I'm still not sold on 18s lol. Maybe some 17s.. I really like my Rallyes and chunky, ill performing tires. I kinda like the 17" Rallyes and Magnum 500 reproductions, but they have to be set up right. The best looking setup that I've seen was on a car with coil overs and a 4 link, and that's just not in the cards. I dunno.. my brain is always changing directions with wheels, so who knows what'll ever happen.
I like your Rallye wheels too. Are they 15"?
The Year One wheels are cool, but they completely biffed the offset for an A-Body. I think even on a COC car, they require a fairly narrow tire. I like the look of some meat under all 4 corners and a 225 or similar tire is just pointless to me. But that's just me.
The only reason I tossed the idea out there was because of your comment about people ribbing you about your driving and not the car anymore. Really aren't going to see what the car is capable of until you put some real tires on it and even in 17" anymore things are getting limited, but still an option.
Personally, I think a 245/45R17 is a sweet spot. That's what I run on my '74 and with the right offset it was a complete bolt on, didn't touch a thing. Well, other than setting up my hubs to use the Mustang pilot size and a wider rear axle, but that's because I am running an OEM Mustang wheel to save the money. There are even 200TW still available in that size. I think there is a reasonable amount of sidewall and they are wide enough to look good.
If it was me, I would look for a 17x8 or 17x9 solid wheel that fits and paint them body color. With some 245 tires, I think it would still look almost stock but have a modern tire and enough width to work the suspension even if it wasn't maximized. Just an idea.
I'm going to just order a 11.75 brake kit today, from Dr Diff and be done with it. I get frustrated, trying to piece **** together, last minute. I've been more focused on other aspects of the car and just shoved the brakes to the side. And I REALLY need brakes now lol. As Tim said... typical Hot Rodder.
Yeah, you are way past the point of needing to do something with the brakes with the current drivetrain.
But even worse, you are sharing the road with cars that can probably stop in a couple of car lengths less than you, several times. We had a tour from an old guy recently and in his collect is some really old Packard. Huge car that he used to drive, it was even supposed to have carried JFK in a parade if JFK hadn't changed plans and didn't come to the area. We asked him if he would drive it into the big town local to us and his answer was no. His reason wasn't due to mechanical failure or anything like that, it was because he has to leave such a large gap between himself and the car he is following to be able to stop the behemoth and everyone keeps filling that gap. So he just parked it and said enough.
The nice thing about the 11.75" brakes is they really are probably enough and they still leave the option of running 15" wheels. I am a bit of a brake ***** so I want more (13" on the '74 and at least 14" on the '73 in the future) but the reality is that those would probably do the job just fine for me.
It's weird.. In neutral or light load, you can not touch any RPM between 1000-1400. It jumps from one to the other, no matter how hard you try to tip in gently. So at low speeds, with light or no load, it feels jerky or like theres alot of lash in the drivetrain. Also noticeable when I'm trying to ease out of my longer driveway out of my shop.. try to tip in just enough that it doesn't spin gravel.. just jumps from idle to 1500rpm. Same with rolling away from a stop sign. Something else, which is probably too much air flow, is that the throttle will hang in neutral if rev'd too hard.. So no rev'n for now lol.
The rev hang thing is at least partly an OEM thing. I remember people complaining about the new Challengers on a forum because of they couldn't "throw revs" as it would hang and then throttle down slowly.
I wonder if the throttle ramp needs to be tuned some to help with the issue at low rpms. Make it much more gradual.
Either way, I am sure you will get there.
