Classic tire sizes vs. modern sizes

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Birdman52

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I am restoring a 68 Cuda 340-S and am looking to replace the wheels and tires. There are not many options available in the classic tire sizes (14x8, etc) vs. the modern tires. I am adding Wildwood disc brake kits that show they will work with 14" wheels. Should I be switching to a modern wheel size so that I have a better selection of tires to choose from? If a switch to a modern wheel is recommended, what size wheel and tire has been used that works well?
 
Welcome to FABO Birdman52.

What bolt pattern are you going to run, the original 4" or the 4.5?
But like said above I would go with 15's all round for a good tire selection.
 
I do not think you can disk brakes with 14''. There is a bigger selection of wheels and tires when you go up to 15'' and even more with the 4.5'' bolt pattern.
 
What is your plan for the car? Weekend cruiser, daily driver, street/strip, strip only, occasional autoX, dedicated autox, or full on road course car? Makes a big difference. What bolt pattern?

Big selection in 15" rim sizes? Uh, no. Maybe if making the choice between BFG T/A's and Cooper Cobras is hard, because there isn't much else for 15" rims if you go wider than a 225 for a street legal tire. There are a handful of tires in a 225/60/15, but do anything much wider or narrower and its down to a couple.

Real tire selection options don't start until you get to 17" or 18" rims. Meaning that you can choose between at least half a dozen tires in various sizes with different tread patterns, speed ratings, tread wear, compounds, etc. If you're talking about a weekend cruiser or a street/strip or strip only car than having that level of selection doesn't matter that much. If you're talking about a frequent driver, or something you want handling performance from, or an autoX or road course car then it's very important.
 
Thanks for all of the excellent input. Wilwood has kits they say will run with 14 in wheels but the consensis is for 15 in wheels. I expect to use the car as a weekend driver but, on the other hand, I have upgraded the suspension with full tricks from Hotckiss and intend to make it stop with 4 wheel, 4 piston caliper brakes with drilled and slotted rotors and stroked the engine to pick up HP and low end torque so I am thinking it would be appropriate to have a wheel and tire consistent with the nominal rest of the car performance. It has the aluminum case 4 speed OD tranny which is weak in the high gears so drag racing is not in the future for it. But I might do a little parking lot racing with it on occasion.

I assume it is the 4.5" bolt patter but will need to verify that.
 
It's not true that you can't have disk brakes with 14" rims. If you use factory brake components or a similar kit, you can use the factory 14" rims. Some of the aftermarket kits do require 15" rims or larger, but for instance TheRamMan and DrDiff offer kits work with 14" rims. I assume any kit that uses the 11.75" rotors will require 15" rims.

I am upgrading from SBP to LBP along with a front disk swap and I had to decide whether to change rim size when getting new wheels. Ultimately I decided to keep the 14" rims. The selection of tires isn't great, but I did find Michelin Defender in 205/70R14. So you can get decent 14" tires as long as you're not a serious performance nut.
 
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