WHEELS / TIRES

When I was choosing tires for the Barracuda I was mainly looking for a nice cool "stance" for the car. I prefer a little 2 or 3 degree tilt down towards the front and a decent ride height. I have experimented with lowering the car for better handling and I personally feel this looks better than a car jacked up all around. My front tires are 3/4" lower in height verses the rear (225 60's vs 245 60's). In order to lower the car I flipped over my rear spring mounts and dropped the front accordingly by turning out the torsion bar screws. While I loved the look initially, the new springs settled down a bit too much and the rear was now too low verses the front. Unfortunately I couldn't drop the front any more to compensate for it as the clearance between the lower control arms and the frame was less than an inch. The .890 torsion bars installed in the car are too flexible to allow such aggressive lowering as the car would bottom out on bumps. This would be fine in places like California where the roads are nice and flat but in Austin, Texas this is not the case. My only options were to purchase the .99 (or stiffer) torsion bars or un-flip the rear shackles and raise up the car back up (which I did). The reason I am mentioning it now is that a percentage of the pictures on my site are with a stock height suspension and some are when it was lowered. I hope to lower the car again in the future when I have more time and money.
All tires are BF Goodrich Comp TA's mounted on 15X7 police wheels with a 4.25" backspace. The car is a 1968 Barracuda Convertible and is slightly heavier in the rear than a normal Cuda so take that into consideration

FRONT 225 60 R 15:
After much research is seems that the 225 60 R 15 tire is the maximum diameter one can run without fender lip rolling and other body work. To run a big tire in a stock Barracuda wheel well, as with lowering, one needs to have a fairly stiff torsion bar setup to reduce suspension travel. I am running this tire and its almost a bit too big for the stock wheel well as it comes pretty close to the front fender lip when turning. The stiff  383 (.890 P.N.# P5249150) torsion bars will allow a tire of this size without any problems. It also allows the option of a big block engine open in the future. In retrospect (after messing around with the car over the last month) I should have gotten the stiffer bars (.99 or better) as the 383's are just too soft for super aggressive lowering. I have heard that 215 60 R 15 is the maximum size for front tires in a stock wheel well and I may just agree with that. Here is a picture of my 225 60 R 15 in the wheel well.

REAR 245 60 R 15:
For tire size and other information I suggest you check out Dunlop's tire website (www.dunloptire.com). Although I am running BF Goodrich tires, I feel that the Dunlop's site is the most informative on the net. I run Dunlop's on my BMW, and my girlfriend has them on her 97 Toyota Supra and I would have them on my cuda if the Tirerack (www.tirerack.com) had the proper sizes in stock. I am pleased with their performance, their cost is reasonable, and they are usually American made. On Dunlop's site is a tire specifications page and if you begin to compare tire circumferences and heights you will notice the height difference between the 225 and 245 60's tires isn't much, about 3/4" (Note: Some tire manufacturers tire diameters are slightly different for the same size tire). I tend to keep tire sizes pretty much within this range for safety. I have seen big 275+ rear tires with narrow drag style front rims on the street and feel this is foolish. After all your front wheels provide 60 - 70% of the stopping power and the drag saved by running narrower front tires is miniscule in a street race. Keep those for the track.

My tire and police car wheel package is installed on an 8 3/4 rear with new Espo Springs & Things HD 6 leaf leafsprings. However, with the soft old springs the car sat way too low to allow this size tire to fit as it would rub on the top of the wheel well. Again I must reiterate, if you plan on modifying your cuda's suspension and tires in any way purchase new springs, torsion bars, and shocks to complete the package.

Two other interesting sites that talk about tire sizes are the following:

Steve at the Autocrosser site http://members.aol.com/pwall5/cars/2cudapag.html) is the cuda-handling guru on the net. He has probably run more tire combos than anyone else out there and states that in a 60's series tire he feels the 235 is the maximum rear size for autocrossing due to possible tire wall deflection and the resulting rubbing against the leafsprings. If you are looking for handling tips, theory, and big brake swaps his site is the best on the net I suggest you visit it.

