End of an era for me, since building the car, all I ran were the BF Goodrich G-Force Sport Comp tires. Well no more, seems the 16" wheel is less used so Goodrich discontinued production of the 255/50-16 tire in the G-Force line. So either get larger wheels or find a new tire brand. That in and of itself is a limited selection. Mickey Thompsons, Hoosier, Michelin or these Toyo's. Mikchelin Pilots are waaay spendy, MT's kind of up there, Hoosier in the ball park or these Toyo's, lol. Reviews on car websites for Firebirds, Mustangs etc. gave these Toyo Proxie TQ's a great rating for wear, stickyness, all for a decent bang for the buck.

The BF Goodrich's had became dry rotted, splits between the treads, the sidewall / cap abutments were separating. They likely only had about 1500 miles on them, but were simply old, 7 or so years. I was floored when I could no longer get the Goodrich's, guess style waits for no one, time to move on. Hoping these TQ's work out. I looked at a tire size comparison website and the 255/50/16's are shorter than the factory 225/60/16 thus I get a bit of a lowering advantage to compliment the Eibach lowering srpings . The 255/50's have a 10" tread width where as the factory is 8.9". I use the thin 3/16" universal spacer on the rear to move away from the suspension a tiny bit. Fronts clear everything nicely



TOYO Proxie TQ's 255/50r16



TOYO TQ's, 255/50R16, 10" wide tread



The factory wheels powder coated with TQ's

 

Looks good to me!

 

My daily driver is a 2004 Grand Am GT. Two years ago, I had to get new tires and all my normal ones I prefer (Kelly being my favorite for all season) don't make the size I need. I had 2-3 options instead of MANY. I went with a brand I at least recognized and the tread pattern looked a LOT like ones I have used for years. Not disappointed. But shocked how these cars were all over the place and now TIRES are becoming a limiting factor.

 

You too eh? I hear ya, a simple thing like getting tires turns into a "Oh dang!" situation. Funny you to only had 2 or 3 options, but you being the car guy you are, found a good enough brand name tire, happy for you. Sometimes, think about getting the 17" Monte wheels. Think one of the Earnhart Editions had factory 5 points polished alum with black spoke insets, red bowtie center caps. But I bet even those are getting hard to locate.

 

"Think one of the Earnhart Editions had factory 5 points polished alum with black spoke insets, red bowtie center caps. But I bet even those are getting hard to locate."

I got some of those off of a Dale Jr. Red MC, they were really nice. I put a new cap on them too.
General tires and they look great yet. 235/55/zr17 is what I got off of the thing 4 wheels and tires less than 300.00.
t pays to visit the U pull salvage yards at the right time. Lol

 

Yea, the Dale Jr. wheels were the 17s with black accents.

 

Have you had a chance to try them out yet? Curious what gear you can get to WOT in - Id imagine 1st would still be impossible to hook, but maybe 2nd also? Just haven't known anyone personally who has run these as their sizes are still pretty limited.


I've got a similar situation on my vette. The NT05R I loved / had been running for quite a while are discontinued now and their 555r2 replacement doesnt have great reviews in the vette crowd. My current set are about done for, so I've been eyeballing their replacement. Im leaning towards the Mickeys as those supposedly have even better grip than the NT05R did in a straight line, but lots of folks complain about poor handling. Certainly that's not my main focus with this car, but I dont want to make it way worse either. They also dont have a 1:1 size replacement with what Im running now to complicate things. With the staggered front / rear tire height, the vettes are pretty picky about staying within a certain ratio to avoid throwing a bunch of warning lights.