Quick question about tires
 

Hi,

I have a red 89 Camaro with the stock red matching rims, 5 spoke design. I was driving around town a couple months back and I saw another third gen Camaro but it had wider tires both front and back.


By wider I mean that visually, the tires stuck out as far as the fender flares. I liked the look of that since it makes the Camaro meaner and wider looking.

How can I go about doing this with my Camaro? Would I have to buy new rims?

Btw I know next to nothing about tires... I'm a newb tryin to learn all this stuff with the help of my father (mechanic).

Thanks for all the help

lets say your current car tires are all the same and are 215 / 60 / 15
the first 2, (215 / 60) are mm.
the 215 is width, and the 60 is thickness.
the 15 is the size of the wheel.
another factor in this equation is wheel width. some wheels are 7, (inches) some are 8, and so on.

if you wanted a more beefier look, then i suggest something like 315/40/20.
but also with a wider, taller tire (and wheel[s]), your going to need clearance, so everytime you hit a bump, it doesn't go "rrrrrrr" say, air shocks, or taller springs. personally, i installed gabriel hijacker air shocks on my camaro. and yet, i dont have really that wide tires in the rear. (245/50/16) hope this helps. :)

I wouldn't use air shocks to get the rear end up, it puts extra pressure on the shock mounts which aren't designed to take that abuse, get some lifting springs to do the job right.

The biggest I would run out back is 275/285 and 245's up front. Getting the tires to stick out more will probably mess up your suspension geometry and result in less grip, just keep the tires within the wheel wells and you should be ok.

215 is the width of the tire in mm, the sidewall number is 60 which means that the sidewall is 60% of the tire width so it would be 129mm.

2x sidewalls + wheel diameter = tire height. Convert 129mm to inches: 129/25.4 = 5.08" x2(sidewalls) = 10.16". 10.16"+15" = 25.16" is the tire height.

ok ok, if u gotta get THAT technical with me :crazy:

ok... thanks guys. I checked the tires and I have 15x7 rims, with 215/60/15 all around. I'm gonna go for 235's in the front and 255's in the back. I PMed someone and they said that I should put 1/4" spacers in front to make those tires line up with the back. Bad idea/good idea?

The 1/4" spacer might make it look a little better, it will probably have an unnoticeable effect on handling and tire wear. 255 will fit out back without any clearance issues. 255 is a little wider than most would prefer on a 7" rim, but it shouldn't be too bad... just keep an eye on the tire wear pattern.

The camaro you saw probably had factory 16x8 wheels. They came with 245/50/16 tires stock.

I personally would leave it alone. NO need for spacers.

AlwaysDanked: You got it wrong. For the tire size, P245/50R16 (factory tire size on my IROCZ), we have the section width of the tire being 245mm (the 1st number), the 50 is the aspect ratio (numerical ratio of the tire section height/tire section width) in this case 50%, and the 16 is the nominal rim diameter in inches.

To calculate the tire section height, you take the tire inflated OD in inches and subtract the rim diameter, then convert to mm by multipling by 25.4, then divide by 2.0.... For the above tire size: 25.67" - 16" = 9.67"... = 245.62mm... now divde by 2.0 and we get 122.81mm for the section height. Please note that 122.8mm is approximately 50% of 245mm.