My plan for new wheels, what do you think?

72bluNblu said
It also puts less tread on the ground, changes the wear patterns, and adds to vague and sometimes unpredictable handling . The point of running wider tires is better traction, and squeezing large tires on too small rims doesn’t improve your traction at all.

No one on this thread is talking about setting up wheels/tires for a SCCA car. If all out handling is your deal, go to the size rim in the middle of the range for the tire to achieve the best performance. If you can tell a difference in a 1/2" wide wheel then you are probably a professional race driver. After a 255 in a street tread like BFG T/A's, it's all for looks, not gription.

72bluNblu said
275/60/15’s are supposed to have an 11” wide section width and a 8.9” wide tread width. That’s on an 8” wide rim. Your valiant probably only has about 11” from the springs to the quarters. Recommended rim width is 7.5”-9.5”, and even on a 7.5” wide rim those tires will be a little squeezed. But hey, if you can find a tire shop that will mount them, have at it.

It’s your car, so, do what you like. People certainly have done it, and I suppose if you can’t tell the difference in handling you probably aren’t driving hard enough for it to be a problem.

I was actually running 275/50R15.

Real tire shops have no issues, Wal-Mart or the other chain stores ran by lawyers barely will mount anything except what came stock, from what I've heard, I don't go to those types of shops.