[eschaider]

Notwithstanding the Billboard lettering in that picture, those are not Billboards. They used glued-on lettering to recreate the image of billboards. The giveaway is the tread pattern.

The rear tire sizes frequently used on these cars are;

295 x 50 x R15 rear — 26.6 inch diameter
295 x 55 x R15 rear — 28.0 inch diameter
295 x 65 x R15 rear — 30.3 inch diameter
325 x 50 x R15 rear — 27.8 inch diameter

Different manufacturers will bounce back and forth between the 50, the 55, and the 65 series rear tires. Some will offer multiple series for the same tire. Mickey offers the 65 series version of the tire only in their drag radial offerings.

The car will look more aesthetically pleasing/correct if you use a front tire of approximately the same diameter but a narrower width. Your candidates, in terms of size, look like this;

275 x 60 x R15 — 28.1 inch diameter (M/T & Cooper Cobra)
275 x 65 x R15 — 29.1 inch diameter (pretty much unobtanium these days)
265 x 75 x R15 — 30.6 inch diameter (General and Firestone, good size match for 295 x 55 rears)

The Cooper Cobra tires and the M/T 275 x 60 x R15 are essentially the same tires. Mickey is owned and manufactured by Cooper these days.

The no excuses, anywhere, any time, go to tires are Avons. The Cobra Avon sizes are;

245 x 60 x VR15 — 26.7 inch diameter fronts
295 x 50 x VR15 — 26.9 inch diameter rears.

The Avons will cost you about $2,000, which is the high watermark for pricing on this list. They are also the highwater mark for traction (other than Drag Radials used in a straight line). In the FWIW bucket, Avon has been purchased by Goodyear.

Be cautious in your tire choices. These cars are extremely traction limited. The quickest way to get dead is to pick the wrong tires. Good tires / the right tires will be soft and wear out quickly. The wrong tires will be hard and last a long time or until you crash, which will be sooner rather than later. You want something with a UTOQ wear index of 100 or 200.

You can run harder tires, and a lot of people do. When you do, you are betting on the old Russian Roulette admonition that says, "Every trigger pull does not necessarily find a primer ..."


PostScript:

Some 235 x 75 and 245 x 75 tires will appear to have the "right" diameters. More often than not, they will be for SUVs or light trucks. Notwithstanding their "right-sizing," diameter-wise, these tires are wrong for our cars because their construction is engineered for a much heavier vehicle and a different type of use. They will put you into unintended skids, slides, and crashes.

Another thing I overlooked mentioning is that you want to keep in mind the tire load rating. I'll pick on the 295 tires because they are painfully obvious. A 295 tire inflated to its recommended 35 psi has a load-carrying capacity of 2061 lbs per tire. A 2500 lb Cobra only has 625 lbs on each tire with good balance and a 50/50 weight distribution. Many of us have 48% on the front and 52% on the back. A tire with a 2000 lb (or more) load-carrying capacity will never put a full footprint on the ground. Sooo, now you could have a poor traction rubber compound and a smaller than intended footprint if the tire were inflated to manufacturer specs — just a couple more worry beads to rub together.