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I'm looking at an 86 Corvette to buy. Car has been off the road for a while. Besides needing new fuel injectors (they have to be at least 20 years old), the car needs tires. Is there a way to tell just looking at rim if you have the 8.5 or the 9.5 rims? The RPO code sticker is missing from glovebox door. I even looked in left storage bin, not there either. The tires are 15 years old. The tire size all corners- 255/50 ZR 16. I read this size is impossible to find. What size should I go with? I'm guessing 4 new tires have to cost around $1,000. These are the rims on the car.
You can remove from the car and the ID of the wheel will be on the 'back-side' . It will mention the side to be mounted on, offset and width. The wheel in your snapshot is a left/driver side mount. I know of no way to ID width from the outside.
I purchased an 84 with the same issues and went with these tires. I have the Z51 option with the 9.5 rears and they fit and handle great. I’m not interested in high speed racing so these work great for me. Time will tell how they perform in the long run.
Fortunately for the original owners of our machines back in the day, they had the ability to get these "custom sized" performance tires without much issue. Unfortunate for we modern owners, these tires are found on legitimately zero other cars besides the early C4 Corvettes, which puts us in a bit of a pickle.
However, I believe when Goodyear phased out their 255 tires way back when, they suggested that 245s will fit perfectly fine. As you can see above, this seemingly still holds true. Doesn't look like a terrible price for the rubber either (cheaper than what Costco quoted me for the same size except in BFGs...).
Unfortunate for we modern owners, these tires are found on legitimately zero other cars besides the early C4 Corvettes, which puts us in a bit of a pickle.
I believe the Ferrari Testarossa used them as well, so that adds like,.. a whopping 10K vehicles to the total market? Still pretty low numbers by most standards.
Michelin is making the 255/50R16 tire again, but they are spendy. However, if you divide it over the life of a set of tires it "only" works out to $200 a year. I'm sure you'll spend way more than that on gas.
Just found those Michelin tires- $527 per tire! That's $2,100 without mounting and balancing. Tires should be replaced after 8 years no matter what. If you put about 2,500 miles per year on them which I think is higher than normal, you will only get about 20,000 miles out of them. Thanks, but no thanks Michelin.
Just found those Michelin tires- $527 per tire! That's $2,100 without mounting and balancing. Tires should be replaced after 8 years no matter what. If you put about 2,500 miles per year on them which I think is higher than normal, you will only get about 20,000 miles out of them. Thanks, but no thanks Michelin.
The service station people will tell you 8 yrs. Actually , a lot of them will tell you six. Most manufacturers suggest 10. In any case, 99% of our tires will age out long before they wear out. But you do what works for you. I don't get a commission on them.
I believe the Ferrari Testarossa used them as well, so that adds like,.. a whopping 10K vehicles to the total market? Still pretty low numbers by most standards.
Michelin is making the 255/50R16 tire again, but they are spendy. However, if you divide it over the life of a set of tires it "only" works out to $200 a year. I'm sure you'll spend way more than that on gas.
I'm trying to think really hard and I don't recall ever seeing a Testarossa in my two decades of being alive on this planet. Not even at car shows do I see them. It's unfortunate because they're about the only European car I actually like. Regardless, of the (generous estimate) 100K-120K C4 Corvette's made with the original turbine style wheels, I am willing to bet that maybe less than half are still on the road today. Even less cars are even running the original rims I'm sure. Definitely a small market to cater to so I can see why 255s are few and far between.
If only BFG didn't stop making them. How expensive could it be to keep the tooling around for a single size of tire? Even limited production runs shouldn't hurt that much. I guess this is why I study engineering and not business.
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86 tire/rim question
