[DeTomaso] Tires and wheels

Mark McWhinney msm at portata.com
Thu Sep 10 15:01:56 EDT 2009


That's a classic. Thanks.

 

________________________________

From: JDeRyke at aol.com [mailto:JDeRyke at aol.com] 
Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 11:59 AM
To: Mark McWhinney
Cc: detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Tires and wheels

 

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






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