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Tony - Are those street tires or racing tires? I never found a good street tire for 15" with 255, 275, 295 or even wider!? If I compair the Radial T/A junk I got now it's a joke compaired to the modern tire my friend rides on his 18" on his 72 RR! This summer he beat most guys with 2x stronger cars (he got a 100% stock 340 and 3.23) on the 1/8mile because he got an uncomparaible grip with those modern tires! With 99% of the 15" street tires out there you just have a very bad grip.



Well, this is the line starts getting blurred. There are tires out there that are d.o.t. approved tires that are marketed and sold as race tires. This means they will meet load, seat, and temperature requirements outlined for d.o.t. approval, but have radically different treadwear and traction ratings. Also, since they have d.o.t. approval but are designed for racing, they are sold as racing tires to avoid the liability issues of someone putting light load rating racing tires under his SUV and killing themselves or others.

Since Switzerland has such stringent automotive requirements, I'd imagine you are in a situation where you must have d.o.t. approval on your tires or they are not good for use.

Since most 15" tires are for the restoration market, it is no suprise to me that most widely available 15" tires are more of a "cosmetic" performance tire than a true performance tire. Restoration builders/owners want decent performance with decent mileage with decent weather handling capability. Someone who wants great grip probably will have limited weather driving and could care less about treadwear.

IMO, there only a few benefits of 17-18" tires. One is the short sidewall takes drivers to a level of tire firmness they would not normally choose. As an example, look at the T-bar sizes XV offers that many will buy as part of a package, but they would never have considered putting under their car as a component of a rebuild. There has been too much press over the years decrying large t-bars as kidney killers that most will just avoid them. The other reasons are that the simple availability of tread patterns and wear ratings allow more choice to suit a driver's method of driving. Really now, there is not a whole lot of diversity in radial tire construction, so the biggest differences is the aggresive, none squirming tread designs and soft rubber choices. Apply that same tread design and compound to a 15" tire, and you have a comparable contact patch between the two sizes.

For grins, here are some suppliers to check out. My bet is most, if not all of these, are vendors a large majority of people never knew existed.

http://www.hoosiertire.com/
http://www.mickeythompsontires.com/street.php?item=SportsmanSR
http://www.americanraceronline.com/
http://www.towelcityracingtires.com/
http://www.rogerkrausracing.com/Cobra/