B Body / Super Bee Front Wheel / Rim

Hey Moparts...

I’ve exhausted my searches on wheel / rim sizes, and back spacing, for my 69’ Super Bee, so I’m going to post a topic of my own. I’m in dire need of new tires and I’m tired of the skinny stock style 14’s. I’m hoping to take my Bee road racing (track days at Thunderhill) this spring so I’m looking to upgrade, to accommodate for that. I’m not interested in a drag car, I like turns. I don’t want anything larger than 15” rims because I want to have that vintage NASCAR / Trans Am race car look and function.

I’m certain, at this point, I can run up to a 15x10 5.5 back space rear rim with 28” tall tire and 10.5 tread width. In order to keep the car balanced on the track, I need to keep the front and rear as close as possible in size. For the front, I would like to go as wide as possible, and unconventionally tall too. My problem is I haven’t found any solid information regarding front rim / wheels / tires so I can match the rear in size (or get them close).

My Bee is a 1969, stock suspension components with future upgrades in springs/torsions/sways/etc. and about a 1” drop in the front and rear. I’m looking at Mickey Thompson Sportsman SR’s: rears @ 28x12.5R15 (10.4 tread width) and fronts @ 28x10.0 (8.7 tread width). I’m also looking at a 15x8 front wheel with a 4” or 4.5” b.s.

Any help is appreciated- Mike

FWIW, on my '68 Hemi RR I ran 15x8 Ramcharger steelies all around (4.25 or 4.50 BS depending on how you measure them).
Ft tires were 265/50R15s, which were a bit wide for an 8" rim; nothing ever rubbed.
Probably sat about 1" lower than stock.
10s on the back of a Bee shouldn't be a problem - huge openings - but that's going off a buddy's old '69 Bee, don't recall BS he had.

Thanks Topside....I’m definitely trying to avoid any rubbing. A 265/50 is very wide and I’d love to have a 10”++ tire under the front. It’s nice to know I’m in the width range with what I’m looking at, I’ll be just under 9”. The 265/50 is about 25.5” tall and I’m looking at these Mickey Thompson’s at 28” tall. I wonder if the 28” tall will clear the bottoms\corners of the fender?

I use Aero race wheels for 15's. They sell a lightweight (not dot legal, but never had a problem in tens of thousands of miles) that is very affordable. I run a 275/50/15.
http://www.aeroracewheels.com/wheel_pgs/fifty_two_series.html

If you actually want the car to handle well, you need to keep the sidewall as narrow as you can or it's just going to roll over on itself. I would think you can fit a 275/50 on the front? I know I can on my E-body. I currently have a 255/60 on the front and it is close to rubbing on the front of the fender opening at full lock but a shorter/wider 50 series would fit no problem. I would be surprised if you can't get a 295 wide on the back. There really aren't any good tires for turning on a 15" rim anymore. If you are serious about handling, keep the 15" wheels for the street and put some 17" or 18" on for the track.

As for the rears, I ran 295/50s on the car and had plenty of room; I've seen 305s on another RR and it had good clearance as well.
Those sizes should probably have been on 9" & 10" wheels, and the 50-series sidewalls look a bit short on a B-body.

Thanks for the input guys,

Topside, your car really looks great. If I can’t get taller tires tucked in there, your setup is what I’m looking for, B5 steel wheels and all. I really want to get that vintage stock car / NASCAR look with a 28” tall tires front and rear though. The reality is this car won’t be great at the track but I want to still give it a go and just have a little fun with the car. I have a newer Scat Pack Challenger that I’ve tracked a few times and now I’m hooked on road courses. If the car does well at the track, I might just pick up a set of those race wheels and a dedicated set of track tires, in a more track friendly size and compound.

If anyone has a 28” tall front tire, I’m very interested to hear more about your setup.

I believe vintage Nascar tires were typically 26.5 to 27" tall, but the 4 ply nylon sidewalls kept them from rolling over like a 2 ply radial does. 28" is a bit taller than that, but 26" will be a bit shorter.

My Challenger runs the MT SR tires. I have 26x10x15 front and 26x12x15 rear. This is roughly a 255/55 and 305/45 in metric terms. Front rim is 15x8 with 4.5" backspace, rear is 15x10 with 5" backspace. Because E body springs are splayed, unlike a B body, I had to move my leaves in 1" per side. You won't need to do this. Also, because of the 15" diameter, the absolute maximum backspace you can run on a rim up front is 4.75". Any more and it will hit the upper ball joint.

My Challenger is significantly lowered. Haven't measured it, but I'd swag it at around 4" of drop all around. I have just enough clearance for these tires in all range of motion in the front. I did flatten a small section of the fender lip at the top of the front wheel arch just to avoid any possible slicing of the tires as its close. Could you put a 28" tall tire in the front and have it all fit, I'm not too sure. That's only 1" larger in radius, but that 1" matters a lot in relationship to the wheel opening, suspension compliance, and range of motion. With the stock suspension, your suspension will have a fair amount of compliance and will likely use a large range of its motion when tracked. The wheel openings on your Bee are flattened at the top and this will cause potential interference, but you may have more interior space than my Challenger. Any backspace less than 4.5 is going to put the tire that much closer to the wheel lip.

