KenMathisHD

Well, the time has come to get new front tires.
The rears are in good shape, they've got good tread and are just about 2 years old with a lot of tread left. However, the fronts are from 2009 and are pretty badly cracked, with smaller cracks/creases in the tread pattern and now big cracks on the sidewall.
While they haven't deflated or exploded yet, I'd rather not try my luck with running them at highway speeds for much longer.

I figured it'd be easy as pie, just grab the sizes off the current tires and find some new ones in the same sizes and I'd be good to go. However, upon looking for tires at discount I came across something odd. They have 2 different listings for sizes, with one being 255/45R17 Front 285/40R17 Rear, and the other being 275/40R17 Front and 315/35R17 Rear.
The odd part is that the tires currently on the vette are 255/40R17 Front and 315/35R17 Rear. I'm not really certain what happened, if maybe the PO bought the wrong size tires for the rears or the fronts, but I don't want to be the guy that runs the wrong tires and wonders why the car feels weird after replacing them. That being said, is there a way to determine the ACTUAL tire size that's supposed to go on the vehicle/rim?

Also, what tires do you guys run? I've currently got Maxxis in the front and Sumimoto in the back. Just found a big ole nail in the rear tire though so looks like I may be replacing them all

bac22

Real easy if we knew the year. Nitto tires tend to be a forum favorite.

KenMathisHD

Sorry bout that!
She's a 1994 Base Coupe

WVZR-1

I'd say that you first need to mention the wheels on the car "PRESENTLY"!!

'94 base production tire specifications would be on a placard stuck to the drivers door of a '94. If the wheels are stock use the tire sizes mentioned on the placard.

If wheels have been changed then size appropriately to what the new wheels are.

Post a snapshot of the car!

A very good wheel identification that actually includes appropriate tire sizing also.

http://www.mirrockcorvette.com/corve...de-wheels.html

QCVette

It probably came with 255/45/17 front and 285/40/17 rear. (on 8.5" front and 9.5" rear wheels)

If it had Z07 option, it may have 275/40/17 on all four. (on 9.5" front and rear wheels)

The 315 was only on the ZR1.

You should check to see what wheels you have also since the 315 tires are usually mounted on 11" wheels which are a popular aftermarket size.

The door sticker and the SPID label should tell the story on what originally came on the car.

bac22

Base/Coupe: P255/45ZR-17 Front, P285/40ZR-17 Rear
ZR-1: P275/40ZR-17 Front, P315/35ZR-17 Rear

fake

I placed Goodyears on my 93 with FX3 and i noticed a vast inprovement in ride, even though my original tires at 16000 miles looked new. No cracks because i kept it covered and out of the sun. I would try Tire Rack they were fast and i would buy from them again and they got what i wanted and i picked my installer and saved a hundred dollars

KenMathisHD

They're the stock sawblades
Although if I purchased a ZR-1 instead of a base I wouldn't complain :P I didn't see double runners though so I think I'm SOL there

FASTAZU

You should have a sticker on the drivers door listing what tire combination was on it when it left the factory.

Example.

KenMathisHD

Ah, sorry. Looks like the sticker says 255front and 285 rear combo

FASTAZU

You most likely have 8.5 rims on the front and 9.5 on the rear. Once removed you can confirm the size as it is cast into one of the spokes.

MatthewMiller

Ken, assuming you still have the original wheels on your car, then you can go with the 255/45 and 285/40 combo called for on the sticker. If you have trouble finding options in those sizes, you could step down 10mm in width on both ends and go with 245/45 and 275/40. They'd be about 0.6" shorter at both ends, and they would be the same height (25.6") as the 275/40 and 315/35 combo on the ZR1.

Barrier

Just went thru this with 1993 Base Convertible. New to me 1 year ago with 32k miles . Car came with 8.5 17" Front and 9.5 17 Rear on the car and Sticker. My car had Nitto NT555 all around with date of (1012) My plan was to go with 9.5 all around and use the 275/40/17 all around to allow front to rear rotation. With that in mind I located a set of 9.5 rims for the front.
About two weeks ago I found cracks on the two front tires they evidently aged out and were affected by lack of driving dry rot and sun.
Since the tires were barley worn rotation of new tires for longevity would not be an issue for my type of driving. I decided to go with Nitto NT555G2 in the original size front and rear. I would age out on the new tires way before wear would occur.
I purchased the New tires from Discount Tire Direct lowest price I could find. So far they feel even better than the NT555s did.
Just my experience.
Barrier