I finally came up with some new wheels and tires in sizes that fit the car and do what I want them to do. Namely look right on the car, have superior handling performance and a higher speed rating than the normally available 15" tires you can get. About the only thing I'm going to miss are the white letters spinning around, which I liked on this car. I thought about the billet Rallys but that is another league of $$$$. The wheels are Showwheels Thrashstar 17 x 8 w/4.5" BS, "0" offset and Nitto NT555 in 255 50 17 which are just over 27" tall. I was running 15 x 7 Rallys and Yokohama 255 60 15. The Thrashstars are only available in 17 x 7 or 8. If they were available in 15's I'd have a set in a minute for the Drag Radials. I looked in to some 275's but I could only find a good height in 18's for the speed rating I wanted and the wheels I wanted in that size are the all too often heard "backordered". IMO the wheels sort of look like a updated Buick Rally from the mid-70's when they painted them different colors and added chrome trim rings. The new tires are for all intents and purposes exactly the same width and height as the Yoko's with maybe a little more footprint because of the wider wheel. They are "Summer" high performance "W" speed rated tires and completely outclass the Yoko's(which I thought were pretty good) in grip. You still can't blast off the line with my setup but they are more controllable and around turns forget about it. I've got the car lowered 2", higher rated springs, 1 3/8" tubular swaybar front and stock bar rear, poly control arm bushings up front, and BellTech shocks on the car so it handles great but it needed better tires to really shine. It's too bad somebody doesn't make some "Summer" only higher speed rated tires in the traditional 15" musclecar sizes. It would offer greater grip without going to the Drag Radials. A good in-between compared to the usual "all-weather" tires. Most people aren't driving their musclecar around in the snow anyway. I love the Rally's but you just can't get great tires for them. The closeup pic is of the Buick emblems that I have on the center caps now. All I have to do now is some brake work.
The car seems to ride about as good and handle better as when I had the stock type replacement shocks on. If you have stiffer springs you should have stiffer shocks on to control them. The shocks do have a noticeably larger body than the stockers. In fact the fronts barely fit in the A-arm hole. Their biggest feature is that they were meant for lowered cars so they are slightly shorter particularily in the rear so now I don't get the springs coming out of their perch when I jack the car up. http://www.belltech.com/m-shocks.php
X3! I like the size of the wheels, they look perfect... I am not a fan of the 18 and larger wheels in most cases.
Very nice Mike!! That is one sweet ride you have there! I always liked it but now I like even more! :TU: Steve
