[greg]

Hello. I am at the point where I am going to order a set of wheels and
tires for my 1972 Gran Torino. 25 years after high school and my first
car which was a 72 Gran Torino I am restoring one to be like my first
one all those years ago. For wheels I am going with 15x8 Cragar S/S's on
all four corners. But. Tires size. I am thinking of 235/60/15 on the
front and 255/60/15 or 275/60/15 on the rear. Should I run 15x7's in the
front instead of the 15x8's? Would the 235/60 front and the 255/60 rear
be a good combination or should I go with the 275 on the rear. I just
worry the 275 will be to tall. I know there are some of you out there
with early 70's Ford midsizes that have been thru this. Any help or
ideas would be great. Thanks

 

[Spike]

There are a few places on the web (like www.vintagewheelworks.com)
which have fitment charts to help with this. My 14" on the Mustang
are now up to 16" with 225/50ZR16 w/4.5" backspacing. The max tire
size chart helped a lot in my decision.

On Tue, 14 Feb 2006 09:00:51 -0800, greg <[email protected]> wrote:

>Hello. I am at the point where I am going to order a set of wheels and
>tires for my 1972 Gran Torino. 25 years after high school and my first
>car which was a 72 Gran Torino I am restoring one to be like my first
>one all those years ago. For wheels I am going with 15x8 Cragar S/S's on
>all four corners. But. Tires size. I am thinking of 235/60/15 on the
>front and 255/60/15 or 275/60/15 on the rear. Should I run 15x7's in the
>front instead of the 15x8's? Would the 235/60 front and the 255/60 rear
>be a good combination or should I go with the 275 on the rear. I just
>worry the 275 will be to tall. I know there are some of you out there
>with early 70's Ford midsizes that have been thru this. Any help or
>ideas would be great. Thanks
--

Spike
1965 Ford Mustang Fastback 2+2, Vintage Burgundy
w/Black Std Interior, A Code 289 C4 Trac-Lok;
Vintage 40 16" rims w/225/50ZR16 KDWS BF Goodrich
gForce Radial T/As, Cobra drop; surround sound
audio-video...
See my ride at....
Feb 2004- http://207.36.208.198/albums/86810/003_May_21_3004.jpg
Feb 2004- http://207.36.208.198/albums/86810/005_May_21_2004.jpg
Jul 2005- http://207.36.208.198/albums/86810/davescar_7_11_05_002.jpg
Jul 2005- http://207.36.208.198/albums/86810/Engine_rebuild_006.jpg

 

[[email protected]]

Most people are upgrading to 16s or larger. I remember a 72 with 15 x
8s all around and it looked very classy.

The profile on the 275s will look way too tall nowadays. I would
either go 245/60s on 7s in the front and 255s on 8s in the rear or 8
all around with 245s.

The Cragars S/Ss used to have 4.25 backspacing, I'm not sure if they
still do.

 

[trainfan1]

Play around with this:

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

The operating envelope for the Gran Torino is too high for anything
other than a track, and it is not really a drag racing car without
drastically overspending.

I had 2 '73 (Gran)Torinos with P235/70R-15s at all 4 corners on 15 x 8
AR type slotted aluminums, that seemed to work well for all-around great
handling(ADDCO sway bars & gas shocks added, too).

The original size for yours is F78-14, or approximately P205/75R-14 or
P215/70R-14.

Rob

greg wrote:
> Hello. I am at the point where I am going to order a set of wheels and
> tires for my 1972 Gran Torino. 25 years after high school and my first
> car which was a 72 Gran Torino I am restoring one to be like my first
> one all those years ago. For wheels I am going with 15x8 Cragar S/S's on
> all four corners. But. Tires size. I am thinking of 235/60/15 on the
> front and 255/60/15 or 275/60/15 on the rear. Should I run 15x7's in the
> front instead of the 15x8's? Would the 235/60 front and the 255/60 rear
> be a good combination or should I go with the 275 on the rear. I just
> worry the 275 will be to tall. I know there are some of you out there
> with early 70's Ford midsizes that have been thru this. Any help or
> ideas would be great. Thanks
>