Simple wheel swap to gain wider wheelbase

My newfound 71 Comet GT seriously needed a wider stance so I cleaned up an old set of Torino 14 inchers with stainless trim rings to see what's up. BFG TA's in 225/70/14 fronts with 235/70/14 rears.




Much improved looks and a bit more than 2 inches wider track all in one shot.

The images are large.. so feel free to zoom in on the back tire offset differences to see what I mean.




The red center caps were just the unexpected bonus in the deal.

PS.. these tires are well more than 10 years old by now and I won't be doing much more than posing with them, I guess.

 

As another Comet guy ... wanted to extend a welcome here. Nice GT.

These cars do look a lot better stuffed with some tire. Nice upgrade.

I was in the tire business for a while, and there are tire brands that run large and others that run small in the same nominal size. BFGs run big as a brand ... nice choice. Conversely, Coopers, like the fronts run small.

I am running 265/50/15 Coopers on the back of my Comet ... in actual width, they are only about 1/4" wider than my buddy's 245/60/15 BFGs. In theory, there should be closer to a full inch.

I believe that the tire companies actually size the tire with load rating in mind, and what margins they are comfortable with when engineering the tire, and that is why this can vary so much.

 

Thanks for the input there, Captain.

Yeah.. I hear ya. Aspect ratios, tread, and sidewall materials/designs can vary the footprint wildly between the various mfgrs even at the same exact spec's. Cheater's are a very good example of that with larger than expected contact patch's for any given size. They're even worse than shoes in that regard. lol

I really dig that monotone sleeper look and even the stance on your white one. Reminds me of my old 78 Mustang II with grey everything running a pretty stout 302. Surprised more than my fair share of 5.0's and Camaro's with that one. hehe

Later bud.. hope to see you around in my threads once in a while and hopefully I don't put you off with too many questions now that I found my new "tire guy" around here.

 

... Shoes are a big pain for me to buy. I am really probably size 11 but once you get up there, I don't think certain parts of the world that make shoes know how to deal with feet that big, and no longer care, because nobody there is that big. I have a range of sizes ...

The white Comet .... I got that after my midnight blue and chrome 71 Torino with Cragers and the healthy exhaust note became WAY too familiar to the local sheriff's office. I was not very good at being subtle about driving it. Didn't help that another guy in town virtually copied my car except for Keystone wheels. Lord knows what he was up too. They were probably thinking we were both the same guy and car.

Finally had a deputy tailgate me all the way out of the county line one night, and I was doing exactly the speed limit and really hadn't done a thing. I figured I needed a new strategy.

Few month later, found that car ... only options ...302/3 speed stick and a AM radio. It had been crashed and repaired and I bought it for about $600 (in 1980) with about 60K miles on it. Sold it in 1986 due to not having a place to keep it (and then would have in just a few months ironically ... sad). That car was rough enough, I would have gone full Pro Street with it next at the time.

It was fun as a sleeper and I managed to keep my license, constantly wounded, yet, intact, and I drove that Comet much harder than I ever drove the Torino. Pretty sure that actually I hit my "teenage rebellion" in my early 20s.

 

Looks good! I wish I could buy a new pair of 235/70/14's from BFG, they don't make them anymore 225's are the largest 70 series tire in a 14.

 

Thread Hi-Jack - I would love to have the pain of trying to find a set of size 11s. Try finding a set of 17s. and FYI past 13 most companies pretty much just put the pattern on a copy machine and zoom it up. Got that bit of info from an R&D guy at Nike.

On topic. Love the way those tires stuff the wheel wells.

 

Does that car have a engine in it? The front seems to sit high. I like the wheel choice and tires look good.

 

17s !!!! ....

I'd hate to meet you in a dark alley.... you might step on me ....

I'm guessing you are over 6'6" ?

I can't imagine what you have to do to find shoes. All the places I go stop at size 13.

 

http://www.oddball.com/ These guys are my lifesavers. Luckily for me they are right in town.


And what year Torino are those wheels from?

 

no engine since I just bought the car as an unfinished project. Well.. actually "unstarted project" is more accurate. Which is just fine with me since it usually takes more to fix anothers messed up restoration job than to do it right the first time around. I plan on installing this 310ci motor with its ported hi-po heads pulled from an old 70 Fairlane 500 wagon I sold more than 10 years ago..


