Who is running a 10 inch wheel under a Nova?

[sbcnova]

My car is a 1971 Nova. The leafs are in the stock location and the shocks are moved to the inside. I was wondering if any of you guys are running a 10 inch wheel with out mini tubbing or moving the spring. If so what backspace and tire size are you running?

[novaz]

I have some 10*15s on my 72 5.5" backspacing i think on a ford 9" axle that was narrowed i have 275*60*15 and its close to wheel well lip
not sure how to post pix here but if you email me i can send you some photos
Royz

[John_Heard]

Watson is running 10" rims with 8.5x26 tires, don't know the backspace though

[csvette3023]

I run a 10" wide wheel with a 9x30x15 bias slick, The lips on the quarters are rolled, the rear end is stock width, and the shocks are in stock location on top and lower mount is moved in a little. Car is a 69 Nova. The tires barely touch the shocks only when driving around the pits.
---Matt

[Craig W.]

I run 10" rims with 5.5" of backspacing. The tires are 26x8.5". All the suspension pieces are in the their stock locations. The fender lips are rolled and the car is 1" lower than stock in the rear. With the car lowered, I don't think I could fit more tire under it on that rim.

[sbcnova]

Is the width of the 26x8.5 comparable to that of a MT 275/60/15 Drag Radial? My car is stock ride hieght, do you guys think I will have clearance problems?

[csvette3023]

Craig is right about the tire fitting. You cannot go too low in the rear or the sidewall will rub. (9x30x15 tire)--Matt

[sc racing]

275/60/15 will be a little taller about 27" but your sidewall will be defintley wider.The 8.5 slick on a 10" rim is probably very "square" on the sidewall and your drag radial will have a rounded bulge Im guessing it will be about a 1/2"-3/4" wider per side.Craig W can give you a more accurate sidewall width than me.

[John_Heard]

Kinda off topic, but damn that avatar of Craig's rocks

[Craig W.]

The M/T 275/60-15 drag radial is quite a bit bigger. 2" taller and about 1.25" wider. I'm 99.99% sure could not fit that tire on a 10" rim on my car. 6 to 6.5" of backspacing might let it work, but that would probably force you to move the shocks inboard of the springs.

The sidewalls on my tires bulge out due to the rim pulled the tire out wider. The widest point is right at the edge of the rim, so that's 11" wide. Then it rolls back down to the 8.5" tread width.

BTW the 275/60-15 M/T radial is far superior to the 26x8.5" slick. I race with OSCA in KY and the owner decided to let three guys try that tire in Mild Street. They kicked out butts. One guy ran 5.89 last month on the 8.5s and 5.66 this month on the M/T radials. The only difference was the tire. A lot of us were pretty mad about that tire being allowed for three people and the rest of use not having a chance to run it. But at least he's outlawed it from here on out.

[Craig W.]

Kinda off topic, but damn that avatar of Craig's rocks

Thanks!

[sbcnova]

Alright so I can obviously run the 235/60/15 (equal to a 26x8.5) Mt radial on the 15x10x5.5. But what about a 255/60/15 Mt radial? They are a little shorter and not quite as wide as the 275. This would also give me a little lower final gear ratio too.

[sc racing]

You need to do some measuring. the 255 is 20mm narrower than the 275 thats 10mm each side which is less than 1/2".put a straight edge across your drum and measure in to the closest thing ( spring,shock mount inner wheelwell etc) and do the same to the outsideThis will give you an idea of how wide of a tire you can put in there.

[stracer859]

yeah i got boned by the osca last weekend lol

[Craig W.]

Yeah, you really got the worst end of it.