tire size for KMS car

[jim rosenthal]

I have been trying to figure out how to solve a tire and wheel size problem with my KMS car (#486). Maybe someone can offer some suggestions here.

My car has the coil-over chassis with the 289 slab-side style body. The tires rub the edges of the fenders, even with the ride height set rather far up. The car was shipped with 7" Halibrand-style Trigo wheels, and Yokohama 215/70-15 tires (A4s) The tires seem fine; I'm not driving it very aggressively (yet) partly because whenever I go over a serious bump, the left rear tire rubs the rolled edge of the fender for an instant.

Not very many KMS "hybrid" cars have been built, according to them, and not many are on the road, let alone in frequent use like mine, so we're still working out what to do about this.

KMS have offered to mill the insides of the wheels at no charge to me (they are great guys and a pleasure to deal with; their support of their cars is phenomenal) but we don't know how much to mill off. In addition, I have been wondering whether changing to a smaller tire would help. The car has a 3.73 ring and pinion in it, and changing to a smaller diameter tire would effectively raise the numerical axle ratio, which would be fine with me. The engine is a 302, and the transmission is a Tremec TKO600.

But performance tires for 15" rims are not easy to find, particularly in the taller aspect ratios which would be correct for a 1960s style car. Does anyone have any suggestions for particular tires, and sources for same? I welcome any help I can get. The car is not driven on the track- just road driving, but I would like to be able to set the ride height where it ought to be and not have the tires rub the fender edges as they now do.

Thanks, in advance, for any help given.