Tires
Racer
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 487
Likes: 160
From: Two Lane Black Top
Have 245/60r15 Cooper Cobra's on my 72. They are decent enough for driving around town and interstate travel. They are lacking in traction compared to newer performance tires. The car is very easy to fish tail with ~1/2 throttle or less coming off the stop light on the street. They are slightly better than the prior sets of Bad Year Eagle's GT+4/GT/ST/Wingfoot/BFG T/A's whatever.
I'm convinced it's time to retire the 15x8's and get new wheels in order to allow more and better tire choices. American Racing has several wheels choices that look promising and weigh a lot less than the 27 pound steel rally wheel. Better traction and cutting 25 to 40 pounds of unsprung weight looks like a nice benefit.
I'm convinced it's time to retire the 15x8's and get new wheels in order to allow more and better tire choices. American Racing has several wheels choices that look promising and weigh a lot less than the 27 pound steel rally wheel. Better traction and cutting 25 to 40 pounds of unsprung weight looks like a nice benefit.
Race Director
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 10,696
Likes: 3,094
From: Cottonwood AZ
C1 of Year Finalist (performance mods) 2019
nooooo, not sure where you are but posted highway speeds are 65 or 75 mph. The coopers are rated for 118 mph sustained speed. Im sure you arent running around our local highways maintaining 120mph speeds for 30 minutes to an hour....are you? JUst passing someone and possibly exceeding said speed limits for a short burst isnt going to heat the tire up to failure. I dont think you have a course you drive that you can get up past that on a long straight away do you?
This explains speed ratings to the rest of us.....and that the speed rating dose not equate to performance
https://www.tirereview.com/science-s...target%20speed.
This explains speed ratings to the rest of us.....and that the speed rating dose not equate to performance
https://www.tirereview.com/science-s...target%20speed.
I have had several sets of Cooper tires and in fact have a set of Cobras on my 1972 El Camino right now. They are good tires at a reasonable price. However for my sports cars that I drive as such I have other preferences.
Freeway speed limits in AZ. are 75 mph and in most cases if your not doing 85-90 your going to get run over. Even in the metro Phoenix area on the loop roads with a 65 mph limit the traffic is running 75-80 consistently. Also both our ambient and road surface temps are higher that most other states which effect the durability of tires.
My two cars have different tires but both are V rated. My 1966 has Avon 15” on KO wheels. They are very sticky and only last about 20k miles but are a true race tire great for curvy mountain roads and have the security of the speed rating that makes me comfortable for the freeway speeds I encounter.
My 65 has 17” Toyos that have a harder compound and last longer but still give me the security of the freeway speeds.
