I have a 1972 GS455 clone. When I upgraded from the 14 inch rims and bought the current setup I have now, I probably didn't do enough research. I currently have 255/60 tires on 15x8 rims front and rear. The rear tires are fine, but the inside of the front tires rub on the front sway bar a bit during hard cornering. I've read that some people like the 245/60 tires, as they're closest to what the high performance GS cars came with. I have a series of questions: What tires would you guys recommend so that they're wide yet don't rub? If I go with the 245 series tires, should I keep the 15x8 rims, or downsize to 15x7 rims? Are 245 series tires in the front still too wide? The car is a daily driver, so I'm not sure I want to have different sizes front to rear for tire rotation purposes. Thanks in advance for your help.
Have you considered a thin spacer to keep the fronts from rubbing since you would like to have the same tires all around?
I had considered it, but I'm not sure that the tires won't then rub on the wheel well. One of the 255s is starting to wear prematurely, so I forsee replacing at least 2 of the tires soon with something thinner. I'm mostly just asking an opinion on if I should get thinner rims to go with the thinner tires. I really like how the 245s look in the picture on this thread: http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?279295-Best-tire-size&
Actually, you might be right. I just realized that most people running the bigger rims probably have disc brakes, and I still have drums in the front. Disc brakes make the wheels sit slightly farther out than they do with drum brakes, which might be enough to alleviate the clearance issues. Thanks!
I run 245/60-15 on the front on a 7" wheel with no issues, in or out. It should work on an 8" wheel if it is the same percentage of backspacing as the 15x7 wheels.
I also run the 245/60 x 15 on 7 inch rims on the front of my '71 GS with disc brakes and they are fine. You should also be able to run that size with 8 inch rims with no rub. That seems to be the size of choice to replicate the original diameter of the G60s. In case you're interested, you could also run 295/50 x 15s on the back on your 8 inch rims for a fatter rear tire look. The diameter of the 295/50 is about the same as the 245/60.
245s on 8" rims having 4.5" back spacing work fine on the front with disc brakes - I run them on all the way around. Not sure with drums, my guess is you'd probably want your back space a bit more shallow to push them out farther - maybe 4" bs, or as suggested, a spacer?
Try putting washers between the rim and the drum to check to see if spacers will help. You can add them to check how thick a spacer you may need. As you turn the steering wheel, have someone 'bounce' the car and someone watch to see if the tires hit anything. That way you'll have no surprises when cornering. Just don't drive it with the washers! :laugh: I wouldn't go with over 1/4" spacer without changing to a little longer quality set of wheel studs.
