I was wondering what the best size tires would be for the rear end of my vette. I've got 17" rims on it now and running 255/45 17's on the front. I can't seem to find any tires to pair these up with on the back. I would like to put 45's on the rear too.
I've already checked out Firestone, Discount Tire, Tire Rack.com and even eBay...I can't find any tires. The size I'm looking to go up from is a 275/45 17. I've got the 275/40 17's on now.
I can find the same tire I've got, but there is too much clearance under the fender. I can't go with a 50 series, because then the tire will rub the skirt.
I CAN find a 275/45 18, but there's nothing wrong with my rims, so why should I change it out to satisfy the rubber company?
If I cannot find this specfic size tire, then I guess I will just get two more matching front tires and put them on the rear too.
Funny thing is, I saw a Camaro for sale on eBay that had the tires I wanted that were BFGoodrich 275/45 17's and I went to their website too and...nothing. I mean, WTF?!? Did they discontinue this size or something? I want to stay with the 45's but I need the wider tires in the back...

 

The standard size for the 93-96 rear is 285 40 17. The 88-92's had 275 40 17 (as did the later Z07's).You should be able to find them at tires.com or discount direct. Why do you want 45 series?

 

The car sits extremely low already. It had the 45's on the front when I bought it. I'm guessing what they did was take the 45's off the back and switch them with the 40's in front. The 40's in back caused the exhaust pipes to get dented, so the 40's were transferred to the front which then caused the oil pan to get dented up. I replaced the 45's in front and wanted to put 45's on the rear as well to keep both ends from dragging the ground.
My car on sits about three inches off the ground, even after I replaced all the sway bar bushings, ball joints, and I even had to replace the rear wheel bearings cause the passenger side did not even have the dust seal on it which probably led to it's early demise.
I've got it all set up nice now and did not want it to contibue to bottom out like it had been doing. The rear dust shields will not accomodate a 50 series.
I thought it just looks weird to have that big of a gap in the back.
My '84 has a '91 body kit on it with ground effects as well as 17" rims to go with it. I like the rims so I did not want to go up to 18's in order to go to a 45 series, but the nose seems to be pointing up because of the bigger tires in front.
If I go with 40's all the way around, it'll bottom out even getting out of my steep driveway.
I was planning on replacing the oil pan real soon, so I didn't want small tires in front for sure, otherwise, I'd come back to the problem of getting a new oil pan.
Does 255/45 17's in front and 275/40 17's in rear sound right, because it just looks wrong to me. I thought the taller tires belonged in the back.
I can't put wide tires in front because they will rub on the tie rods on the inside and there are marks from the 275's already having rubbed the underside of the skirts on the outside. That could have just been because of the lack of rubber bushings though...My driver's side sway bar did not have any rubber at all in the linkage, so I was just bouncing around.
Now that I've got it all fixed, I'd like to keep it that way.

 

You didn't say what size rims your running, other than 17"

I'll assume you have 8.5" front rims, since your running 255/45-17 tires.

From the factory:
Front: 255/45-17 on 8.5" rims
Rear: 285/40-17 on 9.5" rims (Grand Sport Coupe and ZR-1 had 315/35-17 on 11" rims)

Or as zr1fred mentioned, some cars had 9.5" rims on both front and back.
Those cars had 275/40-17 tires all around.

 

I haven't measured them that way as of yet. I just replaced the two so far with what was coming off. I could try the 285's I suppose.
I know that 275's don't like being on the front because of the rubbing factor when I turn.
I'd have to get even more spacers for them.

 

Ok, I just went to the man-cave and measured them. They are 8.5 in front.
The rears seem to be 11's though because the front tires stick out 1/4" on either side of the rim, but the rear tires seem to be flush with the rim back there.

 

That is likely because you have 275/40s when it should be 285/40. If you had 11" rims you would be running 315/35/17s.

 

The rim size should be stamped on the back side of the rim.

If the rim is 8.5", they use a 255/45-17 tire.
Seems like this is what you have on the front, and your good there.

On the back, you should have a 9.5" rim.
You can run either a 285/40-17 (factory size with the 255/45 on front).
Or you can use a 275/40-17

As I said above, some cars came with 9.5" rims and 275/40-17 tires on all 4 corners.

You will not have any rubbing on the front with 275/40 tires on a 9.5" rim.
Don't put that size on an 8.5" rim though.
It will fit, but will look funny and is not in the recommended size range for that tire.

 

Here's a pick with 255/45R17 front and 255/50R17 rear on 17x9.5 wheels.



And another showing the rear only:



I have since gone with 255/50R17 all around.