 4 inch flare will allow up to a 13 inch wheel, but I don't know about the BS.

 

I like that old school look too, and though I don't have flairs I thought I'd throw this out there. The rims are Weld Draglites,15x9 with a 5 1/2" BS....but I am running VB&P 1 1/4" wheel adaptors. I found most wheels have a flat mounting pad, and the vette calipers will not clear without some sort of spacer. With the 1 1/4" adaptor, the wheel clears perfectly, and the outer most edge of the 9 inch rim is right at the fender lip. With flares you can add another several inches of rim.

Tires I run are MT 295 55 15 drag radials.....mostly for the stick,..but they fill the wheel wells nicely.

 

Hum...
RC
I don't wanna drop any brands and get my thread locked but your flares started out as ones like mine so basically the same size as yours.
When we say 4" from body to flare lip they are larger.

When I bought a 86 someone had put camaro wheels on it the sat too far inboard they looked okay so I hung a string with weight front the wheel well top right down the middle of the axle, then I measured from the hub to the string, and did the easy match to get the size adaptor I needed, in that case I wanted the bulge of the side wall to be even with the "string".

If I run the 15" on my 69 I thought I could space out a 295 50 15 enough in some pictures 295's look wide but then on your car TMP while I think they look super good you had to space them 1.25 to get them to look great with stock flares so you can imagine that it would take a 4-5" spacer to get it to look like yours but with my flare and then I believe from the rear the tire would look spaced out...


I am re thinking what you said RC that you heard the flare will allow up to a 13" rim,
The seller of the L-88's on a fender on ebay says 11" rear, I wrote and ask him his wheel and tire sizes.

I also believe that I am going to have to run 11-12" and step up to 17" or 18" to be able to get a wide street tire, back when I built my wide body the rear body panels look wide but I ran a 15 x 12 and at the time I could buy a wide 15 tire and it filled the rears nicely.

So if I do 17 rather than 18 I would loose less sidewall, next step in the puzzle are any of the cool old school style wheels made in 11-12" 17 or 18" and with the 3-4 bs.....that I can afford...

 

I have 18 x 12's with an equivalent to a 345/35 tire, deffinately NOT a rubber band tire. (look at the Mickey Thompson ET stre radial..27" + tall)

Nick

 

What BS do you have and do you have stock trailing arms?? Thanks.

 

4.25" ..theres no need for offset trailing arms for 17" or bigger wheels.

 

I was just trying to show that you will need some sort of spacer to clear the brake caliper, and that in my case the resulting BS was 4 1/4". (5 1/2" minus the 1 1/4" adaptor.) This with a 9 inch wide rim puts the tire at the stock fender. So in your case, you could add an additional 4 inches to the rim, giving a total rim width of 13"

I love that old school deep dish look, but don't have flairs, so in my case 9 inch rims are about as deep as I could go.

 

Not all wheels need a spacer to clear the caliper....the fronts in that fake centerline set I have do not need spacers...some wheels do some dont....I have several different sets on my 66 that didnt.

 

I'll be ordering 18x12's for the rear of mine in the not too distant future, and I'll be ordering 4.5" BS. Current rears are 17x11's with 3.875" BS with 315/35-17; the 12's with 4.5" will give me a little more wheel outboard, and a little more wheel inboard. My trailer limits me on how much more outboard I can go.

With the 18x12's I'll be able to use the same size tires on both my C3 and C5Z.

 

Do you have any pictures of the 17's now on there....would love to see it....

 

Yes, if you click on "My Corvette Photos" under my avatar in any of my posts it will take you to a gallery, and you can go to my profile page and click "Show All Albums" under "Photo Galleries" on the right side of the screen.

 

I'm looking at the Billet Specialties Street Light in 17x11. They only come in 3.5 or 4.0 on BS. The 3.5 would give me just a tad more wheel out board that what you have now Plan on a 315/35-17. It looks like you current setup would allow for more tire outward without extending past the fender well?? The 4.0 would pull in just a tad more. I'm trying to get right at the lip or as close as possible. Bats, once you go over the 17x11 to say a x 12 or 18 inch, the wheels get real expensive. Well, at least for me anyway. What have you found so far as I have not purchased anything yet and am looking at everything I can find.

 

You likely know how cheap..ahem budget minded I am,
Many times I work out things on my own, however there are times like this that surfing the coats tails of fellows who been there done that will save me time and money...

The offset you stated will give me that deep dish I desire,
Is the 315/35/17 a common size at a good price?

I found this picture the rear view the cat said the tires are 315/35/17 on 11" rims.
But in the front view he says they are race tires the same as 335/35/18 on 12 inch wheels, not sure my flare will cover that...




I found this shot


Rears: 11x17 with 315-35-17's

While the flare is the Ecklers ZL-1 style, man did this look tailor made to fit...

 

Here is what I would like to copy
INTRO 18 x 10 Pentia, soft lip. 18 x 12 Pentia soft lip.
• Michelin 275/35ZR18, 335/30ZR18 Pilot sport

 

True, but looks can be deceiving on my car as I'm running about 1.8* negative camber in the rear. If the tire were more vertical it would appear to fill the wheel well better, the top of the tire would be closer to the lip.

I'm not sure what the current availability of 315-17 street tires is, I only have race tires. Seems like 18's are the ticket these days.

Bats: the green car is gkull's car. I thought he used to run 335-17's on the rear. The head-on shot of his car doesn't appear to be 335-17 rears.

The white car was another CF member, can't remember his user name.

 

I found it in this thread just copied what he posted about size...but I mucked it up, the head on shot was said to be 335/35/18 on 12 inch wheels,

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...of-a-tire.html

So on 17 vs 18 which will have more and less costly tire choices?

 

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSe...r=17&zip-code=

Sumitomo, hard to beat for the price. My ride is a cruiser so not so concerned with ultra high performance racing tires. Cant find anything even close to this price range in 18 inch.