Five year old article on the "15 inch tire problem"

MRGTX said
All of the above goes without saying.

So there are thousands of muscle cars rolling around on BFG Radial T/As, Cooper Cobras, Mickey Thompson SportsmanS/T, Masterctaft Avengers, etc. It’s not necessarily a growing market but it supports quite a few competitors, all offering rock hard 400 treadwear rubber! If ONE performance tire was offered in muscle car size ranges, it would almost certainly grab a sizable chunk of that market and they could charge 2x the price. It might even pull back some of the 18” guys if the grip was at least passable.

I suspect that the offerings are steering the market rather than the other way around because of some bean counters at the tire companies who don’t get car culture.

I think you’re probably still overestimating the market. How many people that still run 15’s with those type of tires drive their cars less than 1,000 miles a year? And replace them once every ten years- maybe? I mean look at some of the threads on tire dates here with guys bragging about still running 20+ year old tires. They’re aren’t very many people running those tires that are putting up mileage numbers that would require a new set more than every few years at best. And how many people buying the current offerings would even switch? Especially if it was a more expensive tire that by design wouldn’t last as long.

Ten years ago I think you might have had a point about guys choosing to run a performance tire for a 15” rim if it was available. I would have. But now the cars running 17” and 18” wheels aren’t just doing it for tire selection. I couldn’t put 15” rims on most of my cars now because I run brakes that require 17” or 18” rims. The kind of performance those tires offer goes hand in hand with bigger and better brakes. And pro-touring is a whole style now too, and larger rims are a part of that even on cars that might not “need” them for performance.

I just don’t see any of the major manufacturers investing the time and money to come out with a new high performance tire for a 15” rim that would basically be a niche market within an already small niche market.

autoxcuda said
I see this 225/50/15 street tire. Probably more grip than a 245/50/15 BFG. Maybe even more than a 265/50/15 BFG.

View attachment 1715853718

Well they’re back ordered, so I dunno about availability. Maybe they’ll be available again, maybe not.

That’s also a 23.9” tall tire, which is super short. I don’t even look at anything under 25” tall for these cars. On my Duster that height tire and no other changes would put my header flanges at like 3” off the deck. I’d end up high centered on a speed bump at the local grocery store.