Hot Rods Tires - tall and skinny or short and fat -your thoughts?

Bias Ply, Big & Little; Tall & Skinny
Blockley 5.50-16 on the front and Firestone 8.90-16 Dirt Track on the rear.

 

Ron, what are the width of your front and rear chrome steelies and tires on the 354 Sedan?

 

Honestly, all this thread has proven is that it really depends on the car. Some can wear tall and thin, some look great with short and fat, and some can mix and match. The style of the car has a major influence on what shoes look best. Have a look back through the thread with this in mind and you may see what I mean. Are you choosing the tire combo you like best, or is it the actual car you have a preference for ???

 

I consider tires about 7.5" and narrower as skinny. At least they look skinny to me. And I think that's about the widest you can get in a cl***ic style 16"dia. bias-ply tire. That's about the size that tires "grew" to by the early/mid-'60s.

The first big V8s came in 1949.

So there was definitely a period of time when hot rods had big V8 engines, but also had access to almost nothing but skinny tires.

Drag slicks and a couple other non-dot being the exceptions.

Am I wrong?

I was 10 years old in 1967.
If I'm remembering correctly, wide tires were a new phenomenon.

Don't get me wrong. I don't look down my nose nothin' or nobody. I'm not a hard nose elitist tradition cop lol. I like all the hot rods and customs. Fat tires or skinny tires. Black walls, white walls. Bias ply or radial.

But to me, the skinny bias ply tires help to make any hot rod or custom seem more like it just rolled in from a time gone by.

I'll get some slicks if I need traction.

 

Had to start some where.

 

I just bought a set of narrow early Ford wheels and skinny bias ply tires for my roadster project.

And some of you guys wanna move the parking curbs.

It's a conspiracy, I tell ya.

 

Just putting tires on the Buick and had the option of ww or bw and went with bw as the period (late 20's) we were almost non existent. Previous owner had 2 dead ww on one side and 2 closer to dead bw on the other.




Now the 38 definitely gets ww although the widest available these days is much smaller than the old ones of unknown age that were/are on the car. At some point I will have to break down and replace the rears so I can drive more.

Point being it's all about era/period you want the car to represent. A T representing T era would look goofy with anything but tall narrow wheels. Often times the wheels and tires are what makes or breaks the lines on a car.

 

I usually like tall and fat. Pie crust slicks on the rear of both of my g***ers.

 

I have always thought the Era your looking to represent. Earlier is skinny and later is wide as said I like both