The owner of that Newport has popped in here before. The 18's aren't the problem, it is the 9" wide part that will get ya.
When I was putting my Fury together I decided on 17's because I felt they were the most natural. 18's felt just a little over sized. 17's looked like the belonged. That of course is just my opinion. I had considered 17 up front and 18 in the rear, but 18" tires were twice to three times more at that time.
Clair, 16's will do just fine. Reducing the sidewall will help stability, but you don't want to reduce enough to start effecting ride comfort or start putting wheels in danger.
Yeah, the tire I'm going to run is a 255/55-16, same height as a 255/60-15 or a 215/70-15. A little bit shorter than the stock 225/70, but not enough to worry about. The only problem I have with the 16's is tire selection. I can go lots taller or lots shorter, but not much to chose from in the 27-28" tall range. At worst, I'll have a little time to plan a future upgrade while still stylin' and profilin'. Car's gotta get on the road first, though...
Heh... wanting some torque thrust look-alikes in an offset that fit my Fury was what did it for me. I figured tire selection would be better than it was, but didn't research as much as I should have before I pulled the trigger. These will do just fine for several years, though, and the wheels will fit many classic Mustangs which can use a shorter wheel. I'm still looking at some 18" Dodge Magnum wheels on epay, though... wishing they were 8" wide.
What is the width and offset or backspace on the Magnum wheels? I have looked at several newer Ram wheels for my 70 & 71 PowerWagons, the offsets aren't even close and require huge spacers. The newer vehicles seem to really tuck the wheels in tight.
There are two different offsets - the AWD cars use 55mm, and the RWD cars use something closer to 40mm. Not sure on the RWD's, but I was looking at a set of the AWD's last night that I could have bought cheap. Getting the proper spacers was a deal killer, though, an extra $85 per wheel, and at that rate I can just buy a better fitting wheel from the git-go. FWIW, 55mm offset on a 7.5" wheel is something like 6.4" backspace, so I was going to have to use a 1.5-2.0" spacer to work. All that work for a wheel that's only 7.5" wide...
2" spacer, ouch! At that price I guess it is the type that bolts on with a second set of studs. I hear they are solid, but I wouldn't feel comfortable with that. (I Would much rather play with battery acid!) At $340, you are half way to a nice set of wheels! or 25% of the way to a set like mine, custom cut to your exact spec.
The ones I was looking at are on Fearless Fred Goeske's Wheeladapter.com, and yes, they're the double-bolted type. Hub-centric to both the axle and the new wheel. They're billet aluminum, and at least as strong as the wheel that's getting bolted on to the same axle. I used some similar ones when test fitting the 95 Mustang Cobra wheels to my Valiant, and never had a problem with them loosening up or anything like that. If I had to use some high-offset wheels on my Fury, I wouldn't sweat using the adapters to make it work. However, for that kind of money PLUS the cost of the wheels, I can get wheels with the right offset built in.
FWIW, Fred's an old Mopar drag racer, check out his site.
Joined: Sun Sep 24 2006, 10:33PM
Location: Lisle, Ill.
Posts: 168
Yeah, I too am thinkin Bullitt-style wheels on my '66 New Yorker. I'm thinkin 17x8 tho, for clearance issues. [available at Summit here] As far as I can tell, in the back I have about 11" to play with, width wise. I still have to measure backspacing and whatnot. I think I'm gonna start with a 255/50-17 on all four corners and see what happens. That gives me 10" width and 27.03" diameter with a 5" sidewall. I have 33x12.5-15's on my stock '98 Dakota, and they rub all over in the front, but I can live with it. As long as we dont encounter too much rubber on sharp metal action, it'll be fine. <span class='smallblacktext'>[ Edited Fri Dec 15 2006, 03:47PM ]</span>
Seems like a cheaper way to go and they offer a couple different offsets, though I thought that they had more choices last time I looked at their web page.