Five year old article on the "15 inch tire problem"
If all of these "14 and 15" tires are soooo hard to find" threads would start instead with-
"What 14" tires is anyone using for road racing"
I'd just keep my keyboard shut.
Quality 14 and 15" tires for "normal" and even "spirited" driving are as close as ebay and tirerack.
Instead they sound like no one can find any 14 or 15" tires anywhere and everyone needs to run out and buy at least 17" rims today, or not be able to drive their car.
/rant
BFG T/A's and Cooper Cobras are
ALL SEASON TIRES. They're better suited for a mini-van than a muscle car, their specs and ratings make them look
much better than they actually are. The fact that the treadwear ratings are determined by 7,200 miles of testing is a boon for them, because anyone that's run BFG T/A's knows that after about that much the tires grip and wear changes dramatically- they turn into straight up hockey pucks after a couple seasons. The only reason they're run by so many people is that they "look right" for a muscle car. If actual performance was much of a concern no one would touch them with a 10 foot pole, but chunky tread and white letters are more important to most than actual performance. Just see any of the 17/18" wheel hate threads with everyone whining about how they look, with no consideration for actual performance.
The bottom line is most people that drive these cars really only cruise them around a bit, and occasionally do a burn out or two to show off. Well, BFG T/A's are great for burnouts because they're rock hard and spin easy. I could torch off the imitation T/A's on my Challenger with a bone stock 318 and 2.76 rear gears. Yeah it looked cool, but it sure as heck wasn't fast. And before you say "but those were imitation tires" let me say that you've been talking about off-brand tires yourself. And there's only a handful of actual tire manufacturers that make all the different brands of tires, so, most off-brand tires come from the same place as the name brand ones do anyway.
So next time you see a "14" or 15" tires are hard to find" thread, just assume the poster doesn't want crappy all-season tires. Because that's all there is. BFG T/A's, Cooper Cobra's, or an imitation of one or the other. Offered in only a handful of sizes too. How's that for a "/rant"?
I don't blame MRGTX at all, if someone made a nice 245/55/15 with a 200-300 treadwear rating and "AA" traction and "A" temp ratings that would be great. But that doesn't exist.
Here's a guy with a pretty wicked Dart set up with the intent to handle... who is also ballsy enough to run M/T ET Street S/S on the front!
Does anyone know this Gary Brown from Australia? Maybe he can tell us how they perform and how they're holding up.
1968 DODGE DART STREET-REGISTERED RACER
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I was gonna say, I KNEW I'd seen somewhere that somebody was running those tires up front on a handling based car. I didn't say anything cause I couldn't remember where I'd seen it. Yeah I'd be curious to find out how well that actually works.
