72 TA : New Project

[njsteve]

I finally got some tires for the rims that I won from Year One for my Gramma Rose's 1975 Firebird. They will be going on Gramma's Firebird but I wanted to see how they fit on the T/A in terms of clearance and ride.

They are the 275/40x17 BFGs as recommended by Year One. They actually fit fine with no rubbing whatsoever! I drove around some windy/bumpy roads to check for rubbing and didn't hear or feel a thing. The car does handle and drive a bit stiffer than the BFG 235/60x15s I normally run, but the ride is nowhere near as jarring as the orginal bias ply F60x15 Polyglas tires.







I compared the height measurements of each tire and they are as follows:

F60x15 Goodyear Polyglas: 26" tall
235/60x15 BFG Radial T/A: 25.5" tall
275/40x17 BFG Sports: 25&quot; tall (of course the BFG spec sheet said they were 25.9 tall on a 9 rim [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/no.gif[/img])

I'll try to get the weights of each tire later today when I move them over to Gramma's car but I can tell you the 17&quot; set up is really heavy (one of the tires landed on my pinky while moving them out of the truck and I was not a happy camper). [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img]

BTW, these are the original 114,000 mile front and rear springs on this car. You do see a bunch of space above the tire in the wheelwell. If I had it to do over again, I might go with a 45 series tire to get a bit more fill in the wheel well.