This morning while I was getting ready for the auto-x event, my brother and I were tightening up the nut that holds the wheel bearings in and I decided to see if a 315 would fit on the front of my car.
I had let my brother use one of my slicks yesterday so his wheels were already off.
Put on the pass side one and it fit pretty good. rubs the same amount as my ZR1's with the 275's.

So I ended up running them at the auto-x today.
(my front end needs to be repainted badly)

 

they rub the same as the 275's?? wow i wouldnt have expected that! Any work done to the wheel well/fender?

Thats good to know i guess, i always thought about running 4 steamrollers on all 4 corners

 

Nope, nothing special is done to the inner fender wells.
I was surprised when they went on and cleared everything, I was expecting it to hit something.

Now, these are Sumitomo 315's, which are a tad skinnier than a 315 BFG KD.
Also, that Z06 rim is a 9.5" rim, technically, you don't want a tire that wide on a rim that skinny.

 

thats what i was thinkin when i saw the Z06 rim..i was gonna say i didnt think they made it wider than a 9.5 inch and i know they make a 10.5in wide 18inch version but i dont think they have 315 sized 18in tires. 295/305 they have alot of

looks good man, doesnt look like a 315 tire tho. tucks in there pretty good

 

Zepher, from pics 5 & 6, looks like you could use a wheel alignment, drivers side is sticking out a tad....

 

Now all I have to do is convince my brother to give me the other 2 Z06 wheels.
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I do need an alignment since the inside shoulder of the pass side tire is bald (on MY set of wheels).

 

what offset and adapter thickness did you use? I have a set of 17x11 wheels with 36mm offset coming. I didn't think they would tuck in as tight as what I see in the pics. This is very exciting for me to see. I'll be running V710 tires so I'm looking forward to the insane amounts of traction that will be coming.

 

those are 315's? they sure dont look like them.

 

Not sure what offset the wheels are, but my spacer is 2".
When I pull the wheels off tomorrow, I'll look inside and see if the offset is stamped (or cast) in the wheel.

Sumitomo tires are a tad skinnier, even the 275/40/17 is kinda skinny compared to my 275/40/17 Nitto 555.

 

I was going to say those 315s are more like a 285/295 size tire at best.

 

They look nice but for some reason they look skinny they don't look as wide as a 315 should,maybe the brand of tire has something to do with it.Anyway if they are 315 it's nice to know that you can stuff a tire that wide up in front.

 

i just find it so hard to believe they are 315's, i know every company has a slightly different idea of what each size is, but usually no more than .5" of difference. If thats a 9.5" rim, there should be a hell of a lot more bulge if they are 315's. they look about 11" wide MAX and a 315 should be about 12-12.5" right?

this is the only 315 i could find on their site

http://www.sumitomotire.com/theline/...asp?c=per&id=7


requires a 11" minumum wheel with a section of 12.6, thats right on the money for size. No way thats what is on that wheel.

 

for the record, I run sumitomo's on the rear of my iroc, they clearly state 315/35/17 on them, and they are on an 11" wide rim.

 

What, you want me to snap some pics of the size of the tire?
I'll snap a few tomorrow since it is dark out already.

I also have all 4 Z06's on the car since my brother wanted to use a pair of my ZR1's for his Nitto 555R's (315's on a 9" rim and it bulges pretty good).
I'll get some pictures of his tires on my skinny rims as well.

and here is a picture of a 315 BFG KD on the same rim (notice how this tire bulges a lot)

 

Im not trying to be a smart ****, or call you a liar or anything. I just dont understand how you have a 315 on a 9.5" rim, and why it looks so narrow compared to what im used to.

 

I totally don't need a picture, and I trust they're 315s if you say so, but when I saw the thread title I HAD to see a pic. When I saw it, I said no way. Barely looks like a 275.

Not like I even care, but 86TA looked like he was out all alone on this and I wanted to back him up. Otherwise I wouldn't have even posted.

EDIT-
I just did a couple searches and it appears several brands, especially when run on thinner rims really have a skinnier look for whatever reason. Oh, like I said, doesn't matter to me. Looks cool either way!!!

 

hey man, thanks for being there


zepher, did the tires gain a bit or height on the smaller wheel? are they still 25.7" or so? this has me interested, i may be able to slam some 315's on the front of mine

 

I didn't have a chance to get some pictures today, but I'll get a few tomorrow.
the tire looks like it has more height than a 275/40/17, and fills in the wheel well a little better.
i'll measure that as well.

Oh, a few months ago when the BFG 315's were on those wheels, they would not fit on the rear of my car, the tire would rub the inner fender right near the LCA mount. With the Sumitomos, I have about a finger width of clearance.

 

The summitomo's are tiny. I had a set on 11" zr1 wheels and they did not look right, too small. I would say they are about equal in size to a bfg 285/40.

 

Interesting thread i came across on ls1tech.

Sumis just have very narrow/tucked sidewalls it appears.

http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=888287

 

Here's a good illustration of how narrow the Sumis are

315/35/17 Sumitomos and 315/35/17 GS-D3s

 

lol, very good comparison they should just change the size to 285/40 cause thats what those look like.

 

Need to wash my car.

