17" Magnum 500's

junkyardhero said
the tire selection for my application in 15" is abysmal. basically it's cooper cobra (meh), BFG (nope) and general 400+ tread wear dog water rubber.

i have 15" steelies that i do want to run, but there's just nothing great in the size i need that meets my criteria (need handling characteristics).

I feel your pain. I'm not too worried about the Valiant beyond looks. I have SBP Centerlines with drag radials out back and pizza cutters on the front for track use, but it'll never see corners with any enthusiasm. My Challenger was a different story. I wanted more of a corner-burner and there's literally not a good 15" tire for the twisties in a musclecar size. As much as I dislike huge wheels (and outright hate "rubber band" tires), I ended up ordering custom-made Minilite replicas for the E-body in 17x8. The tires are sticky 255/50R-16s Nittos. Looks-wise, I think I ended up with a pretty good rim/sidewall ratio. There's enough cross-section and contact patch to have some fun without modifying anything for clearance.

Unfortunately, the company that made my wheels got bought by Coker Tire, who immediately shut them down. The Minilite replicas they sell now are much different (and worse, in my estimation).