I have an 88 Camaro built for street/strip, mostly street, but am going to be in the market to do some drag racing in the near future here. Anyway, I was having some issues with what wheel to run due to my rather large brake system. Anyway, I did some testing and found that I can run a 15 inch wheel in the rear and it will clear my caliper.(barely) The fronts are still a no go and will need a 17 inch rim. As far as the rear goes, I am having a problem choosing between a 15x8 and running a 255 drag radial or a 15x10 and using a 275. The car only puts down 420HP and 430TQ to the wheels. I'm not expecting to pull the wheels or anything, but which one would be better? I think the 15x8's would fit without any issues, but the 15x10's require the correct amount of backspacing??? I'm using a Currie 9 inch Ford rear end it that makes any difference. Thanks for any info!

 

you might as well just go with the bigger tire/wheel.
a) it would suck to find out that you cant hook on a 255 and be stuck
b) a wider tire will supposedly spin less and last longer
c) if you get more power down the road you wont have to buy new wheels
d) ive never heard anyone say "your car looks really good, and its pretty fast but those rear tires are too doggone big and make your car slow... put smaller tires on it"

 

This is true. I was only thinking about running the larger tire in case I came across poor track quality/lack of prep. That would help to give me an extra inch to fall back on. My overall mentality was to use the smallest tire as possible that will hook to reduce the amount of rolling resistance and unsprung weight. After some careful consideration, and a realization that this is still a street car, the extra .1 that I might get out of it just isn't worth it to chance not having traction.

 

you can always add more power lol
traction is also easy, but no matter what, it starts with the tires