Five year old article on the "15 inch tire problem"
Got these from Wally World online
Hankook 265/50/15 - A bit short at 25.5” mounted, shown here with 225/60/15. Almost exactly the same height, too wide for the front though.
View attachment 1715855111
Right. Tread wear on those tires is
680, which puts them firmly in the commute tire category. Now, they still might be better than a BFG T/A after a couple of seasons, but a performance tire they are not.
And that size is kinda weird. It's too wide for the front even if you max out what a 15" rim can have for backspacing. But it's only 25.3" tall, which makes it pretty short for a rear tire.
A 245/55/15 would be the ticket. Run it on a 15x7" with 4.75" of backspace, tune the rim-to-suspension/brakes clearance with a spacer if necessary. It would right on the fenders and right on the suspension, widest you could go with a 15" rim without going to heavily rolled/flared fenders. Run it with the later 11.75" rotors, and a compound somewhere in the 200-300 range and you'd be doing great with a factory suspension rebuild running 1.03" torsion bars and offset UCA bushings. It would handle great on the street, be plenty of fun at an autoX, and not be "too much" to cruise around with for guys more interested in that.
Heck even a 235/55/15 or 235/60/15 with decent compound options would be ok. The 55 series would be a little short but not terrible. The 60 series would be right at the upper limit for height on a tire that wide at around 26.1", a lot of cars would need to do some work to the front lower fender corner. But all you can get in a 235/60/15 is 400 or higher tread wear compounds- T/A's, Cobra's or those Hankooks. All season or touring tires, nothing really performance orientated that's a DOT legal non drag radial.
