DeTomaso Mailing List: June 2001, Message #110

Cal wrote:

>Right now, 225 50 R15 BFG's adorn the front tire of #2428. However, I'd
like to lay a little bigger footprint on the road and have been
considering 245 50 R15 Euro T/A's to adorn the Gotti's once is all said
and done. The present tires seem a bit on the skimpy side.  Is this ok
or will there be fitment/rub problems?

>>>Yes, it's okay, and yes, there will be fitment/rub problems! :>)

Seriously, there are some issues involved with fitting wider tires on the 
front of our cars.  Several people in PCNC (me, Jack DeRyke, and a few 
others) are running 245/50's on the front on 8-inch factory wheels, and they 
work GREAT!

However, if your car is a pre-L which came from the factory with the front 
fender lips un-rolled, then you will likely have interference between the 
finder lip and the edge of the tire (note:  I've seen several cars damaged 
with 225/50 or even 215/60 tires this way also.)  The factory went to larger 
tires with the L-model (the Arriva tire) and rolled the front fender lips to 
accomodate them.  Rolling the fender lips is a good idea on any stock-bodied 
Pantera IMHO.

The inner edge of the tires will rub against the inside sheet metal of the 
fenderwell at full lock.  So what?  The same is true of many (if not all) 
225/50 tires and everybody has been running those for years.  The same is 
also true of virtually every 16" and 17" tire that lots of people are 
running.  It's simply not an issue--if you are at FULL steering lock at high 
speed, you are probably in the process of spinning off the road!  Normally 
the tires only rub at parking-lot speeds--over time, you can rub the 
undercoating off the wheelwell and get to bare metal.

Big deal.  Spritz some new undercoating-in-a-can on there and drive it 
another 10 years.

FWIW, I have BFG Z-rated 245/50 tires on the front of my car (actually, 
mounted on wheels in my bedroom since my fenders are currently un-rolled and 
thus the car sits on borrowed 205/60 tires.)  BFG discontinued the tires and 
for awhile the only alternative was the so-so Euro T/A H-rated 245/50.  

However, I found that Dunlop recently introduced a Z-rated 245/50-15, the 
SP8000 I think it is, and I just purchased a set of those (and a set of 
H-rated Euro 305/50 rears) to keep as spares--I intend to run my factory 8 
and 10-inch wheels long after the rest of you have given in and switched to 
modern wheels/tires!

I also just bought a set of Euro T/A 245/50 tires to replace the worn-out 
(and too tall) 265/50 Euros that grace the front of my 427 Cobra.  I was 
amazed to see that the tires are so similar in overall dimensions--I'd bet 
the 245's are only about 1/2 inch (okay, maybe 3/4) than the 265's, FWIW....

Mike