AAGGHH!! More tire/rims questions

[Brandy]

For those of you with a sense of humor....

I am able to get a set of '5-slotted, mags' rims, size is 13x5.5, bolt pattern is 4 on 4.50, backspacing is right @ 3.5".

The rims that are now on my car are what I thought were 14s but the tires that are on them are 195/70R13, so I guess I have 13s for rims (but again, not too sure).

Can anyone point the way to a website or person that might be able to tell me what size(s) tires can fit on the 'Shelby' wheels, or even if these rims can fit on my car (stock '70 240Z)? Plus there is actually nothing wrong with the rims that are presently on my car, and the tires have less than 100 miles on them (because I've been FIXING the car's entire wiring setup for the past year), so they are essentially new. I just like the look of the mag wheels, and since I'm having to replace the airdam with an incredibly great set of original lower frnt valences, I think that the clean look of the slotted mags might make the car look 'neat' (can't help it, guys; a girl's gotta look good, so does her car...)

As always, any advice (be nice, please) would be greatly appreciated.

[LanceM]

I can't believe someone would have put 13" wheel/tires on your car! I would look for some 14" slotted mags, they show up a lot on ebay, and get back to the original size for the car, but that's JMO. Of course you would have to replace the tires too if you went to 14's.

[240ZX]

Brandy, Regarding your issue of what tires are available and what will fit your new wheels, trying going to the TIRERACK website or similar site. They have tons of info. As far as what will fit under your Z....with 13" wheels, with the correct offset, you should encounter no problems as long as the wheel width is 8" or under. Please don't assume my info is gospel but instead general information. Hope this will help you to some degree....keep us posted with your progress.

[zguitar71]

http://www.americanracing.com/wheels/details.asp?wheelid=170&name=Ansen®%20Sprint&style=A69&desc=1-piece%20painted%20/%20machined%20alloy&section=N

American Racing is reintroducing the sloted mag wheel. The sizes are 15" & 17" in 7" & 8" widths. The 15x7's would be a great choice for your car. The 15" size gives you much better choices for tires than the 14" and especially 13". I currently have 14"x7" slotted mags with a -12 offset so any tire wider than a 205 goes past my fenders (the 205's are almost too far) so I am thinking about the Am. R. mags for my ~71. With the stock valance on your car the 15x7 with 205/60's would look geat IMO. The 13x5.5 should fit fine but I think they would look small and you are limited to skinny tires because of the narrow rim size. The price of new wheels is probably more than used but the better size is worth it (unfortunatly they do not have pricing on there web site).

[zztom]

If you go to that American Racing Wheels site and go to the gallery, click on passenger cars, the old "zztom" mobile is featured wearing the Outlaw I mag. Its a pretty good picture if you ask me

[Bambikiller240]

Wasn't all of this covered in another thread a month ago, Brandy? 13 inch rims are WRONG for your car.

[280zvert]

Took the Z out for its first trip in 20 years. My wife bought this car new in 1978 in Bellevue Wash. It had been converted to a convetible had 2 mile and the speedometer. 20 years of storage were a little rough on the tires, they are a little flat on one side. So I have been enjoying the tire form still hav'nt decided what we are going to put on it. It came with American Racing chrome wheels with wire baskets.

[zguitar71]

Back when Zcars were young people used 13" wheels to obtain lower gearing. This is before low geared R 180 and 200 differentials were cheap and could be found in any local junk yard. The difference between those wheels and the ones Brandy is looking at is the offset and width. They had 10" or wider wheels with large negative offsets. The car could sit right on the ground with the small diameter wheels and still have a decent amount of suspension travel. The wheels she is looking into were probably used on a 510 or something like that.

[e_racer1999]

not to hijack, but zztom: i couldn't find your car..... was it a z?

[ChrisA]

not to hijack, but zztom: i couldn't find your car..... was it a z?

Here's his car on the site.

And the link is....http://www.americanracing.com/gallery/details.asp?wheelid=13&name=car24&style=61&desc=&cat=A&section=gall

Chris

[Victor Laury]

Hey, I noticed they still offer the Outlaw II in 14X7 @0 4X4-1/2. Good looking wheel I always though. Got a friend-roadster-chick who's wearing these, even though 7'' wheels rub roadster fenders like hell, she wont give them up.

[Brandy]

Wasn't all of this covered in another thread a month ago, Brandy? 13 inch rims are WRONG for your car.

Well, sort of. I really thought that the rims on my car were 14's, since lots of photos of other Zs with similar or the same rims were listed as 14's. That's why I questioned why I had 13" tires on the rims, and if it was even possible to have 13's on a 14's rim (if in fact the rims are 14's...I haven't the vaguest idea how to measure them short of removign the tires). The tires don't 'look' small, and when I placed the dimensions on the www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html website, it seems as if it's almost the same size (just a bit larger) than the originals.

Bear with me guys. I tend to want to learn slowly (this way it'll stick to to the grey matter), and I just got through tuning the carbs and disemboweling and re-wiring almost the entire car (and no sparks nor shooting flames!), so I'm trying not to jump headfirst into the whole tire thing.

I like the look of the slotted mags, and would prefer to be able to put as wide and large a tire on on it without having to deal with all the extras of additional offsets, etc, since this would be something I would have to trust a mechanic to do, and so far I really hate all of them near me since they know absolutely squat about older cars.

I have no problem holding onto the rims and tires I have on the car right now, since the tires are fairly new, it's just finding future replacement 13's wider than 185 is the problem.