dodgestang

You don't have to drive it like a vette to want better performance...with that said....I do drive my 65 like a vette...no wait strike that...I drive it FASTER than a vette in the 1/4

tx65coupe

I know what your saying about the feel while driving. We have Michelin Pilots on the Cobra and they do feel alot better under hard cornering. The TA does feel a bit more sluggish and sloppy. I've never had the TA's shrieking while cornering. I agree that there is room for improvement. The way I drive my car is mostly cruising and doing a burnout every so often. They work well for me.

The Radial TA has a sidewall stabilzer, is that anything like what your talking about?

I wonder what the best available tire is for 15 inch wheels. I have seen the G Force tires, but have never heard of Firestone SZ50.

tx65coupe

Thats true. I've seen several of your videos. If I drove my car like that all the time, I would probably replace the BFG TAs with something better.

Norm Peterson

Not exactly. A belt cap is intended to keep the tread flat (looking in cross section where you see the shape of the tire and the rim contour). Otherwise and particularly with steel belting, the tread center tries to bulge a bit at speed. Keeping the tread flat instead of letting it curve means that the tire loading is more uniform at the contact patch, which in turn means better overall grip.

A sidewall stabilizer performs a similar stiffening function in the lateral direction and keeps the tire tread more closely aligned with where your steering input is actually pointing the rim. BFG notes that it's a feature borrowed from the tire lines with higher performance intent, so even though they're probably using it to "crutch" these relatively tall profile 'S' or 'T' rated tires into behaving better, it's still a good thing. A tire with this feature is certainly a "shelf" above an otherwise identical tire that does not.

I'm not surprised. Unfortunately, they haven't been available for 6 or 7 years except in a couple of 17" run-flat sizes.


Norm

302blue66

So with the 245's in the back when I hit big bumps my fenders would cut into the tires. So I got some adjustable air shocks that can lift the rear almost 3" and that solved the problem. Now I'm debating on going with maybe some slightly taller 265's for a muscle kinda look. What do y'all think?

pic:

dodgestang

So if you put in air shocks and it raised your rear 3 inches and you took that photo....then I would suggest you put new springs and shocks in the car....if fact I would suggest that regardless of if that is a before or after photo.

302blue66

No that's a before pic. I just finished putting them in tonight and it's too dark to take a picture. But why should I raise the front? It's got a coilover drop kit

1slow67

Roll your fenders, I had your problem too and I just rolled my fenders.

dodgestang

I didn't say raise the front. I said put new springs and shocks in the rear. And no offense I don't understand why you would pay $$ to install fancy tubular with coil overs on the front but won't cough up $300-400 in the rear to put new leafs with a good shock in and will instead put air shocks on the car (and then in the future wonder why the car doesn't handle very well and maybe even wonder why you have to repair the floors from cracking and punch through since the shocks where never designed to carry the weigh of the car).

Running 245s on the rear of those years is a proven combo as long as you are running 17x8 with 4.75 backspacing. If you have less than that rolling the fender lips is usually required.

302blue66

Thanks for the lesson but I put those leafs in when I did the coilovers so they're pretty new. I rolled the fenders and it was still catching the tires because they're drop leafs. I will probably keep the 245's and just keep the shocks up enough to stop the rubbing. It had gas racing shocks in it that weren't working out so i figured I would try something different. The car is pretty much all show anyways