The 255s do look good, I must admit. I see that onlinetires.com still has 255/50/16 BFG G-Force Sports... but Im not sure they still make those. The 9.5's are great for drag radials though.

 

I do see 295/50 /16 which would be larger than your 9.5" is supposed to take, but if you are only driving it on the street and using it only for looks, i don't see why you couldn't use it.

 

well ive done some investigating and (as of now) i have only found two available street tires that i would feel comfortable driving long distance if "god forbid" i would get caught in the rain in a 295 series tire.
BF goorich radial t/a's (wich are discontinued but still available if you look hard) and hoosier makes a pro street tire (but im afraid to even find out what they cost)
so after looking at the pics mike posted of his car with the 255's on the rear i think im going to just keep the falkens i bought and mount them up when i get my wheels back. the more i look at it the more i like it.
after all im just doing it for looks not performance.

 

Before you install them on the car. Put one of your front tires next to one that you had widened. If it isn't noticebly wider, sell the 255's and go for 295s.......they will LOOK so much better.

 

thats the plan. i found a local shop that has the bf goodrich 295s on the shelf. i may take my wheels up and have them mount one up just to see how it looks

 

I ran the BFG 295/50s on the stock Camaro 16x8s back in the mid 90s. They look & work good. On the 8s they gave a hint of "Pro Street" due to the balloon effect of the sidewall.

 

that is a little bit of a concern for me. i widened a pair of "front" iroc wheels that set the wheels out about 1/2" over the stock "rear" wheels (different offset). if the tires baloon too much over the outer lip they will catch the inside lip of my rear fender if i ever tuck them under over a bump or something.
the bf goodrich website says thay have a section widh over 12".... if im right that means i will have nearly a 3/4" "balloon" overhang on each side of my 9.5" wide rims that measure 10.5" to the outside.
lol...... did you follow any of that?

 

Yeah.

I have 17" x 11" with 7"bs now which equals about the same fit as yours on the outside fit. You might wanna look into geting an Adjustable Panhard Bar. I had to because the drivers side was too close. I had the typical bad fit of the stock PHB setting the axle off to the drivers side.

 

thanks for the info blackendbird! ill look into that.
i was throwing around the idea of lowering it too. From what ive read, a adjustable panard bar is a must for that anyway on these cars.

 

Correct, adjustable panhard bar is must when lowering these cars. You should still have room even with 295s. May have to massage the inner wells. Worst case would be slight roll of your fender lip.

 

Hi Mike,

Im the one that bought this car and i was just wonderin if you still checked your thirdgen. the car still looks and drives great i really like the work you did very unique.

 

Old thread I know but I'm at the point of needing a bigger tire (in both width and diameter) for some time at the strip this year. (I know I can do with less but this a cheap way to improve traction over my current 245/50/16 ET Street)
As the OP had suggested, I had contacted Weldcraft about widening a set of front IROC rims by 1.5 to 2" over stock. I think that a set of the Hoosier or MT 295/50/16 drag radials would look pretty good.
Has anybody pulled this off?