295 wide by 15 round? That sounded crazy at first but then I thought about my dad's late 80's Corvette I bet it ran something in that neighborhood. I remember that thing had some wide tires and the wheels were not all that big back then.

 

The day of 17s as norm are already here. Hell, base model Hyundai's often come with 17" tires.

Yeah, 295/50R15s, they used to go on every Chevy pickup with a 15x10" wheel, that old school wide wheel aftermarket look. Late 80s Corvettes used 275/40R17s (well, late C4 body cars did, early C4s used 255/50R16 speaking of incredibly hard to find tires). The early 80s cars always got upgraded with big old white lettered tires. Usually 235/60R15 and 255/60R15 or 275/60R15.

 

Yep my dad had an early C4, I thought it was an 87 or an 88, but after checking with Wikipedia it must have been an 84 or 85. Funny that car had less than 250 HP, all my dad does these days is complain about how under powered cars are today.

 

Well as an old fart I am from the sidewall generation. Yep tires need to have sidewalls. I remember those low profile performance tires of yesteryear 185-70-13, sweet.

 

I miss mounting those that's for sure. Used to be able to get a set of tires on in 20 mins. Not so much anymore. Hell, my mounting machine cost just a touch over 7k dollars and my new balancer was over 4k (and it is not near the most expensive one out there).

 

When did we start using all of the numbers? I remember having G70-14 on my Camaro and wanted to go to H70-14 to get a better look

 

We started using them when it was decided that tires should have some uniformity. Hell, when they used G/H, etc you couldnt even guarantee that two of the four you bought would be the same overall diameter They could actually vary in height up to an inch.

Roughly we went to all the numbers when radial tires became a norm.

 

Even now one makers 185 snow tire is like a 175 from a different maker & so on. Plus those government mandated wear & temp ratings are only a loose guide at best.

 

185mm is 185mm...but it does vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. Mostly due to slight variances in measurement even there there is a standard for that.

UTQG is all about the Magnusson-Moss act, it doesnt work and never has. Thankfully, almost no one cares about it and for those that do once you explain what it really is they dont care either.

For the record, manufacturers rate their own tires, not a government testing agency.

 

You want to see some variation in tire sizes look at mountain bike tires. One companies 3 inch tire will be narrower than another companies 2.5 inch tire.

 

Nice tires Allen. I kicked them & they kicked back, yep very aggressive tires.