Modcuda (http://www.public.usit.net/jmoore/ModInterior.html) states that their Cuda is running 255 60's in the rear and with an 3/4" tire sidewall to spring clearance and suggests a probable maximum of 275 could be squeezed back there. Whew!

The choice is up to you however a picture is worth a thousand words so here is a picture of my 245's in the wheel well with flipped sping mounts thus lowering the car.

Here is a picture of my 245's in the wheel well without flipped spring mounts.

Here is a picture of my 245's leafspring to tire sidewall clearance.

In conclusion, if you want a safe bet tire choice I would go 215 60 R15 fronts and 235 60 R 15 rears. If you like the way my car sits and your springs / torsion bars are up to snuff than 225 60 R 15 front and 245 60 R 15 (or bigger) rear tires.

COP RIMS
In order to run fat tires you need negatively offset wheels. The rally rims commonly found on cop / taxi cars fit the bill perfectly. They are 15X7 and have a 4.25" backspace (measured from inner rims' edge to axle flange). After searching for a month or two for these damm wheels to no avail, meanwhile being taunted by the occasional trashed ex. cop / taxi car driving by me sporting a set,  I finally bought a whole car to get them. I bought an 87 Dodge Diplomat cop car for $225.00 and sold it less some parts for $125.00.
If you're looking to restore an old 2bbl 318 (or /6) cuda with a lame 7 1/4 rear I would suggest to buy one of these cop cars as you will get the cop offset rims, 4bbl intake, 360 heads, A999 5 clutch transmission, power steering fluid cooler, tranny cooler, firm feel steering box (needs 73+ pitman arm, center link & idler to fit) and a sure-grip 8 1/4 amongst other goodies. The 8 1/4 is harder to install than the earlier 8 1/4's due to the spring seats (cut off and replace with the older style). The later rear end also has a 4.5" bolt pattern which is a benefit in case you decide to swap to disk brakes. If your running a mild small block an 8 1/4 rear end should last a long while.

COP CAR alternatives:
Well rumor has it that the M body cars have the same size rims (15x7) and the same backspace (4.25) as the cop wheels but without the rally slots in them. I checked three cars with my friend Steve who created the  thunderstruck site but they were not offset. HOWEVER… we found a 1976 Newport that had 15" X 8" rims with a 4.25" or 4.5" offset. I won't go on record and say that these would work and these are not the exact dimensions (car was sunk in mud at the yard with lots of fire ants running around so I measured quick) but I would check it out further if I were you.

If you can't find any other wheels in the salvage yard you can always buy new steel rims from Wheel Vintiques, Bart, and other manufacturers that advertise in magazines. As you know you can go poor buying a set of repro Mopar "rallies" with the center caps & trim rings. Wheel Vintiques has a generic Hot Rod Rally (like a Chevy/cop rally) in a 15 x 6 /7/8+" size, with a 4, 4.25/4.5" backspace, 4.5" bolt pattern NO 4" pattern. Cost is $55.00 each at Pep Boys for plain steel and $66.00 for a chromed outer rim (hey no trim rings!). If you want the Chrysler rally it’s like $75.00 or $85.00 each but no trim rings, center caps, etc.
Bart wheels are cheaper about $45.00 or less but they are circle track wheels and look a little different = ugly.

Last suggestion on wheels concerning width. I would take it easy on the front rim width, as anything over a 15x8 will hit the control arms and is just too wide. It looks to me like the rear can go 9"+ but be careful! The wider width the rim the less "bulge" the tire sidewall will have which may allow you to run bigger tires as the sidewall/leafspring distance will reduce. An example of this are " low-riders" (Texas/California residents know these well) who squeeze little tires on wide rims creating a sort of oval tire look. The sidewall bulge is almost non-existent and is probably dangerous….must drive the tire manufacturers crazy.

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