..which is more than healthy enough for now for this stock suspensioned/2.79 geared car. Rods, Pistons, and crank are lightened to make it sound snottier than it really is in reality. Pushes around 10.4 compression with about 340 horse or so and easily revs past 7k(I usually shifted at around 6700). It gave 20 foot "posi scratches" with those same sized 235/70 tires when I hit second gear of my C4 with 3.25 gears at around 58mph. And that was in the wagon which weighed a good 600lbs more than this car(with much of it in the rear). Needless to say.. I'll need more rear tire or cheaters of similar size when I swap the gears out on this thing.

The wheels are from that same 70 Fairlane wagon which is the same as the 70-71 Torino with it's 4 inch back spacing. I didn't measure the differences between the stockers and these.. but they are easily 1 inch wider with all of that gain being on the outside where it was sorely needed.

And.. to hell with meeting that "size 17" guy in the alley(I fight dirty anyways).. I would be more concerned with changing next to him in the locker room! You know what they say about big feet. hehe

 

Nice looking motor there! Ought to be enough!

Magnum wheels came in 14x6, 14x7, and then jumped up to 15x7 too.

14x7s could be had on Torinos and Mustangs IIRC. They also were really common on the late 70s (HUGE .... size 17 ... ....) T-Bird, Torino, and Cougars. Got several off of those cars.

Another cool thing of those big boats were the lug nuts on some wheels that they had on special wheels that a lot got with a wierd rubberized styled center .... extra-long chrome lugs. I grabbed a pile of those and that is what I run in my Magnums now.

 

Thanks for all that, Captain. Are you really serious about those 17's? I'm just green enough to be gullible.

If so?.. I will be scouting those out for sure! I really want to keep my stock appearance somewhat intact with enough mod's to make it much more functional for my aggressive habits. Plus, I like to screw with people and see if they can figure out what I've done to it. lol

I always wanted to do a 1 to 1-1/4 inch chop on one of these old cars since all the ones that I've seen done like that are nearly impossible to detect. You know somethings up because they look sleeker and lower.. but it's tough to put your finger on it without a measuring tape or another similar car right beside it.. or until the owner clues you in.

Saw a later model Thunderbird at the Car Craft Nationals last year with very subtle 3/4 inch chop and that thing was amazingly sleek looking sitting on air.

Here's my latest idea after about an hours work with PS. It's rough.. but I didn't want to spend hours and days on a real car pic.

 

No, no, no, .... I was referring to Torino Elites and the mega-T-Birds being such huge cars, that they are like size 17 shoes ....

Rather than a top chop, if I were to do any serious mod on one of these cars to "fix" it, that would be to move the back wheels rearward a "nudge" ... about 3 inches, maybe more. I was thinking Pro Street, way back, with my white one, and going tubbed, etc. , my idea there would have been to keep the front wheel arch as is and move the back portion to accommodate huge tires, moving the axle a bit to get that right. I think these cars would look a bit better in profile that way.

 

ROFLMAO!!!.. whoops.. there's that damned reading comprehension getting in the way again.

So, what say you about that color scheme? although.. the more that I look at it now.. the more that I see there's just too much damned red going on there.

I'll probably just mock paint it, which by the way works really well for a "try before you buy" scenario,.. before I strip it down to do the bodywork anyhow. Thanks for the laugh at my expense.

PS. not sure that I would like that since that was one of my peev's about the Torino's extra long ass rear. Granted.. once you stuff enough tire and bring up the rim size to be proportianate.. it looks damned good.. but I like the shorter fastback look of these cars.

If anything.. I would want to do away with those damned pinto-like front fenders/ headlight buckets. I always thought a mini-Torino style would be cool for these cars too. Imagine the Torino GT rear taillight setup with slimmed down hidaways in front. If it could be melded together correctly and in correct proportions?.. that could be award winning show circuit car right there.

 

As much as I LOVE 71 Torinos (one of my faves), I am pretty traditional in my build ... probably the wrong guy to ask about a radical custom at this point.

My theme for my car is "what if the Cyclone line followed through this body style instead of the Torino/Montego? ... what would be the best stuff loaded on this car by the factory?"

I also look to cues from the era Cyclones and Cougars, and have faux stripes planned for mine. No peeks ...

Red and white is pretty cool ... and on a smaller car, brighter colors are easier to get away with.

There was a really interesting vinyl top material that was a red/black check or houndstooth ... just seen it once here. Actually looked pretty New Wave/early 80s, but it was factory, and about 10 years ahead of it's time.