At the end of the day, tires have a huge amount of impact on the physical performance and also on the visual pizzazz of your car, truck, hot rod, or totally weirdo project. Everyone has a favorite look when it comes to tires. Some guys love the visual appeal of seeing mondo 335s at every corner under a hard charging pro touring car. Some guys favor the classic looks of pie crust slicks and skinnies up front, some dudes like the skinnies backed with steam rollers, other dudes want to see 46″ or larger mud tires on their trucks or nothing at all. Then there are the old school hot roddy guys who like their tires really tall and narrow as they were back in the day. We even know one automotive journalist who daily drives and old Valiant with the most shockingly narrow little tires on it we have ever seen. We’ve seen cutoff wheels with more cross section.
What do we like? Well for us the punishment has to fit the crime to to speak. We have seen trucks that we loved with huge meats on ’em and we have seen muscle cars we hated with tiny rollers. I’m schizophrenic in my tastes is what it basically comes down to but you’re probably not. So we want to know, what is the TIRE look you dig. Skip the wheels, that is a whole different kettle of fish. We’re talking tires today!
BangShift Question Of The Day: What Is Your Favorite Tire Look? Big N’ Littles? Big Meat On All Four Corners? Huge Off Roaders? Pizza Cutters?
Now this is a difficult question for me. It really depends on the type and style of the car. For example a vw golf doesn’t look right with balloon tyres but a hot rod can look right with balloons or rubber bands depending on the style. A set of 20 inch billets generally looks daft on a 60s custom showcar (can you imagine el matador with 20 inch billets?) yet the same wheels on a 40 street rod can look right. Muscle cars can pretty much have any wheels but at the end of the day its probably more the stance that sets the tyres, then the tyres set the stance
I run 275/60R15 on a 15 X 7 on the rear on my Duster, and 205/60R15 on 15 X 5 on the front of my Duster with Weld Pro Stars. The Duster has a great stance to it.
Love the skinnies in front with tubs , narrow rear end and the absolute Widest tires you can tuck underneath. Pro Street is , was , and will always be , Badass !!
Complex subject. Tire size will naturally vary from car to car and front to rear. What I like generally is a tire as wide as the wheel wells allow, BUT….with a tall sidewall. 55-60 aspect ratio. Wheels 15-17” diameter, particularly on American muscle cars.
Ironically, my late model GT500 has 19’s and 20’s and rubber bands from the factory. It looks OK, but I’m considering changing to 17” rims but keeping tire height as it is now.
The beauty of the car hobby is there is something for everyone
Big and littles hands down. Don’t like the current fad of 20”+ wheels. Looks goofy to me but I know I am just showing my age.
Yup, what Danno said
I had a few chevys with 15×6/15×8 corvette style ralleys w/ 215/70&275/60 setup, this I like the best.
My drag racing roots lean me towards the bigs and littles look. I fell in love with 70’s Super Stocks and Modifieds, and there are far too many cars to count that simply look right with a drag style tire combo. But, There are also several cars that really stand out with a Nascar/Trans-Am style rolling combo. A 69-70 Boss 302 looks killer with fats at all four corners. Ditto for 71-73 TransAms. A 69 Charger can look really killer with something tall and wide, like an H60-15 equivalent. A 69-70 Fury or Polara needs even bigger meats, like the equivalent of an L60-15, and hunkered down about an inch.
Funniest thing i ever saw…going down the hwy when a Chevete (remember them?) was coming at me with 4 of those temp. spares on it and 4 big, i mean BIG redneck guys inside doing about 70 mph !! Maybe some kinda speed secret huh?