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Wheels and TiresNeed help with wheels or tires? Got fitment issues? Have questions about tire performance and handling? Ask all of those questions here!
I have notice over resent years. The decline of tire options for 15 and 16 inch wheels. I have three vehicles 89 GTA, 92 RS and a S10. I really miss the old days of put whatever we want. I wonder.... Would any manufacturer make custom size tires? They are tires I see on the market that would be great for road racing or playing around, street and track. Bridgestone Ponteza, Cooper Zeon, Toyo has some, to name a few. I have to ask; would it be possible to have a size made for my needs?
I just put new tires on my 94 TA vert today. 245/50/16. (Same size that are on my 91 TA vert.)
They only had about 6000 miles on them, but i considered them to have "aged out" at 9 years, besides the fact that they were Chinesium. (ive only had the car about 16 months.)
If you go to the Discount Tire website there are about 11 different tires offered in that size. I wanted a mid priced tire, because once again theyll age out.
I'll preface this by saying that I prefer doing business with my local tire shop rather than DT.....but I gave DT a shot. They ordered me some Falkens, but when they arrived, the tires had a date code 18 months ago. DT said theyd order another set. These were 24 month old. No thanks.
Went to my local tire shop, and they said they could get their warehouse to read date codes before they shipped then. They found Toyo Extensa HP 2 with date codes only about 90 days old. Sold!
I think the problem is that tire manufacturers concentrate so much on late model pickups and SUVs, the choices are getting slim in 15 and 16 inch tires, and they don't do another production run until the ones that are warehouwarehoused are totally sold.
I wonder.... Would any manufacturer make custom size tires?
Can't make a tire without proper tooling and you would have to pay for it. We're talking numbers bigger than buying a house. Would be cheaper to spend $6K on fancy wheels that can fit existing 17 inch or 18 inch tire choices.
There are tires in your size, but sounds like you want a mean tire with better cornering performance. Pathway to that in 2024 is to use a different tire size.
I've been down this road before, like so many of us. I agree with Qwk, custom tires would likely cost a fortune. Setting performance aside, 16" is my favorite wheel size for these cars. I'd LOVE a 275mm 16" tire, but ain't gonna happen! I think Toyo makes a drag radial, but that doesn't help me. Even a quality stock 245/50/16, as has been discussed over and over.....pickens are slim.
Would be cheaper to spend $6K on fancy wheels that can fit existing 17 inch or 18 inch tire choices.
There are tires in your size, but sounds like you want a mean tire with better cornering performance. Pathway to that in 2024 is to use a different tire size.
Sad, but true. It's what I did a few weeks back. Something felt wrong about spending $800+ on 16" tires that I knew were not going to live up to what I wanted so I went with new wheels and tires for $1100 instead.
You can do what some guys like me do. I have my factory 16's that have run of the mill tires for when I want to maybe do some burnouts and 17's with track tires for autocross or spirted driving. Yes it's a pain to swap back and forth but options are not there for a nice 16" tire.
I know I am grabbing at straws, but you don't know until you ask. I'm still going to look. I have 225/55 front and 245/50 rear, on my RS. Both are 25.7 in height. Looks Kool, if I may say so myself. I try to stay around 25.7 inches DIA height. These cars are low enough. I like the factory wheels and 17 or 18 is not for me. Was hoping for a 275/45 and saw the TOYO drag tire. It is DOT but, I define this as a soft sidewall. Also found the 255/50 and this is 26 inches. So yes, I do like to tweak the factory look. Anyway, thanks for the feedback.
"Special" tires, from, say, Kelsey Tire or Carroll Shelby Enterprises range from about $400-$600 per tire, and those aren't even one-offs like you have in mind.
TGO'ers have been bugging Kelsey for years to reproduce the 245/50-16 Gatorback. That's a company that does that kind of thing and CAN do it, but it wants nothing to do with it.
A seldom thought of brand is Nitto. Its prices are reasonable and competitive, and its NT555-RII and NT01 are both available in 245/50-16. Those are DOT for track and street, but you're in the south, so you'd probably be fine with such tires.
You also mentioned 26" tires. 3rdgens were originally designed for 26" tires, so that diameter will be fine too.
Well I'll be darned, Nitto is making those tires! It's the end of the drought, your tire choices are finally growing again.
I figured since Nitto is making the tire then so is Toyo, and sure enough you can get a R888R in 255/50-16. Now that's a tire! Your wish has been granted.
Yes, they are sticky, the car goes where you point it NOW. And don't even think about driving in the rain.
You can feel them complain when you back up and turn hard (like backing into a driveway), likely due to the suspension geometry (tons of negative camber).
I'm not expecting to get huge mileage out of them.
The car does not get driven tons, so at least they will wear out before they go hard. I have about 80% tread left on the 15 year old Goodyear F1's that are on the stock wheels.
It's not about miles per gallon, it's all about the smiles per gallon :-)
I'm not expecting to get huge mileage out of them.
The tread will last surprisingly long time on the street for a 100 tread wear tire. I would think a street car could get 10K miles, maybe more. I have a friend that drove about 7K miles with a combination of street and a few track events. I used to get 1K miles off a set of 0 tread wear drag radials.... so 10K miles seems rockstar compared to that.
If you don't drive much then you'll get about 2 or 3 years before the rubber hardens and loses enough grip that you're thinking about getting another set of tires. Time is your enemy with any rubber this soft.
These tires need a little heat to really perform. It's hard to get enough heat in them on the street. I think that's why the tread wears pretty good on the street.
Someday the Goodyear Gatorbacks will be reproduced. Kelsey has been saying they are coming for 10 or so years now, so don't hold your breath. It will happen eventually though, but in the meantime, if you need tires in the stock size, it's slim pickings and most of what's out there now don't have that wide, squared off look of the high performance tires that used to be available. The Nitto NT01 is tempting, but probably a little too far toward the performance/race car end of the spectrum. They would certainly look good, but being an R compound it's going to be hard to get enough heat into them in street driving to get them to grip well.
I have a 91 Z28 with the same size tires mentioned in this piece. I had no problem getting that exact size through Tire Rack! BF Goodrich G force Zrated. Purchased roughly 14 months ago. Also just had my original rims powder coated to same factory color!
I have a 91 Z28 with the same size tires mentioned in this piece. I had no problem getting that exact size through Tire Rack! BF Goodrich G force Zrated. Purchased roughly 14 months ago. Also just had my original rims powder coated to same factory color!
How do you like these as a performance tire?
I have the same ones on my 4th gen, but the sports (not the all season). Treadwear is rated at 280.
I have had them on the car for 4 years / 15,000km.
Feels to me like they are getting hard now, not surprising for a BF Goodrich tire.
Well, so far I have no complaints. Had some work done on her & got her running again in the spring. Have maybe 500 miles on them. It'll take me quite some time to get that kind of mileage on them. Sorry bout that. Probably not the best person to ask.
11-15-2023, 01:10 PM
