Widest rubber I can fit?

I need help w/ traction, like most of you. Without running slicks, I was hoping to stick w/ the widest possible street tire I could fit or jumping to BFG 255/50/16 DR's. Would it be better to go w/ the DR's or get the widest tire I can fit?

I've got 16" pony 5 stars, currently w/ 225/50/16 upfront and 245/50/16 in the rear. If I keep the rims I've got, what's the widest tire I can run in the rear.

My car's a '90 LX, w/ adjustable upper/lower control arms and the quad shock's been eliminated.

Any thoughts/suggeestions would be appreciated.

I vote for the drag radials. I'm not to sure what the largest size tire is you could put on that wheel. I think that woudl be the limiting factor, and not the wheel wells.

I think I've seen on the corral that you can fit 255/50/16's with pony rims on a fox, especially since you've removed the quads. Should work. I did a search on corral and found a few people who said they were fine.

I wouldn't go all for the tires, you have adjustable uppers/lowers, all you need is coil overs "if you don't already have them" Adjust your ride height a little, and your pinion angle.

Mostly your ride height, take it to the track and adjust it after each pass. I think the lower it is the better it hooks! Thats my car though :)

[QUOTE=blown5oh]I need help w/ traction, like most of you. Without running slicks, I was hoping to stick w/ the widest possible street tire I could fit or jumping to BFG 255/50/16 DR's. Would it be better to go w/ the DR's or get the widest tire I can fit?

I've got 16" pony 5 stars, currently w/ 225/50/16 upfront and 245/50/16 in the rear. If I keep the rims I've got, what's the widest tire I can run in the rear.

My car's a '90 LX, w/ adjustable upper/lower control arms and the quad shock's been eliminated.

Any thoughts/suggeestions would be appreciated.[/Q well i had 275 on my ponies i my stang was lowered just shave the inner lips of the quater panel and sometimes you might have to with a little sled hammer take off the rim and bang in the black tarry part thats in the beside the shocks but you prob dont . go widder i did the widder not always better but sicker looking

Hmmm I've never seen 275's for a 16" rim.What brand of tire was that you were running?

Blown50h the drag radial in 255/50/16 would look real good with the pony's do it up ;)

blown5oh, what is your goal for your car? Cause Mickey T makes 16" ET Streets and they will be coming out with whats rumored to be the ultimate drag radial for the strip.
If you drive you car alot the Nitto's are about the best thing going and i've seen sub 1.6 60's on them. You probably don't need a huge tire as much as you need the correct tire.

255/50/16 will fit fine with quads on pony's. That is about the largest tire you will get on those rims, and they should hook really well.
cheers
Mike

Regattacupe, 90% of my driving is on the street - I make it to the track 1-2 times a year.

Get the Nitto Drag radial then. They are IMO the best "Street worthy" tire on the market that does very well at the stirp. I'm gonna have a set on ten holes this year, or i'm gonna get two more draglites just for a set of Nitto DR's for the street.

Brent may be right, if your more interested in a street tire(limited track) the nittos would be a good choice .The Nitto's come in 245/50/16 which will fit a little better on your rims than the BFG's 255/50/16.According to Goodrich,that size fits best on an 8" rim..Jim

So the 245/50/16 Nitto DR's would be better than the 255/50/16 BFG DR's, even though the BFG's are slightly wider/taller?

Well they would be better for the street. BFG DR's are more track oriented and wear alot faster.

Imo I think the BFG is a better tire for traction ,street or strip. But they do wear fast and some people havent had good luck with them hooking on the street.This is mainly due to the fact that they should be fairly hot to work as good as they can.My main reason for telling you that the Nitto's are better for you is the info youv'e provided.For one you want a street tire and 2 because you are talking about mounting these tires on a 7" rim, a 245 would fit better and hence probably perform better than a 255 which for all intents and purposes was meant for a wider rim.It is entirely possible that I dont know what I'm talking about and either tire will serve you just fine :D ..Jim

P.S. Brent you are welcome to hijack my AV If I see you using it I simply will not .I like to rotate...avitars that is!! ;)

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Originally Posted by regattacoupe

You probably don't need a huge tire as much as you need the correct tire.

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Ain't that the truth. The wider street tire = better traction Myth is so commonly accepted by most people.

A street radial inflated to 30 pounds per square inch is (surprise!) holding up roughly 30 pounds of car per square inch of contact patch area -- an 800# load on a tire will produce a 26.6 sq. inch contact patch, something like an 8" wide x 3.325" long oval shape.

No matter how wide your tire is, if it is inflated to 30 psi, the contact patch will be exactly the same size; going to a 9 inch wide tread at 30 psi will produce the same 26.6 sq. inch contact patch, only now it will be 9" x 2.95".

The usual line of thought is then to lower the tire pressure to increase the contact patch area. This works with bias ply tires, but not radials; you cannot really lower the inflation much at all to increase the contact patch area, due to the radial's construction -- as you lower the pressure, the center of the contact patch begins to cup upward off the ground rather than elongate front to rear as it would with bias ply tires. The only real result of lowering tire pressure in a typical street radial is to adjust the pressure exerted by the center of the contact patch vs the sides (adjust the cup of the contact patch).