Hot Rods HIBOYS -TALL & SKINNY or FAT and WIDE TIRES

I want the in between tall and skinny, I want the rear tires to be somewhat tall and reasonably wide enough to put the power to the ground with 255-70x15 tires

 

The way they're meant to be..... Well, in my humble opinion !!

 

just my opinion- respect any style..... i dont like tatoos, my friends are covered. end of day
just car guys.......

 

Tall & skinny for me

 

Just an observation, not all these cars are highboys, now I have to do a search to get my head back on track.

 

I noticed that too. I have always considered a "Hiboy" as an un-channeled, fenderless hot rod.

My old Hiboy Sedan Deliv. First built it with 16" "tall and skinnys"...a real adventure to drive.


Eventually went with "fat and wide"...handled MUCH better

 

That car is a street rod,nothing about it is a traditional hot rod. . HRP

 

Tall and skinny for me!

 

Are you talking to me?

 

I like mine kinda tall with a little meat on 'em. Same with my tires.

 

No sir, I was referring to larry's 34 highboy IFS street rod Which has obviously been deleted.

Jack your car is one of my favorites. HRP

 

Whew...that's a relief
Admittedly, my old Sedan Delivery was a little "street roddy"...but I hate getting called out on it. LOL.
Thanks for clearing that up Danny.

 

Hello,

I noticed one thing when I put on slicks that were 7 inches wide. Traction. But, as nice as that is at the dragstrip, they were not street tires. No one had street slicks with grooves at the time. So, if a race was prepped for a Friday night, one cruised on 7 inch wide Bruce Slicks. As far as traction, A-plus++ but, I decided to leave the slicks on for a Saturday night cruise and notices a slight sliding in coastal mist. Not rain or fog, but a slight mist.

Jump up to 1965 and when I got my 65 El Camino, the stock tires were ok. Narrow, but ok. The handling was not the best, but for flat freeways it was fine. But, the minute I got some wide Inglewood Posatraction Tires all around, I had them trued and balanced, along with alignment. So, now, it tracked quite well on the normal surface streets.

The one thing was size. The wider tires fit fine in front and tucked under the rear tire opening. The stance from the rear was very nice as the two wide tires made it look racy. I put on over 25k miles of desert dirt roads, freeways and mountain roads. It handled well and no problems. It was a normal dry season in So Cal.

Jnaki

Then the second set at around 35-40k was the same tire, the same set up with truing , balancing and alignment. The first rain was fine on the surface streets. No grooves had been used on any streets at the time. So, the drainage during a normal rain was fine, it moved off of the crown and into the gutter/drains.

The first heavy rain surprised me the most. The same street, the same speed gave me a shock if anything. The El Camino lifted and started to drift to the right. As I let off the speed, the car regained the traction and stability. As I continued down the surface street, it was all good until the rain got a little harder. Now, the El Camino started to lift any time I tried to accelerate. So, going one speed was required. Later on, the action of the El Camino + tires was called hydroplaning. A thin body of water causes the flat surface of the tires to actually lift off of the road surface on the sheet of the water.

So, in looking at most of the wide tires on the open sedans and roadsters, I will not be following any that I see on the rainy streets. Spray flying off of the tires is not a good thing and the wide tires are going to do the hydroplaning. If I had wider tires than I did, there was no question about hydroplaning.

Now, I am going to get a bunch of answers saying no driving in the rain for roadsters. Good… safety comes first. YRMV

 

I.M.O.; Depends on the tires and the car they're on... Wide, low profile tires don' look right on a Hot Rod. Late model radials often look out of place on Hot Rods. I like Pizza Cutters, but dirt track slicks look good too.
Two guidelines for driving an open, fender-less roadster in the rain: Don't stop, don't turn.