 

nice pics, looks good with the Z06 wheels on all 4 corners... also those 315 summi's are like everyone elses 285-295 tires

 

yeah i dont understand how those summis can be soo narrow like that and still be marked 315...315s are almost 12.5 inches wide and those summis just dont look like they are cutting it. Pretty interesting though.

 

btt for a informative thread

 

ok so here is a question, on my next car i was going to run zo6 motorsport wheels and i want to know how wide i can go in the front. so what is the answer? i know tire brand is an issue. so.... i like bfg, never ran sumi, nitto would be nice but the major factor is the price so, how wide can i go?

if it matters, im planning on doing the c4? hd 13inch brake upgrade so that would take care of spacing?

 

This has been covered in a tonnof other threads, but inthe front, the width you can run is greatly affected by the diameter you use. So, what diameter will you be using and how do you want the wheel to sit in the wheel well (tucked inside like stock, flush, sticking out a little...)?

 

well i want 17s like him only the motorsport ones. But i can get them widened it lookslike 285? I have tried reaching without a good answer

 

I don't care how big a tire you can put onto a rim and look safe, it is not fitting the rim as designed.

This is very important to read:
Regardless how the tire "looks" on the rim, it is designed to fit a certain wheel width for proper tire contact patch to the ground. If you squeeze that tire onto a narrower rim, you are distorting the struture of the tread and how it makes contact with the road. That tire is engineered to have a certain width range of wheel fitment so as not to scrunch it, The way the layers of belts lay are distorted form its engineered footprint sturcture.

If the contact patch isn't proper, the tire is not getting maximum grip....point blank! You are beter off putting the proper size tire ontot hat rim for better grip results and longevity of that tires lifespan.

If you check my signiture pictures, you will see a rear shot of my 68 Corvette (Not the vetruck) that I run 12.5" wide custom made wheels with 335-30/17 tires. You will see how wide and flat my tire contact patch is because it is on the proper rim with the proper alignment and the proper air pressure.

My truck I run a 295/45-19 tire on a 19x 10 wheel. My Camaro I ran a standard 245/50-16 on a factory IRCO 8" wide wheel and lok at the results I got on that. That Camaro out cornered all of my cars with just those very good properly fit 245's than I pulled over 1g on. Its all about hw the tire touches the road. If its wider, its not always touching a wider contact patch. Most often the wider tire is distorted and only using the same or less improper overall contact patch than a narrower tire on that same car- at the expense of more unsprung AND rotational weights.

edit: sorry, I just realized I do not have that picture of my Vette with my race wheels and tires on it posted in my bio. I will find it and put it there

edit again, I will just post it here. It takes alot more to run a wide tire like that at an increase track width. Alot of things get screwed up in the factory chassis geometry that have to be fixed to change whell sizing and track width and gain positive results all around in braking cornering AND acceleration.

 

im running the sumoto 315 35r17s on my mustang rims on my bird. the rims are 10.5" wide and are recomended for the 315 tire. my ties look much wider than what i see here.

my brother runs them on his torque trust IIs which are 17x11 rims with the sumoto 315s on his 68 vette and they look wider than what im seeing in these pics.

 

This is way I want to buy the tires locally when I'm ready. I like to look, touch, smell, compare, and sometimes taste before I buy

 

someone should post a pic of the sumoto tire next to a real set of BF 315s... street tire to street tire.

 

but what about the cool factor? Lol well like i said i could always get the wheel widened .5 to get like a 285 on front

 

After this there can be no denying that the HTR-Z is more like a 305 at best, but it really doesn't belong on a 9.5, even though GM was the first to do it, on the Snake Skinner.
In the first post, pics 2, 4, &5 look good, but pics 3 & 6 show enough reason why not.
And since the narrowest of "315" tires is still too wide for a 9.5, then all other 315s must be also. It looks aggressive, and it may drive tolerably, but it won't corner any better than a comparable 275 on a 9.5, at the limit.
It has become taboo to discuss it, but when the moderators declared it taboo, they should have linked to this thread to show why. Someone had to try it.
If you want 315s up front, great! But it has to be a 315/30R18 on at least a 10.5, you can get Chinese copies of Corvette 18x10.5s for $106 each. Then you'll need spacers.
You can find Chinese 275/35s for $105 each, delivered, but if buying the wheels keeps you from affording the 315s, an HTR-Z3 285/35 is fine. More like $170 each, delivered.
The BFG Rival S 315/30R18 runs $340 plus shipping.
And a 275/35 on a 10.5 still beats a comparable 275/40 on a 9.5, but the stretch makes the sidewalls vulnerable.

 

What does "makes the sidewalls vulnerable mean?

I thought it was pretty much accepted that as long as they're not taller than stock and your wheels clear the tie rod ends it's easier to fit a wide tire on the front of these cars than the back?

FWIW, I have the same Z06 rims and I've been tempted to slap the rear ones on the front just to see what they look like, but I don't have anything close to that size to put on the back with them.

Honestly, if I could get a good 275/50-15 tire I would still run that on all 4 over 17's or 18's. Heck, every few years some good 275/45-16's turn up that I'd be tempted to run if the factory 16" 'bird rims weren't crazy heavy

 

IIRC, the 16x8 crosslace wheels are the lightest 16x8 that GM made.