15's vs. 17's......

[Jack21]

Agonized over this one for more than I care to admit.

All the Cobra people were saying, "Go with 15"s. All the tire people were saying, "Go with 17"s.

Try to make a long story short. Went with 17"s.

Behind the wheel, 17" have it all over the 15" in the go, stop, turn corners on both wet and dry roads. You won't believe it's the same car. And on the car, they look factory installed and all business. This is one instance where I went against the originality grain, listened to the tire experts and followed their recommendation. No regrets.

In the mid '60's through mid '70's, radials were just coming into their own, performance cars used 15" tires, while grocery getters were using 14", and econoboxes were using 13" tires. The BFG T/A radial was THE performance tire. Todays technology has changed all that.

The 17" is not a smaller tire. It just does not have the sidewall bulge that a 15" does. Treadwidth is the same, or slightly wider, and the diameter is the same ~25".

Even with all that, if there was a (bona fide) performance tire in a 15" in the sizes appropriate for a Cobra, I might have been swayed. But there isn't. Not in 16" either.

Ended up with TeamIII wheels (at $300 ea., as opposed to Compomotive $500 ea.), and Falken tires (on-line from vulcantires.com for $495 for the entire set including shipping).

After much research on tires, the finalists were Bridgestone and Falken. Tirerack.com has an end user satisfaction forum. The big names weren't getting good scores from end users. The Bridgestones were going to cost about $800 from Tirerack.

Wheels are 17" x 8" front, 17" x 9 1/2" rear. Tires are 235/45ZR17 front, 275/40ZR17 rear. At 14,000+ miles there is minimal wear and expect at least 30,000 miles before thinking of replacement. No Complaints with the Team III's either. Just wash 'em and they clean right up.