275/50R15 Fit 65-66 coupe?

tjm73 said:

Would this tire fit in the wheel well of a early coupe? I'd cut the axle and choose proper backspacing for the wheel, but is there enough room or would it have to be mini tubbed?

Coil-overs and ladder bars would be fine if the leaf packs are in the way. I'm just curious about the physical limitations.

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IME, no.

265 40s on a 17 inch wheel was the widest I have ever personally seen on 65-6 mustang that was inside the wheel well. I have however seen plenty of 65 mustangs with 275s on them and air shock with hi-lift shackels too with the tire sticking at least 2 inches out of the wheel well and the owner swearing they are a perfect fit.

You can get 'close' with a 15x8 wheel with 4.5 back spacing and a 275 60 according to 2 people on my chart, one admits to air shocks and the other never responded to my emails.

I run a 17x8 with 4.75 backspacing a 255 40 17 in the back of my 65. With the fenders rolled they fit nicely and with a little fanagling (I have rear disc which are a bit wider than stock) I could get a 265 in there, but never a 275.

Go to tirerack.com and look up the tire you like. Pull up the section width and total width of the tires in the 275 265 255 and 245 range. You will see there isn't alot of change from a 255 to 265 or 265 to 275 in tread width that touches the ground. Also note the widths, then go out and measure the distance between the rails and the sheetmetal. That is the total width you can support....IIRC when I measured mine is just over 10 inch but short of 10.5

Hit the link in the sig to see more combinations ACTUALLY being run on mustangs with various suspension/brales combos.

tjm73 said:

Hmmmm....then it'd get mini tubbed. I ask about that size specifically because it available in drag radial compound.

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If you are looking at drag radials, they are not really a reason to do a min-tub. If you wanted to run full slicks I could see running a mini-tub.


Since you are talking about ordering wheels anyway you can get:

Comp T/A Drag Radials
255 50 16 that will fit
Also remember Comp T/A Drag radials aint the only player in the market either

Nitto Drag radials in:
245 50 16 - which will fit
245 45 17 - which will also nicely fit the stock wheel well

Both are between 9.5 and 10 inches wide

Mickey Tompson (not hoosier like I typed before the edit also has a new Drag Radial on the market, but the sizes are not on their site where I can find them.

Hoosier also has quick time tires in 245 60 15

tjm73 said:

Good point.

Mickey Thompson has drag radials now too.

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hehe...I was thinking Mickey and wrote Hoosier (even pulled up Hoosier's site)