For simplicity sake, you could duplicate my set up in the front. While wearing out the 26s observe and carefully measure where that extra inch in radius of the 28" will take you and see if its even possible. how tall are your current tires? You could use cardboard mounted to your existing tire to mock up the larger tire and your potential pinch points. Heck, for that matter go to the local pick and pull and get a scrap tire in a size similar to what you want and play around with that.

The rears have no interference any where and for simply asthetic reason, I've thought about going to 28x12 for the rear in my next set. The MT SR measurements are spot on. The four I have didn't deviate at all from published sizes.

Thanks for the info TC.

Currently my Bee has 225/70R14's ( 26.5 diameter and 6.8" tread width, 14x5.5 steel wheels) on all 4 corners. With the car lowered a little, it looks OK. I've had these tires on the car for over 15 years (yes, they need replaced) and I'm honestly kind of tired of the look. I've always wanted something bigger and more aggressive since the day I bolted them on. The Mickey Thompson SR's have my eye because they seem capable of double duty, street and track, and are for 15" rims. I'm very tempted to just get the 26x10 and 26x12's, just as TC mentioned, to play it safe and go to 28"'s once the 26's wear out, if I think they will fit. My only hold back is what if it takes me another 15 years to get another set and the 26's just look way too little. the 26x10's are shorter than what I currently have.

I suppose what I really want is someone to post up saying they have 28x10's and 28x12's on a B Body with no rubbing, and to include great looking photos of them going around a high speed track, and that they are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Haha...not too much to ask, right?

Thanks again everyone for the input - Mike

28x10 is a lotta tire.

FWIW, here one of my set up

255-60-15 front, 275-60-15 rear... both mounhttps://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=filemanager&g=0&id=8e252b1dfd6b3956c46fdb3b9338ed7b&f=30ted on 15x8 rims.. approx. 4-3/8" back-spacing.

68RRunner...

Do you have any pics of this setup and what brand of tire are you using? And does the 275/50 fit up front too?

Mitch,

Those super-lite's look great. Really has that vintage road racer look. How does it handle?

T/Anks MoparMike... I've always been a fan of the Historic TranAm series. My car is setup for national-level competition for SCCA autocross competition, specifically in class E/StreetPrepared... was highly competitive and very successful through the 1980s-1990s,, tapered off in 2000s... now doing hi-speed road course lapping sessions (HPDE) and HSAX competition.. still competitive and having a blast!

Actually, the car has been in a rebuilding phase since 2015... will be back on-track this coming 2020 (street/highway.. and road course events).

The car handles great... its the best (in my humble opinion) and many variables have been worked out to make it the best... following racing class allowable rules. I have different wheels/tires pending different driving/events, etc.

T/Anks again, and I hope you'll enjoy your Super Bee the best possible!

late to the party but 28" tall fronts do tickle the corner of the front fender openings on my 68 Charger. A very small trim needed for street driving, maybe a little more to give racing tolerance.

Well, its been a couple months and I have made quite a few changes. I changed the rear springs to Mopar HD's with a 1.5" lowering block, and went to Hotchkis 1.10 torsion's. I added sways front and rear, F: 1 1/8" and R: 3/4" and changed out the rims and tires. I ended up going with a 245/60r15 in the front on a 15x8 wheel, 4.5 bs, and 295/50r15 on the rear with a 15x10. 5.5 bs. It gives me roughly 26.5 in diameter front and rear. I studied tire sizes over and over again and compromised with this setup to be safe. The tires are Mickey Thompson's Sportsman S/T's. The only issues are the front wheel weights would contact the upper arm and the rear tires just kiss the inside wheel well on hard turns. I went to stick on wheel weights to help the front and plan to adjust the rear sway to help the rear tire rub. It handles so much better and should be good enough for a track day. I will be upgrading brakes before working on steering/control arm upgrades. Thank you to everyone for the comments and help.

Mike -- Your Super Bee looks awesome! Good luck with the car etc!

One suggestion I'd make is to increase the TB size... I assume you have a BB engine... You'll notice a huge improvement in the handling, but... getting some larger TBs.. such as at least the 1.18 or larger (up to 1.24) from Firm Feel will seriously decrease the amount of lift and dive (and lean) of the front end.

Also, consider double-adjustable shocks (Viking, QA1, others)... they will let you adjust the ride much better than non adjustable shocks.

I love my 1.24 TBs!

Wanted to update this thread. I ended up adding 3" wheel studs and a 1/4' billet spacer in the rears. Under hard cornering, the rears would slightly rub the inner wheel well and I didn't want to risk a tire failure at the track. With the spacer, no rub. I was confident with the 1/4' spacer with the upgraded studs, not sure I would go much bigger than 1/4'. I did go with American made products and had zero problems at a recent track day. Speeds of over 100 mph and long sweeping turns at over 75 mph. Checked lug torque after every run, no problems.

At the track, the setup was great. Had a predictable feel, and cornered well. I swapped in stock 11" disc's in the front with Yellow EBC pads, had the alignment set with -0.5 * negative camber and about 3* of positive caster. slight toe in. The Bee had that vintage NASCAR look and feel and honestly, was some of the most fun I've ever had in a car. It was a show stopper among a field of modern sports cars.

One last thing... In my initial post, I showed this vintage Super Bee photo for inspiration. I think I got close to replicating it...