17 inch tires? 917 Replica Wheels

[tpweiss9953]

Getting shoes for my 17x9 and 17x10.5 Penta Motorsport 917 wheels.

Tire size suggestions? Don't want a stretched tire. Going on an ST backdate.

Thanks!

[Quicksilver]

Boy. That starts out as a hard one. Closest I can see is 255/40R17s with 315/35R17s. That will add some rake to the car and the rears would be better with an 11" width. The rear of the car will be lifted more then a 1/4 inch so a ride height adjustment may be in order. (You are going to corner balance it anyway after a new build right?!)

There are tire some choices though: Nitto NT-01s (my favorite!), Toyo R888s, Kuhmo Ecsta XS, and even a BF Goodrich g-Force.

[tpweiss9953]

Those are the sizes I was thinking. I like a little rake!
The car will have rear coilovers and be corner balanced and aligned.

[NOLAsc]

I'm looking for the thread that shows the car that those 917 wheels belong to. (And looking forward to seeing it in person!)

[Sicklyscott]

by your rim sizes I'm assuming it has turbo (or something similar) flares?

[KTL]

What type of tire are you looking for, street or track or both? Reason I ask is because on my racecar i've run 245/40 in front on 17x8.5 and 275/40 in rear on 17x10. The tires were Hankook Z214 and BFG R1 DOT R compounds

A 245 is a very good fit in a 9 in. wheel and won't be stretched. I'm not saying a 255/40 isn't a good fit. Just saying that if your chosen tire brand doesn't offer a 255, the 245 is a good one too.

The 275 would be a bit of a stretch on a 10.5 in. wheel based on some research i've done. Unfortunately the next size up is 315/35, which is a bit big for a 10.5 in. wheel in my opinion. The 315 is at least 1 inch too large for a 10.5 inch wheel. Tire selection in 315/35-17 is pretty slim, depending on what type of tire you want, so you may end up settling on the 275/40

A good rule of thumb for tire fitment is fit the widest wheel for a given tire size (not the opposite) and tread width should be within a 1/2 in. of your rim width. It's easy to fall into the trap of bigger number on the tire is better, which isn't the case.

The tread width to rim width rule of thumb was given to me by a tech guy at Hoosier. What prompted a question to Hoosier was a strange recommended rim width range that I saw listed for a 275/50-15 tire.

So for example if you've got a 9 in. wheel (this width is bead seat to bead seat, not outer edge to outer edge) and the published tread width of your tire is say 9.3 in., you're good. If your tread width is 9.9, then I would look for a narrower tire.

You gotta post pictures of the Penta wheels. That's just plain cruel teasing to not post a picture! I saw these mentioned on John James Racing's website years ago (no longer shown on their website) and I haven't seen them on Pelican yet.