I decided to upgrade the wheels and tires on my 70 Cuda. Examination of the archives here on Moparts showed that a mixed opinion on whether 275/60/15 would fit well in the stock wheelwells. I wanted to go with 15" rims and the most tire I could fit. I ended up doing something different from what I had seen before and wanted to share what I did in case it ends up providing value to someone else.


Careful measurements of the distance from the brake drum mounting surface to the leaf springs and the wheelwell fender lip showed that the fit with 15X8, 4.5BS and 275/60 would be real close but possible. Of course it was hard to know the exact shape of tire and were the point of least clearance would be. I decided to go with American Racing Torq Thrust IIs.

Once I mounted up the rims and tires on the back I found that I was not completely satisfied with the fitment. The tires did not make contact with anything, but with sufficient suspension compression (perhaps 2") the inner fender lip could make contact with the tire sidewall. Given that my car is mostly street driven, this was a concern to me. In addition, the appearance was also not quite what I was looking for. The tires stuck out a little bit, and were not fully tucked under the wheel wells. I know some run this exact setup and will say that the fit was OK, but to me it was not quite right.