[DeTomaso] Tires and wheels

[JDeRyke at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/11/09 5:49:18 PM, msm at portata.com writes:

> Jack, a while ago you wrote up something about a wheel upgrade really 
> costing over $10,000.  It was along the lines of -- if you upgrade A then you 
> need to upgrade B.  If you upgrade B then need to upgrade C, etc.  It was 
> classic, but I cannot find it.
> 
WARNING- DO NOT LET WIVES READ THIS!!!
What I said a long time ago was - you might spend around $4000 for a set of 
17" or 18" wheels and maybe $1000-$1200 more for V, W or Z-rated tires to 
fit. You mount them and immediately notice the stock brakes look ridiculously 
small showing thru those shiny eye-catching spokes.... so out goes another 
$1500 for a set of big 'racing' brakes. Driving the car, you find that the 
extra weight of the big wide aluminum wheels, giant tires and big brakes has 
destroyed the stock handling.... which gets fixed with a set of $1500 
full-adjustable coil-over shocks and heavier springs, plus a custom set of upper 
a-arms or suspension bushings (or both), to apply more caster to the assembly 
so the wide tires don't 'tramline' on crowned or bumpy roads. Then the 
cornering increase from the big tires begins cracking the paint from body 
flex.... a set of front & rear frame stiffeners and a good bay-brace from any of 
the vendors stops that- for an additional $1000-$1500. Now you're all done... 
and in the hole for roughly $10K for those 'big tires'! Some handyman 
owners can lo-ball the estimates a little but most can't or won't. This was my 
first mention of the "slippery-slope" one can jump onto with Pantera 
modifications. FWIW- J Deryke