SAW ACTUAL TIRE GOIN ON THE 2005 GT 235/50/17 I looked at the 235/50/17 tire goin on the Gt at a tire shop. Narrow!! tall side wall!!! they look like ****. Its that retro look!! gotta go right away. Hell they look like mini van tire
The 01 - 04 Stang 17" tires are TOO small in diameter. They look like go cart tires - 245/45/16 = 25.68" dia. Ford made a good move going to larger diamter tires 235/55/17 = 27.18" dia, The are only 4% narrower (.39") than the old Stang tires. If you want low sidewalls, then wait until the 18" tires are availble. 255/45ZR18. look at it this way, with the larger 27.2" diamter tires it gives headroom to eventually go to 19" or 20" tires and still maintain the same overall tire diameter.
I agree with 351CJ, the tires look appropriate on the car. Lower profile tires would look goofy, rollerskate-ish. To look right with lower profile, you've got to increase the wheel diameter to 18". Also, when you go WIDE, you lose steering accuracy and the car gets more darty on uneven road surfaces. That's why most expensive sports cars go with skinny fronts, wide rears, ala Corvette, 911, 360 Modena, etc.etc.etc... Since Mustang is an affordable car, Ford knows that its owners want to be able to rotate tires, so they've got to compromise. I'll bet the Cobra (or whatever they come out with) will have different size tires front to rear. Yes, I know that Ford has put wider tires on the front before, but the steering accuracy and behavior on the SN-95 cars really does suck, so that's not much of an argument, if somebody's contemplating tossing that bomb.
The vette and 360 also have considerably more rear weight bias. I'll be going to the aftermarket. A 275/40/18 should work nicely.
I don't know that you're correct on the Vette. Also, remember that the Corvette used to run 275's all the way around up to 1992. They steered numbly, and hunted low spots. In '93, they went to a 245 in front. To each his own, but I've always found fat front tires to be undesirable for anything other than track driving. To get them to behave well you have to set it up with so much camber you eat-up the inside edge of the tire prematurely (which my Lightning does big-time with the factory alignment). Mustangs have always looked pretty sharp with a bit wider rear wheel/tire setup, ala Saleen S351.
I can't seem to remember; I'm having a brain fart; and haven't thought about tires until I saw the '05, which needs something other than what it's coming with but, the 275/40/18 would be 275 width, 40 sidewall, 18 rim height. Is that correct? I think so.. can't remember....
For that particular tire, the section width is 27.5 centimeters and the sidewall is 40% of that dimension.
