NASCAR wheels and tires

[Bugman.dave]

Does anybody know what the size of wheel and tire is used on NASCAR vehicles? They almost look like a smaller wheel with a higher profile tire. How do they fit those big brakes in the wheel? Or is the wheel offset that great that there is no brake issues. I just love the look of the wheels used on NASCAR,...

Any ideas?

 

[bdcardinal]

i think they are like a 15x7. the offset is pretty high, they are fairly lightweight for steelies.

 

[Bugman.dave]

I think that steel wheel and fat tire would look good on the mustang! Provided of course you could get a good set of brakes behind it,....

 

[SunburstGoldGT]

They are 15x8 and not sure about the backspacing, they are 5 lug buy they all run a chevy bolt patter so whatever that is.

 

[Bugman.dave]

That doesn't seem very wide,... but whatever works I guess, but I'm still wondering how they fit those big brakes behind those wheels,...

Am I the only one that thinks NASCAR (type) wheel and tires might look good on a mustang?

 

[bdcardinal]

they would be good for road racing because of the light weight. also remember that they use a full racing slick, also they have to use what NASCAR mandates for sizes.

 

[Bugman.dave]

I'm not much into drag racing, but I think I'd like to try a few laps at a track. I guess I prefer corner carving over the straight line racing. I saw a picture of a stang with smaller wheels and a higher profile tire and liked the look. An all black wheel with the fatter tires I think looked good,...

 

[hotrodnut]

The lower the profile of the tire, the better it is for cornering. If the sidewall is short then it has less flex.

If the sidewall is tall it will flex, this will cause the sidewall to pull on the tread of the tire as it flexs during lateral loading and will actually lift the tread off of the surface of the road.

So, my point is, if you want better cornering, then going to a taller sidewall will not do it.

 

[302 coupe]

I can't think of many race cars that use an ultra low profile tire, FWIW. As for brakes, they run a really thick rotor, big calipers, and arrange for plenty of airflow for cooling. The rotor diameter is limited by the wheel size, but they seem to make it work well. Same as handling. They run a high profile tire, at a low air pressure, which seems backwards, but the suspension is tuned in a way that compensates for it. Soft tire, tight suspension, ok, theres a balance. Stiff low profile tire, tight suspension, you have a twitchy unstable, hard to control machine.

 

[hotrodnut]

I can't think of many race cars that use an ultra low profile tire, FWIW. . .

Ok . . . . if you were to check and calculate the aspec ratios of most Road Racing tires, slicks or treaded, outside of NASCAR you would find that they are usually between 35-50% of the tread width. To me, that is a low profile tire.

Example is a Hoosier slick made for an SCCA car running in GT1 or GT2 is spec'd at 25.0 x 13.0-16. This means it is 25" tall x 13" wide on a 16" rim. Do the math on that size and it equals a 4.5" sidewall which is a little less than 35% of the tread width. That is a low profile tire . . . . FWIW.

 

[Bugman.dave]

Well, I don't intend on tuning my suspension to anywhere nere NASCAR specs so I guess the low profile tire is better,....... Maybe I need a wider wheel and tire,......sigh,....

 

[302 coupe]

Ok . . . . if you were to check and calculate the aspec ratios of most Road Racing tires, slicks or treaded, outside of NASCAR you would find that they are usually between 35-50% of the tread width. To me, that is a low profile tire.

Example is a Hoosier slick made for an SCCA car running in GT1 or GT2 is spec'd at 25.0 x 13.0-16. This means it is 25" tall x 13" wide on a 16" rim. Do the math on that size and it equals a 4.5" sidewall which is a little less than 35% of the tread width. That is a low profile tire . . . . FWIW.

agree to disagree.

 

[hotrodnut]

agree to disagree.

Yes, it is a free country to do so, but at least agree to disagree with the knowledge to be agreeing to agree that you can agree about facts of a subject and not to disagree about things that may not be correct, agree?

Here are a couple shots of the new Mustangs that raced, which the number 55 won, at Daytona. Check out the low profile tires used in the latest technology cars used for road racing.

Point made is . . . . come on, you have to agree that these babies are low profile tires . . . . .