Re: Modern Tire Sizes

Posted by Rusty O\'Toole On 2009/4/17 15:42:48

About a year ago I had to work out the same problem for another brand car (1951 DeSoto).

The solution - you need to buy either the cheapest tires on the market or the most expensive.

Let me explain. The cheap tires are considerably narrower than expensive brands and fit our old cars better. I bought Marshal 791 Touring A/S radials from Walmart. Size P225/75R15. These are the closest to the original 7.60X15. They are about 2 1/2" narrower than a name brand tire of the same nominal size.

They fit the car well and look natural in the wheel wells. They are better tires than anything available in 1951. The only problem, they don't have wide whitewalls (I put the blackwalls out) and if you look close you can see I am driving around on Walmart tires.

I would use them on a Clipper sedan I wanted to drive every day. But if I had a perfectly restored 400 hardtop I would shell out for the correct reproduction wide white bias ply tires.

That is what I meant by either the cheapest tires on the market or the most expensive.